In about 15 minutes, Governor Markell will be giving a speech indicating Smarter Balanced scores will be used for acceptance credentials at the four major Delaware colleges and universities: University of Delaware, Delaware Technical College, Delaware State University and Wilmington University.
This decision was made without any input from members of the 148th General Assembly. Once again Governor Markell and the Delaware DOE are operating without any stakeholder input whatsoever. The test hasn’t even completed and the scores won’t be out until the summer, so how can this be used as a measuring indicator for students when we don’t even know how effective the test is?
The email regarding this was sent out earlier today:
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2015 11:57 AM
To: Haberstroh, Susan (K12)
Subject: Smarter Balance Assessment and Delaware Higher Education Institutions Announcement
Dear Legislator,
We wanted to provide you with a heads up of an announcement being made today regarding the Smarter Assessments and how four of our institutions of higher education have agreed to use these assessments. A press event is happening at 1:00 today where the Governor will announce that the University of Delaware, Delaware Technical Community College, Delaware State University and Wilmington University all have said students’ scores on the state’s new 11th grade Smarter Assessments are a good measure of college readiness and will be accepted in lieu of a separate placement test.
A press release with the full details will be sent to you later today.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Best,
Susan
Susan Keene Haberstroh, MPA, Ed.D.
Chief, Policy and External Affairs
Delaware Department of Education
Townsend Building
401 Federal Street, Suite 2
Dover, DE 19901
susan.haberstroh@doe.k12.de.us
P: 302-735-4035; F:302.739.4654
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