Aaaaw! How Cute! Jack Got A Bike Trail Named After Him!

Delaware Governor John Carney and former Delaware Governor Jack Markell cut the ribbon on the three-mile Jack Markell bike trail today up in Wilmington.  This memorializes Jack Markell and all the advocacy work he did for biking in Delaware.

The first photo was taken from Markell’s cross-country bike ride in the Summer of 2017.  Delaware Senator David Sokola, pictured with Markell, accompanied Markell on about half of his journey.  The second picture was satirical in nature on my part, comparing Jack Markell to the even more amazing cross-country biker, Forrest Gump.

Jack Markell Is The Modern-Day Forrest Gump

According to an article from Cris Barrish over at Newsworks, former Delaware Governor Jack Markell is going on a journey across America!

Markell is going on a bike ride across the USA in an effort to raise funds for a charity.

Markell has no official role with Motivate the First State Group, but by riding across the United States he is “simply offering his help” to get more people “engaging in healthy behavior” to assist charities, spokeswoman Lauren Golt said Thursday.

Out of all the things I predicted for Markell in his life after office, this was the last thing I would have predicted.  I could have sworn he would have gotten involved in something with education.  But I like this better.  He leaves from Astoria, Oregon on June 18th.  I can think of several people he can take with him but some of them will be very busy trying to pass a state budget.  But Markell can pull a Forrest Gump and keep going back and forth, back and forth.  Isn’t State Senator David Sokola big on bicycling?

On April 26th, Markell will give details about his cross-country ride and also something called the “Training With Jack Challenge”.  I have to wonder what the standards for his initiative will be?  Will he accept rigorous standards in the evaluations based on his training?  Will there be standardized tests to measure the worth of the program?

In all seriousness though, it is no secret Jack and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on education.  But I do see this as a worthwhile cause and I wish him safe travels on his journey.

Poverty Matters! Smarter Balanced Impact: The Sussex Academy Effect

Sussex Academy, the only Delaware charter school in Sussex County, was one of the best Smarter Balanced scoring schools in the entire county.  This is not an accident, nor is it an indication they are the “best” school in the county.  Like the Charter School of Wilmington, Sussex Academy was named in the ACLU lawsuit against the State of Delaware last December for discrimination against minority and special needs students.  Or what the blogosphere collectively calls “cherry-picking”.  The school is smack dab in the middle of Sussex County.

On the Delaware Department of Education school profiles part of their website, it shows the school’s demographics.  Sussex County has a very large population of Hispanics.  Western Sussex County is considered one of the poorest sections of the state and that trend is expected to increase over time.

In previous articles, this blog and Delaware Liberal have focused on New Castle County, Capital School District, and all the Delaware charters.  Our graphs have shown the effect low-income and poverty has on Smarter Balanced performance.  Unfortunately, this trend continues in Sussex County as seen below. Since Sussex Academy is primarily a middle school (although their high school is increasing, with 9th grade added two years ago, 10th grade last year, and 11th grade this year), I ran the graph with just the middle schools surrounding the school.  Sussex Academy appears to be siphoning away the “better” students from their surrounding districts.

To put this in perspective, Laurel Intermediate School is currently a Priority School in Delaware, which slipped under the radar of most bloggers until recently.  Meanwhile, Sussex Academy is praised by Governor Markell and the Delaware DOE as a great success.  All schools would be considered awesome if they were allowed to do what Sussex Academy does with their application process and mythical “lottery”.  Like Charter School of Wilmington and Newark Charter School to some extent, the veil has been lifted and these schools are not superior schools.  They have merely placed themselves on that stage by picking who they want, and more importantly, who they don’t want.

While their Hispanic population seems high, 9.6%, compared to many of the other schools, it is very low.  Sussex Academy is in Georgetown, the same as Georgetown Middle School.  Watch what happens…

In theory then, does the same hold true for the percentage of English Language Learners in Sussex County?  Not exactly.  Even though a few schools have less Hispanic students, Sussex Academy has the lowest percentage of English Language Learners.

How does Sussex Academy compare to the other schools with special education?  I’m sure you know the answer already, but there is a very wide margin between the school and the others.

In fact, they are in the low single-digits compared to the schools surrounding them.  When I see this, it always reminds me of the scene in Forrest Gump, when young Forrest tries to find a seat on the bus and the one kids says to him “Can’t sit here.”  This is what Sussex Academy does with their blatant discrimination against low-income students, Hispanics, and students with disabilities.  But I’m sure they will be recognized as a “reward” or “recognition” school for their exemplary performance…