I wanted to get John Carney’s proposed education policy up fast to get people to read it ahead of his Meet and Greet tonight in Wilmington. Upon reading it, I am left with more questions than answers.
First off, there is absolutely nothing in this regarding standardized testing, opt out, education technology, charter schools, Common Core, the Smarter Balanced Assessment, the ineffectiveness of the State Board of Education, or financial accountability. In terms of the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission’s redistricting plan, he openly admits he will pick which parts should be implemented, which means there are parts he feels should not go through. There is a lot about early education in this. So much so that he wants to give early education it’s own special “council” in state government. He also has a lot of love for the Pathways to Prosperity program. All of this gives me the feeling his administration has no desire to get rid of the very horrible education policies initiated by Governor Markell. In fact, unless things change, this will be Markell 2.0.
I want to go through some of his policy and give thoughts on it.
Despite improvements over the past decade, too many students, especially poor and minority students, are not meeting the standards that have been set.
I assume he is talking about Common Core. Those standards were forced on districts through Race To The Top as the state was struggling to dig out of the Recession. By stating the “standards that have been set” it shows he is not willing to honor the flexibility of the Every Student Succeeds Act to change those standards to something more palatable for students, teachers, schools, and parents. Those standards were created for the sole purpose of messing up education, not fixing it. To create the upcoming “earn to learn” programs coming from the corporate futurists of America and turn future generations into subservient slaves of the state.
The last ten years have been a decade of reform in education at the national level and here in Delaware. While many of these changes have been positive, there have also been missed opportunities. As a result of shifting focus from one reform to the next, many good ideas have never been fully implemented and others were abandoned before we could assess their impact on students.
I would really like to know which changes have been positive John. Common Core is a disaster. So much so that you won’t even say the words. The assessments that came out of Common Core are horrible. This created an opt out movement which, while still growing in Delaware, caused 1/5th of all New York students to have their parents opt them out the past two years. Missed opportunities is a bit of a misnomer. Getting rid of the Minner reading specialists in our schools was a huge mistake. The education reformers didn’t shift focus from one reform to the next. They allowed bad policy to continue to erode public education and built more bad policy to connect it all.
The states that will be successful in the future are the ones that have a quality, well-trained workforce. The future of our state’s economy depends on the talents and skills that our young people have to offer. Our education system needs to be dynamic and responsive to the needs of a 21st century workforce to prepare our students for the opportunities that lie ahead.
Saying this doesn’t mean anything. We have heard this from Jack Markell for the past eight years. It means nothing.
With the development of the STARS program, Delaware has made real progress in helping children get to school better prepared to learn. Since 2012, the number of Delaware early learning programs that have earned the highest quality rating, five stars, has gone from 24 to 127.
I haven’t written much about the STARS program, but from what I’ve heard from many people, those who play ball with the DOE get the higher ratings. Those who want to remain independent and do their own thing (with success) have been marginalized in favor of those who adhere to the guidelines of the DOE and the Early Education Race To The Top mandates. While I agree with John that getting more low-income children into these programs is good, I don’t like what is happening in terms of this pre-school “rigor” in getting these children ready for Kindergarten.
Unfortunately, not every child grows up in a supportive household. And parents often need additional help and training to ensure that their children are learning the foundational lessons and skills that position them for success in school and beyond.
I have mixed emotions about this. If parents need help, then yes, I think they should have the ability to get help and resources to allow them to be a better parent. But where is the line drawn? When does the line between letting parents be parents and state control get blurry? What makes America a great country is the ability to have freedoms that other countries may not have. Which means less government interference and control. If there is a child in a broken home and is subject to abuse and violence, there are mechanisms in place to deal with that. Those agencies should be doing more. Cross-coordination is a good thing, but my fear is too many “non-profits” getting involved. So many of these problems are outside of the education arena.
John will reorient the Department of Education from a focus on monitoring and mandates to a focus on collaboration and support for districts. He’ll create resource centers at DOE to ensure that teachers and curriculum directors have access to experts with deep knowledge in critical areas who can provide advice and guidance and help share best practices across district lines.
