A week ago, I received notice the Delaware Assessment Inventory Committee will meet on April 26th. Now, I am hearing May 2nd. This came straight from Delaware Secretary of Education Dr. Steven Godowsky! The May 2nd date is tentative. So what is the hold-up? It seems to me no one at the DOE really knows what they are doing with all of this. Why are they the ones calling the shots? They screwed it all up to begin with.
The above picture came from Secretary Godowsky’s “Legislator Update”, an email sent to all the legislators in the Delaware General Assembly yesterday. While this may seem arrogant of me, I could swear they change these meetings to Monday afternoon because they know I will be at work! 😉
For all the hoopla Delaware has made of their beloved “assessment inventory”, they don’t seem to be in a rush to get anything done with it. This has been in discussion since April of last year, when it was first announced at the State Board of Education meeting. We all know what it really is: a “solution” to eliminate opt out by giving the people what they think they want (but we aren’t that stupid DOE) and to get rid of local assessments that give immediate feedback and help to guide instruction.
Parents say there is too much testing and I agree with that. But take what Appoquinimink is doing: They are administering the Smarter Balanced Assessment and then the MAP testing immediately after. What kind of message does this send to parents? They will all say “there is too much testing”. The Governor and the DOE will pounce on that and suggest getting rid of the lesser of the two evils. Buh-bye MAP tests, hello to the great Smarter Balanced! This is all rigged and far too many parents believe the lie.
Other “highlights” from the “Legislator Update” include:
I love the use of the word “investment”. While I appreciate Dr. Godowsky getting this out there, and it is light years better than anything former Secretary Mark Murphy did, sending out a newsletter instead of actually changing things legislators want are two very different things. For example, how about House Resolution #22 Dr. Godowsky? Why do they only put the “good things” the DOE is up to in this newsletter? I would love to see articles on how the DOE is causing more stress and headaches in our schools. Putting a pretty picture on a state agency really doesn’t fool anyone Dr. Godowsky.
It was at last year’s Common Core for Common Ground that Governor Markell gave a very condescending speech to Delaware teachers. He told them it was the last year before things start to count, meaning the Smarter Balanced Assessment scores being used for their teacher evaluations. Of course this year, they won’t either. And everything changes with the Every Student Succeeds Act replacing ESEA. What teacher in their right mind (those not recruited into the Rodel-DOE-Markell “dream teams” that unabashedly promote Common Core and personalized learning) would show off the very standards and “results-driven” strategies (which is one thing only in Delaware: the almighty high-stakes testing score) to their peers? It looks like there is free food though. That is always a way to lure educators into these events. It wouldn’t shock me if they use all the culinary students in the state to produce the food! But will they have the chocolate eclairs Rodel uses as bait for Delaware citizens to their Vision 20whatever conferences?
I can’t wait to see the scores on the “new” SAT. They are going to plummet because of the Common Core alignment. But instead of recognizing that, we will see constant reports about how our high school juniors aren’t getting the instruction they need to be college and career ready. More pawns in the corporate education reform psychodrama.
The Season Of Myths 