Official Delaware Bullying Report Shows Too Many Schools Are Fudging Numbers And Reasons For Bullying

The Delaware Dept. of Education officially released their 2015-2016 school bullying report.  The report has a lot of good information, but how they lumped certain schools together is just wrong.  One thing to keep in mind is that these reports only reflect what is submitted to the Delaware DOE through the eSchool tracking system.

Charter schools are listed in two categories: those in New Castle County and the rest that are in Kent and Sussex counties.  For the vo-tech school districts, they are listed as “technical” schools.  Which is ironic because there are more students in each vo-tech then in Delmar School District.  As well, the Vo-Techs are all high schools.  The report does not give a breakdown of schools or the grades for the students.  Those are pretty important parts which would give a more accurate picture about what goes on with bullying.

What this report does not reflect is the amount of times teachers may want to submit a bullying report but they are ignored by administration at the school.  Or if bullying is weighted less in an incident over something like offensive touching (most likely fighting) so a bullying incident is not reported by the school.  I believe if a fight starts because of bullying, that should be recorded as well.

The actual report by the DOE lists the alleged incidents over the past five years separately from the substantiated incidents.  This does not give a reader an accurate reflection of true trends within a district or the DOE’s own self-created “districts”.  For as much as the DOE brags about their data capabilities and need for tracking data, this report is lacking in a great deal of information.  Luckily for you, I spent a few hours breaking it down and putting it all together.  The first number for each year is the alleged number of bullying reports submitted by the school.  The second number is the amount of those reports that were substantiated as bullying.  I have some insight after the numbers…

Appoquinimink

12-13     233        73          31.3%

13-14     164        24           14.6%

14-15     237         32           13.5%

15-16     304        35           11.5%

Brandywine

12-13     108        93          86.1%

13-14     63          79           125.4%*

14-15     37          37           100%

15-16     49          21           42.9%

Caesar Rodney

12-13     211        32           15.2%

13-14     118        40           33.9%

14-15     75          14           18.7%

15-16     103        27           26.2%

Cape Henlopen

12-13     42          19           45.2%

13-14     39          13           33.3%

14-15     77          26           33.85

15-16     53          18           34.0%

Capital

12-13     80          28           35.0%

13-14     58          25           65.8%

14-15     51          18           35.3%

15-16     28          15          53.6%

Christina

12-13     130        65           50.0%

13-14     114        38           33.3%

14-15     183        65           47.1%

15-16     134        55           41.0%

Colonial

12-13     248        44           17.7%

13-14     97          37           38.1%

14-15     81          63           77.7%

15-16     116        50          43.1%

Delmar

12-13     90          10           11.1%

13-14     0              6              0 0.0%*

14-15     58          3              5.2%

15-16     25          2             8.0%

Indian River

12-13     215        39          18.1%

13-14     150        25          16.7%

14-15     92          21          22.8%

15-16     252        51          20.2%

Lake Forest

12-13     49          37          75.5%

13-14     30          12          40.0%

14-15     34          1             3.0%

15-16     58          12          20.7%

Laurel

12-13     18          23          127.8%*

13-14     37          18          48.6%

14-15     28          12          42.9%

15-16     27          16          59.3%

Milford

12-13     116        20          17.2%

13-14     31          26          83.9%

14-15     37          15          40.5%

15-16     43          23          53.5%

Red Clay

12-13     596        121        20.3%

13-14     453        132        29.1%

14-15     415        102        24.6%

15-16     428        61          14.3%

Seaford

12-13     28          16          57.1%

13-14     17          18           105.9%*

14-15     34          8              23.5%

15-16     40          21          52.5%

Smyrna

12-13     69          13          18.8%

13-14     47          18          38.3%

14-15     57          20          35.1%

15-16     55          19          34.5%

Woodbridge

12-13     34          8              23.5%

13-14     15          10           66.7%

14-15     4             1              25.0%

15-16     25          9              36.0%

Technical Schools (the three vo-tech school districts)