I have always thought the DOE should be trimmed down considerably. But they do need to be a better monitor in certain areas, especially special education and school discipline. But in the academic arena, there are far too many Delaware DOE “leaders” who lack sympathy and emotion in dealing with Delaware teachers unless they are those teachers who prescribe to the DOE’s reformy ideas. By filling the DOE with “experts”, without giving any definition of what describes an “expert”, this is very worrisome. I’ll just come right out and say that Rodel should have zero influence on Delaware education. Their idea of education, a personalized learning/competency-based education/feeding the corporate wallets idea of education, is bad. They want to transform education into the mantras of the business community. We have far too many Rodel “experts” in Delaware education policy. If these “experts” with “deep knowledge” are all about lessening the role of teachers into a “digital facilitator”, then no thanks.
Delaware’s regulations on school accountability were created under the burdensome, top-down rules mandated by the No Child Left Behind law. NCLB has been replaced with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which provides much more flexibility and input from state and local leaders who know the needs of their students the best. We should take full advantage of this opportunity and develop a plan that includes meaningful goals and appropriate accountability measures that keep Delaware students and schools on track.
The only things that will be acceptable to the majority of Delawareans will be the elimination of state assessments that really do nothing but provide data to the reformers to advance their dream of a cradle to grave apprenticeship workforce. Once again, the “state and local leaders” part is very vague. If it is the same representation we have had for the past ten years with many groups having the same like-minded and hand-picked people, then no thanks again. I do see Kim Williams was picked for the ESSA Advisory Committee which is a good sign of potential change with these type of groups. But let’s get the Rodel type people out of Delaware. Enough already. Until the very horrible Smarter Balanced is completely gone (including future stealth testing embedded into future digital classrooms) and teachers aren’t held accountable for these tests, nothing will truly change John. Opt out will get bigger and it will evolve to the point where parents are openly rebelling against all the ed tech their kids are subjected to.
As Governor, John will work to improve the professional development offered to Delaware teachers by including relevant and meaningful lessons on Delaware’s standards, the science of student learning, and effective instruction for disadvantaged and trauma informed students.
Here we go again John! Giving more “relevant” and “meaningful” lessons on horrible standards does absolutely nothing to address how bad the standards are. Student learning is not just a “science”. There are many factors that go into how children learn. All the professional development in the world isn’t going to help student outcomes when they are in huge classrooms. It won’t help the thousands of students with disabilities who are forced to adhere to these same standards you don’t want to give up. It does nothing to address the extreme violence and rampant drug use in our state that forces children to carry these burdens into the classroom.
Teachers shouldn’t have to become administrators to advance in their career. Excellent teachers should be able to stay in the classroom and take on leadership roles that help them expand their impact by mentoring their peers. Delaware is implementing a pilot “teacher-leader” program during the 2016-2017 school year. John will learn from this effort and move forward on a path that gives teachers throughout the state other options to move up, help their colleagues succeed, and increase student learning.
In other words, we don’t want to pay teachers all that administrator money. But we will pick the teachers we want to be a “teacher-leader” like the DOE did before the committee to implement this program even came out with their final report. And once again, we seem to have teacher-leaders who subscribe more to the Rodel way of doing things.
Teachers and principals are the ones who know their students the best, their successes and their struggles. John believes they should have input on using state resources in ways that will best meet their students’ needs.
Yes, but parents are the ones who know their children the best. Once again, there is a very blurry line between the education setting and decisions best left at home. We cannot turn schools into community centers that meet the needs of every student. I can see very clearly where this is going. To the death of brick and mortar schools. Teachers will be gone. Community centers run by non-profits like the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club will take the younger kids where they will have their gaming/personalized learning sessions all day while older kids will have constant online schooling from the home.
To that end, he will also create a 21st Century Opportunity Grant program that creates additional flexibility in state education funding and gives teachers and principals needed resources and support to implement solutions that work for individual students.
Where are the parents in these decisions? Will they be a part of these decisions about what will work best for their own child? It is a parent’s decision to choose the best education for their child, not teachers and principals. By leaving parents out of these decisions, it is more state control. It will lead to the further erosion of families that is already taking place in our country. The whole “grant” scheme ultimately doesn’t change outcomes for students. It may help the more advantaged students, but they are typically filled with loopholes. We have no accountability or belief that our districts and charters use the education funding they already get with fidelity. How can we trust that these grant funds won’t serve to fatten already bloated cows?
