The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. -Albert Einstein
If you go to a charter school in Delaware without a lot of low-income and poverty, the chances are pretty good you will do better on the Smarter Balanced Assessment. Pictures don’t lie. Yes, there are some exceptions, but for the most part, the odds speak for themselves. Even the former “heroes” of Delaware like EastSide Charter School are not immune to the wrath of the Smarter Balanced Assessment.
Now you might be thinking, “you didn’t put in all the charters”. I didn’t put in Gateway Lab School and Positive Outcomes. Their populations are mainly special education and they did not do well on this test at all. Freire and Great Oaks don’t have their low-income data on the DOE website. Academia Alonso only goes up to 2nd grade so far. Charter School of Wilmington, Delaware Academy of Public Safety & Security, Delaware Design-Lab, Delaware Military Academy, and Early College High School are all high schools, so now Smarter Balanced for them! And who knows where Delaware College Prep is. I’m assuming their scores will be included with Red Clay’s when those come out, but they’re closing anyways.
The traditional school districts didn’t have as drastic of a low-income impact on Smarter Balanced proficiency, but the data for each school in the districts won’t be out until next month. That will give us a much better idea of how low-income status affects different schools.
It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them. -William Vaughn
To see how all the kids did in the state, take a look at the below fluff piece that was presented to the Delaware State Board of Education by the DOE’s Instructional and Accountability guru, Michael Watson. While the participation rates may have gone up in a lot of schools, more parents were opting their kids out than last year. And I believe that trend will continue when a lot of parents see their child still isn’t proficient on this test. There has to come a point in time when parents start thinking this test really is bad and if I want my child to get a good education, it can’t be based on this test.
At this point, you have to ask yourself, if standardized tests are bad for teachers, and they’re bad for kids, who exactly are they good for? -John Oliver
As Delaware teacher Mike Matthews brilliantly pointed out to Governor Markell (see the article before this one), poverty has a huge effect on educational outcomes. We can pretend it doesn’t, but until we somehow find a way to eliminate that, we will see the same results every standardized test tells us. They are socio-economic indicators. That’s it. I’m sure the Delaware DOE and State Board of Education will start flinging mud at a ton of schools, and we will fight them. You can’t ignore these graphs, especially the charter schools. They are more extreme because of enrollment practices. We all know it. Let’s stop pretending certain ones are great success stories.
My innovative education program will improve school accountability, fix our flawed state testing system and ensure school funds directly benefit Delaware’s children—and are not wasted on bureaucratic overhead costs. By attracting and retaining the best teachers through competitive salaries and benefits, we will improve classroom learning and reduce drop-out rates. We must expand early education programs and link preschools with local school districts to create a unified learning environment. -Jack Markell from his Blueprint For Delaware, 2008
You know, it’s amazing. I’ve not yet met a single parent or teacher who tells me that their hopes and their aspirations for children are wrapped up in scores on high-stakes tests. We have designed an education system that profits test-makers. Now we need an accountability system that benefits the test-takers. And as Governor, I will scrap the Delaware Student Testing Program and I will replace it with an assessment tool that helps teachers improve student learning. -Jack Markell at DSEA Primary Debate against John Carney and Mike Protack, 2008
The Season Of Myths 