12-13     44          36           81.8%

13-14     30          67           223.3%*

14-15     18          67           372.2%*

15-16     37          42           113.5%*

Charters: NCC

12-13     89          9              10.1%

13-14     107        22           20.6%

14-15     134        28           20.9%

15-16     125        17           13.6%

Charters: Kent and Sussex

12-13     46          27           58.7%

13-14     72          22           30.6%

14-15     54          10           18.5%

15-16     69          20           29.0%

 

State Totals

12-13     2446      713         29.15%

13-14     1642      632         38.49%

14-15     1706      543         31.8%

15-16     1971      514         26.1%

 

Okay, first off, what the hell is up with the Vo-Tech numbers?  How can you have more substantiated bullying incidents and less actual reporting of alleged incidents?  It doesn’t make any mathematical sense whatsoever.  And the fact this has continued for three years in a row, someone at the DOE is dropping the ball.  Or the DOE messed up the report.  If it is the former, why isn’t the DOE giving technical assistance to the vo-techs on how to accurately report bullying?  If it is the latter, come on guys!  I’ve been asking for this report for weeks but you need to check your numbers.  Aside from the vo-techs, any of the above entries with an asterisk next to it shows the same mathematical anomaly.  With all due respect, John Sadowski runs the school climate and discipline unit at the DOE and I have always found him to be very helpful when I look for information.

I don’t trust a lot of these numbers.  I don’t believe many of our schools are actually reporting everything to the DOE.  Nor do I believe a lot of the substantiated numbers.  I will give a margin of error for students filing false claims or parents overreacting.  But not that big of a margin!  In the first year of this required reporting, I can give some slack as schools tried to figure it all out.  But it is three years later so there should be no excuses.  I don’t like the downward trend in substantiated bullying that is happening as a state, especially in districts like Red Clay, Appoquinimink and the New Castle County charters.  I don’t like the lack of consistency across the districts and charters.  I don’t believe any of the substantiated numbers that are below 35%, and that is stretching the credibility factor on my part.  I’ve always felt many schools in our state do less than the bare minimum when it comes to bullying reporting.  This report proves it.

What makes the reporting given by the schools even more unbelievable is the listed reason for the substantiated bullying incident.  “Peer Attention” and “Other” make up over two thirds of the listed reasons.  That sparks of laziness on the school’s part.  Almost anything could be put into those categories.  But they fail to capture a true reason for the victim of the bullying and why a bully would target someone.  For all the anti-bullying campaigns in schools, if we can’t get accuracy in the reporting of it we won’t be able to eradicate bullying unless we truly understand what is going on.  We need honesty and fairness.  If schools are operating in an environment of fear in reporting truthfully with bullying, then we need to tackle that as well.  But no school is doing anyone any favors by not reporting what is actually happening.  And if teachers continue to be ignored by administrators over bullying reporting, that is something legislation should take care of as soon as possible.

Here is the actual report issued by the Delaware DOE:

View this document on Scribd

 

 

Did My Predictions Come True For The 16 To Watch In 2016?

In December of 2015, I posted 16 articles about who would make an impact on 2016.  Did they truly have an impact and did they fizzle out?  Many of them did have a huge impact, some fizzled out, and some didn’t do as much as I thought they might.  You be the judge!

State Rep. David Bentz: Bentz had a relatively low-key rookie year in the Delaware House.  He did get a bill passed and signed that bans the sale of Dextromethorphan to those under the age of 18.  He did sit on many committees including Health & Human Services and Education.  I expect Bentz will begin to rise in 2017 after running unopposed for his seat earlier this month.  He did vote in support of the suspension of rules on the override of the House Bill 50 veto which won him some fast points in my book.