The bar for students today is higher than it’s ever been, and Delaware has to rise to the challenge. Every Delaware student has to graduate high school prepared to succeed in college or the workforce.
The bar has always been high. Every single generation in this country has had higher expectations than the one before. But we have used this term to completely surrender control of education to companies John. You might as well say we have to drink water to survive. When you keep saying the same things Jack Markell said I have to wonder whose ideas these are.
We’re starting to make strong connections between students, training and apprenticeship programs, and Delaware employers.
In other words, companies don’t want to train their own employees while we continue to cut their corporate taxes. They get immensely richer while the cost of living for the average citizen rises exponentially. Health costs are out of control. These programs are nothing more than corporate giveaways but at a scale never seen before. Where the state does what companies should be doing in the first place.
Forty two percent of Delaware students have to complete a remedial English or Math class when they get to college. These classes cost money and don’t count for credit, making it more difficult for students to earn their degree. Studies show that 30% of students required to take a remedial class in college never graduate with a bachelor’s degree.
Just more proof that Common Core doesn’t work and we need to get back to education that works. You can’t have it both ways John. You can’t say the standards are set and then complain about how students have to take remedial classes.
They’re taking classes and earning professional certifications in professions like computer science, engineering, and biomedical science. And the certifications they’re earning can be taken directly to the workforce, or help them further their education in college.
Once upon a time, a high school diploma meant something. A college degree meant something. But now we are entering the age of “certifications”. Which will eventually become digital if the education/industrial complex gets their way. This is, once again, a boon to the companies. Not to public education.
He’ll also work to expand partnerships between Delaware Tech and the state’s high schools to get more students the critical skills and qualifications they need to be valuable members of the workforce.
The critical skills and qualifications students need are in post-secondary education. They go to college to get those skills. K-12 education should be about preparing them for college, not the workforce. If students don’t want to go to college, we need to stop relying on taxpayers to pay for company training. We are turning today’s youth into something companies want. The price on future American ingenuity and success is going to be very high when all of these agendas are fully realized. But today’s leaders don’t see that. They want to profit on it now and don’t care if they kick the can down the road when it all comes apart.
Career readiness must be a priority, and it starts with assessing schools based on how they are preparing their students for the workforce.
Come on John! Enough already. I won’t continue with the same thing I’ve been saying throughout this article. This future nightmare you are setting up is more of the same.
As Governor, John will make sure effective career readiness measures are included in Delaware’s system, incentivizing schools and districts to invest in these programs.
All incentivizing does is set up winners and losers John. It doesn’t give any true equity or equality in education. It further separates the haves from the have-nots. What happens to schools or districts that don’t want to play this game? Will they be marginalized and disrespect in the future? And where is all this money going to come from to “incentivize” these schools? Our state economy is not looking good and the numbers released from DEFAC yesterday don’t look promising. Your ideas to incentivize schools for companies to profit comes at the expense of the already over-burdened low-income and middle-class tax paying citizens.
In reading the proposed education policies of John Carney, the only words that come to mind are severely disappointing. This is what we waited for? More of the same? I don’t see too many original ideas. The biggest idea, changing the DOE, isn’t exactly a new idea. People have been screaming about that in Delaware for years. But the DOE is only a reflection of their true master: Rodel and the other corporate education reformers. In reading this, John Carney appears to be yet another puppet for our future masters.
I can see why Carney refused to answer the questions I sent to him. By answering those in any way it would have showed how he is no better than Jack Markell. I have to wonder who even wrote this document. Because I don’t see the words “we” too much in it. I see a lot of “John”. This is DOE or Rodel talk. I’ve seen it enough times to know the lingo. Make no mistake, this isn’t John Carney’s Delaware. This is we the people’s Delaware. You serve us, not the corporations. It looks like the possibility of my being able to have a good relationship with Carney are diminishing by the day…
We do have other options come Election Day. But will Delaware be able to get out of their party purist mindset to realize they are sacrificing their children, grandchildren, and future generations to corporate slavery to make a difference?
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