Delaware Department of Education Fumbles In The Dark And Tries To Make Sense Of Declining Smarter Balanced Scores

By wasting taxpayer money on yet another “study” with the University of Delaware, the Delaware Department of Education has come up with a presentation to explain how Covid is affecting students. The “findings” will be presented later today to the Delaware State Board of Education. This is the earth-shattering universe shaking report:

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I have to ask. What is the purpose of this? There are no solutions, just data. There is nothing to address the mental needs of both teachers and students during these times. It is, once again, a reliance on the tired old horse called the state assessment. It seems like, no matter how many leadership changes and different staff members they hire, the Delaware Department of Education only cares about one thing: data.

If the Delaware DOE had a brain cell they would quickly realize that education got really jacked up since the shutdown in March of 2021. Of course there was going to be a tough time. We were in uncharted territory with a global pandemic. I’m pretty sure there weren’t that many people still alive from the Spanish Flu who could give guidance on what to do with this, especially in modern times. Students were going to lose time.

I’ve heard from many that the Delaware DOE is pushing “accelerated learning” to make up for the “learning loss” and lost time that came from Covid. Yes, let’s push students and teachers to the breaking point. Let’s see how your precious Smarter Balanced scores do then! When are they going to learn that data is not the same as education? You can fiddle around with numbers until the cows come home but it won’t change a damn fucking thing and we both know it. You are just trying to look good to… someone. None of it means a thing if students suffer in your vain attempt to beef up numbers. Shit happens. Covid happened. Get over your SBAC obsessed selves and let’s get back to work on the important things.

Let leaders lead and let teachers teach. Don’t tell the teachers how to teach. They already know how to do that. But more importantly, stop fucking around with numbers and graphs and let the leaders truly lead. And the ONLY way they can do that is by using their experience as teachers first and foremost. It isn’t a numbers game. It is about hearts and minds.