“The assessment program shall be designed and operated to provide the General Assembly, the Governor, the Secretary, the State Board of Education, educational administrators, teachers, parents and the public with timely and accurate information on student achievement and educational attainments.” -From Delaware Title 14, § 151 State assessment system; rules and regulations (a).
The Delaware blogger Kavips has been following other states that belong to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium as they release the scores from their own Smarter Balanced tests. To date, Delaware has not release their own. Nobody in the public knew why…until now.
Apparently, states could pay extra money to have their scores released early. Delaware Governor Jack Markell did not do this. While some could say he is a financial hero, this is hardly the case. This will end up costing Delaware much more, and this is why. School districts and charters in other states who have this data can plan for the next year. Delaware can not. Because next year will already be here when the scores are released.
For a Governor who spends money on education like it just falls from trees, he sure is picky about test score information. What was that part about House Bill 334 when it was approved by the 147th General Assembly and signed by Governor Markell last year? Oh yeah…see above. Timely scores are not being provided to students, parents, teachers and schools. And this is a Governor people want to trust? Who won’t pay to have our schools run the same as others in the country? Wasn’t that the whole point of implementing the Common Core State Standards, so we could all be on the same level playing field as other states? Silly me, it’s about the money. It’s always been about the money.
The Season Of Myths 