A former Delaware Department of Education employee is now a Principal at a Delaware school district. As part of their evaluation, for the DPAS-II teacher evaluation system, they are measured on five components. In Component V, it states the following:
If an administrator is not assigned to supervise and/or lead at the grades levels assessed for the Statewide ELA/Math Assessment, he or she shall use Part B1 & B2 to calculate the Student Improvement Component which will be weighted at 50% each, unless administrator and evaluator agree that Part B1 will include 100% of the Student Improvement Component during the Goal-Setting Conference.
A Principal has to be certified to supervise the administration of the Smarter Balanced Statement. This ex-DOE employee who is now a Principal at a Delaware middle school, and actually worked in areas around accountability, is exempt from having Part A apply to this Princpal’s evaluation because this Principal is NOT certified in this area. Talk about a complete hypocrisy and the ultimate irony! So we can consider any DOE employee who enters the school system as a Principal, looking at this through a history lens, as BC, while others who actually do the work and get certified as AD. Incredible!
And for teachers, the very damaging Component V is still a part of their evaluation. Even though House Bill 399 passed the General Assembly in the wee hours of July 1st, Governor Markell has yet to sign the bill. The original recommendation from the DPAS-II Advisory Committee Sub Group was to have teachers and the Principal choose which measures to use and not have Smarter Balanced be an automatic 50% of their evaluation. But Senator David Sokola turned the bill into a pilot program for three schools and added controversial amendments. Remember that on Election Day folks! Markell has given no indication whatsoever if he is even going to sign HB399. His public schedule is blank this week. And school starts on Monday for most students. Way to go Jack! He is probably out there pimping for Blockchain or some other ludicrous education get rich scheme.
The Season Of Myths 
This is great news for former DOE employees. They can work in the school systems they destroyed and not be held accountable for any further damage they do. This is also great that Teachers will still be held accountable to the SBA, because it is such a wonderful marvelous test. And it is great that stupid legislators voting on educational matter they don’t understand, can be made irrelevant by the magician-ship of Sokola who weaves parts in and out of bills so fast no one really knows what they voted for, and Markell who simply refuses to sign anything corporate does not like. Thank goodness Delaware can keep its corporate policies no matter how many people want them gone. Delaware education is definitely world class, now aligned with the likes of Yemen, Somalia, and Syria right now.. We got our money’s worth from our education governor who promised us a “world class” education by the end of his term. We were so lucky to have him.
LikeLiked by 1 person