Henry Clampitt: Clampitt became very quiet about halfway through the year.  He did help out the Delaware Charter Schools Network with some key legislation surrounding charter school audits.  Over the summer he joined the board of Gateway Lab School.  I am still predicting he will make a run for Red Clay’s board next year!  Clampitt curtailed some of his online activity as well this year.  Clampitt can usually be found at the occasional Red Clay board meeting cavorting with some of his friends.

Dr. Robert Andrzejewski: The Acting Superintendent of Christina had a huge year!  And not all of it was good.  He did help the cash-poor district in winning their referendum but that only introduced other problems.  The fifteen charter schools that feed off of Christina students complained they weren’t getting enough money from Christina.  After it became public and legislators were swarmed with complaints from parents and citizens, Secretary of Education Dr. Steven Godowsky backed off the changes that would have given more to the charters.  In October, the charters filed a lawsuit against Christina and the Delaware DOE.  Now news comes of a possible settlement.  Bob A also had to contend with mold issues at Pulaski Elementary School and soon reports came in of other schools having mold issues as well.  He set up an “Academy” at Christiana High School with very poor communication and transparency which led to all sorts of controversy.  Bob A also introduced many “cash in the trash” contracts for vendors which the Christina board approved nearly every single time.  Rumors continue to swirl about the potential of Bob A getting the Secretary of Education role under John Carney.  It could happen which would make a lot of Bob A’s activities make an odd sort of sense.  Fattening up his resume or being Bob A?  Time will tell.

Delaware Governor Jack Markell: Jack always makes an impact.  Whenever I see that smiling face, I know he is up to something.  He successfully influenced enough Delaware House reps to vote no on a suspension of rules to override his veto of House Bill 50.  But then many of those same legislators voted yes on a suspension of rules for a corporate tax bill.  This rightfully earned Markell the wrath of many parents in Delaware.  In fact, many of us beat the hell out of him over opt out on his own Facebook page before the vote.  Instead of going up to Howard High School and dealing with the death of Amy Joyner Francis, Markell issued a brief statement and merrily went on his Common Core tour at Delaware schools.  He pimped the Delaware Pathways to Prosperity program every single chance he could.  He spoke at a conference on Blockchain technology and announced Delaware would get legislation going so Blockchain firms could incorporate in Delaware.  He created the Governor’s ESSA Advisory Committee while issuing another executive order to create a Pathways Steering Committee that had its first meeting with no public notice.  The “Education” Governor won some fancy-schmancy award from the National Association of State Boards of Education.  Despite rumors, Markell firmly stated he was never a consideration for a Cabinet post in a Hillary Clinton administration (easy to say after the shocking upset when Donald Trump won the presidency).  He continued to appear at press conferences and letters to the editor promoting corporate education reform which pretty much landed with a resounding thud in the minds of Delawareans.  As Jack enters his final days as Delaware Governor, I don’t think history will be very kind to his legacy of putting corporations over people.  But I will ask one boon of Jack Markell before he leaves his post: a chance to meet with him, do an interview, and get his side of the story on Delaware education.  What do you say Jack?  One for the road?

Delaware Governor John Carney: Unless you’ve been living in a hole the past few weeks, John Carney won the Governor’s seat by a landslide.  Everyone is waiting with bated breath to see who Carney picks for his administration.  He has been very quiet (as he was during the election) about what he is going to do.  He came out with platforms on various subjects, but they were somewhat vague.  As of today, he has only announced two members of his administration.  This blogger has reached out to Carney many times with zero success, as recently as yesterday.  I don’t want Carney and I to be at odds with each other.  We will assuredly disagree on many things, but if he isn’t willing to sit down with me then I fear this will be the case.  In education, Carney will have his hands full between whomever he picks for his next Secretary, education funding, ESSA implementation, and a budget deficit which will force the state to begin cutting items from the state budget.  I expect Carney will be more low-key on many issues facing Delaware, but he should not be underestimated at all.

Delaware Senator David McBride: McBride was relatively low-key this year, but he did become the President Pro Tempore of the Delaware Senate when Senator Patti Blevins suffered a shocking loss earlier this month to Anthony Delcollo.  But this title will not have as much importance since Delaware has a Lieutenant Governor again in the form of Bethany Hall-Long who will preside over the Delaware Senate.

Tony Allen: Allen was all over the place in 2016.  State Board of Education meetings, ESSA Advisory Committees, Legislative Hall, and forums kept the Bank of America executive very busy.  Allen stood his ground with the Delaware State Board of Education when they kept trying to change the redistricting language.  When the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission’s redistricting bill failed to pass the Delaware General Assembly, Allen did save the plan by extending the timeline.  It remains to be seen what Carney will do with the plan, especially given that deficit I told you about.  Allen is serving on the transition team for Governor Carney.  Earlier this month, Allen predicted another segregation lawsuit against the state based on Delaware schools, especially those in Wilmington.  Allen did admit one of WEIC’s weaknesses was not including Kent and Sussex County representatives on the plan.

Ashley Sabo: The Red Clay mom of a special needs child had a very busy year.  While she continued to fight for inclusion in Red Clay, she also held the district accountable for the lack of communication surrounding the plan.  Sabo also adopted a foster child and became a Court Appointed Special Advocate as well as becoming the Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Orphan Care Coalition.  I am very optimistic about Sabo’s future in Delaware and I see her as a rising young star who will become a very important voice for not only students with disabilities and foster children, but all citizens of The First State.

The Delaware Bloggers: It was an interesting year.  Three longtime Delaware bloggers closed up shop this year: Transparent Christina, Kavips, and the Delaware Grapevine.  The first two dealt with many education issues.  For Transparent Christina, the beginning of the end came when the author of that blog discovered Facebook and all the fun he could have on there.  Kavips ended his blog earlier this month capping off a ten-year run of what he viewed as “The Progressive Era” of Delaware politics.  I suspect we haven’t heard the last of the enigmatic one and he will pop up somewhere once he/she gets his/her groove back once Donald Trump is inaugurated.  Kilroy’s Delaware slowed down this year but that had more to do with fixing up his house at the beach than a lack of interest.  Delaware Liberal provided a healthy dose of election news and dealt with the epic defeat of Hillary Clinton and bemoaned to rise of Donald Trump.  A new blog by ex-Delaware DOE employee Atnre Alleyne called The Urgency of Now stirred up tons of controversy this year as teachers were blasted constantly on his blog.  Another longtime blog, The Colossus of Rhodey, also ended.  As for this blogger, now almost halfway through his third year, who knows what the future will bring.  One sure thing is that change is inevitable but things stay the same in too many of the wrong places.

The Parents of Delaware Students: The parents of Delaware received a fatal blow when the Delaware House refused to suspend the rules to allow for an override of Markell’s House Bill 50 veto.  The Delaware PTA received a hush order on opt-out from their National headquarters.  Parents still opted their kids out, but it was comparable to 2015.  The Delaware DOE has attempted to corral parents into their Every Student Succeeds Act Community Conversations, but I really hoped more parents would attend to lend their voices in opposition to the DOE’s crazy plans.  Many parents attended referenda this year as Christina, Brandywine, and Cape Henlopen referendums passed.  Not enough Indian River parents supported their referendum when it failed to pass last week.  By and large, Delaware parents continue to get the shaft in education policy.  I predict the voice of parents will rise in 2017 to unheard of levels.  With national and state politics the way they are now, many parents will be pitched against each other with various events.  One appointment of U.S. Secretary of Education for Betsy DeVos has already renewed a lot of debate about school choice, charter schools, and school vouchers.  These arguments will heat up in 2017.  Many parents of students with disabilities (as well as advocates) successfully thwarted an attempt at a very bad special education strategic plan at the Delaware DOE.  Parents of special needs children are quickly learning that banding together in unison across various groups is more important than debating their differences.  So much so that a two-day planning session for a new special education strategic plan will take place on December 8th and 9th.

Karen Field Rogers: While the first half of the year started very slow for the promotion of Field Rogers as the new Delaware Deputy Secretary of Education, she certainly made her mark in the second half as the Delaware DOE spokesperson at many ESSA meetings.  The jury is still out on what Delaware’s ESSA plan will be.  I can picture her still working at the Townsend Building under Governor John Carney.  She is not really a subject of controversy down there.

Delaware Senator Colin Bonini: Bonini lost his bid for Delaware Governor as many predicted.  But he did not do himself any favors by publicly announcing he would lose and continuing to call Carney his friend.  Even if you think you are going to lose, you don’t make a spectacle of it.  But he did answer a very long survey I gave all the candidates for Governor.  Only Carney failed to respond to the survey, and I unintentionally left out Green Party candidate Andrew Groff.  Bonini will still be in the Delaware Senate doing his thing, unless he gets a new job in the Carney administration.  Whatever happened with Bonini’s recommendation for a Civil Rights Committee in the Delaware Senate?

Harrie Ellen Minnehan: She started the year as the Christina Board of Education President, but lost her gavel over the summer to the re-elected Elizabeth Paige.  Minnehan overtly supported Paige’s opponent in the spring school board election.  When board member David Resler announced he would not run again, Meg Mason won the election.  Mason voted for Paige’s appointment as board president.  The Christina board seems to still be at odds over many things but they will have to get it together soon for the sake of the district.  I miss the fiery board that stood in unison against the Priority Schools debacle in the fall of 2015.  Nothing against Minnehan, but the board lost a bit of that during her Presidency.  Paige brings that temperament back to the board and they (along with every other board in the state) need to start speaking up now to fight for what is theirs.  I must say, my favorite “HEM” moment in 2016 was when Minnehan blasted State Board of Education President Dr. Teri Quinn Gray during a WEIC meeting in Wilmington.  I have no doubt her words were bubbling under the surface for a long time, going back to her days as the President of the Pencader charter school board.

The Delaware Met Kids: After causing a lot of concern in the fall of 2015, the students at Delaware Met said goodbye to the not even five-month old charter school in mid-January.  The students went to various school districts and charter schools.  But not until they caused enough chaos at the school to get an extra couple of days off.

The Seans: Sean Lynn gave a very stirring speech when the death penalty repeal bill hit the floor of the Delaware House.  Ultimately, the House voted against the repeal, but federal rulings rendered the point moot for Delaware executions.  Lynn was instrumental in crafting legislation for the WEIC redistricting bills, but the controversial redistricting effort did not pass the General Assembly.  He did get several bills through dealing with courts and animal fighting.  After a landmark first year in the House where six bills became law, Sean Matthews did not have any legislation signed by Governor Markell this year.  But this didn’t stop Matthews from using his voice in support or opposition to many bills.  Both Sean Lynn and Sean Matthews won their seats back for a 2nd term in the General Election after facing opposition.  This will give them more of an entrenched status in the House.  Both had a relatively quiet year, but I expect they will be re-energized and ready to go in January!

Braeden Mannering: The kid who melted Delaware hearts the past few years continued his 3B: Brae’s Brown Bags movement with growing success.  In January, Braeden was invited to and attended President Obama’s State of the Union address.  Later in the year, he was one of the speakers at a TedX conference in Wilmington.  Braeden’s future is bright!

I will be doing this for 2017 beginning in December with those I think will make an impact in 2017.  Some will be names seen on this list but others will be new faces.

 

Agenda For Christina Board of Education Special Meeting On Potential Charter Settlement

While no news has surfaced about what the proposed settlement is between the Christina School District and the 15 charter schools suing them and the Delaware Dept. of Education, the board did release the agenda for the meeting tomorrow night.

The board is certainly in their legal right to have this meeting without seven days notice.  It sounds like some attorneys were pretty busy over the holiday weekend.  This bothers me, a lot.  Any settlement will give the charters what they want… more money.  It will ignore the history between Christina and the Delaware DOE.  The bottom line is Christina submitted exceptions to the local funding formula and the Delaware DOE approved them.  I think any settlement should be paid for by the Delaware DOE.  But what concerns me even more is what happens to future local funding formulas with this settlement.  Which could also impact every single school district in the state.  This settlement agreement has to be made public.  No questions asked.  The people deserve to know exactly what transpired with this whole thing, from start to finish.  It seems like the attorneys “negotiations” could put Christina in a bind.  Is the cost of the settlement more than the potential attorney fees should Christina prevail in the lawsuit?  I would tend to doubt it.  This seems like a hasty rush to resolve a complicated situation before certain powers in Delaware begin their terms.  This whole thing reeks of foul play.  For all the fuss Greg Meece started with this because Newark Charter School didn’t get funding based on Christina’s two failed referenda in 2015, offering a settlement shows severe weakness on the fifteen charter schools part.  Unless there was previous foul play involved long before this topic even came up earlier this year.  Either way, we want answers on this.  Transparency is a must!

Congress Is About To Pass $100 Million Social Impact Bond Bill, More Corporate Bets On Student Outcomes Coming

The best way to get something embedded into the American society?  The power of distraction.  Once again, while all eyes are on Donald Trump, Congress is acting in the dawn of Winter to pass a bill that will affect the children of America.  This time, it involves social impact bonds.

This action is only part of a larger bill, known as the 21st Century Cares Act.  Spearheaded by Vice-President Joe Biden after the death of his son, Beau Biden, the bill has become so much more than finding a cure for cancer.  Special interest groups and lobbyists infiltrated the $6.3 billion bill to include things they want.  The bill is expected to pass the U.S. House next week and the U.S. Senate the week after.

The $100 million dedicated to “pay for success”, also known as “social impact partnerships”, will be up to the states to submit grant applications.  The states will work with “nonprofit social service providers, intermediaries, evaluators, and philanthropic organizations,” according to an article from the Social Innovation Research Center.  I’ve written about social impact bonds a bit since I first came across them over a year ago.  These are nothing more than corporations, non-profits, and banks hedging bets on certain outcomes.  And reaping the profits if they succeed.  For some areas of society, this is not necessarily a bad thing, such as medicine.  But when it branches into education, I am very concerned.  The timing of this bill coinciding with full implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act is not a mere coincidence.

The U.S. Dept. of Education will assuredly dip into this vast pool of money.  The Social Innovation Research Center all but guarantees this:

The legislation tasks the Treasury Department with overseeing the Social Impact Partnership program, although the department may delegate oversight authority for individual projects to other federal agencies.

ESSA calls for greater intervention in American public schools- more counselors, more community-based organizations, etc.  The full invasion of American education by corporations will be like nothing seen before once ESSA is firmly entrenched in every single state.  This will, of course, lead to the reinvention of American education into less of a brick-and-mortar system and more of a personalized learning and competency-based system with outside non-profits and corporations calling the shots.  Teachers will become glorified moderators to the education technology invading our schools.  But with the passage of the 21st Century Cares Act, children will become fodder for nothing more than a gambler in Vegas trying to win big.

Because this legislation is wrapped into such a noble cause, that of curing cancer, it is the perfect vessel for the corporate pigs to come home and feast on the trough.  Congress will pass this, regardless of the pork included in it, because “it is the right thing to do”.  And once again, children will pay the price.

To see the full bill, and how education will come into play, please go here.  Of particular note are pages 946-949.  By giving the very vague “improving rates of high school graduation“, that one line is the entrance into education.  One of the first forays into public education with Social Impact Bonds by a major U.S. Bank, Goldman Sachs, resulted in a ton of controversy.  The bank tried to bet on pre-schoolers in Utah.  The “outcome” they wanted was less children getting special education services.  But failing to understand why students even need special education in most cases, because of neurological disabilities, shows corporate America doesn’t believe in reasons, just profit.