After waiting an extra ten days to put up the audio of their June board meeting, the future of the Delaware Academy of Public Safety & Security is once again in doubt. Immediately into their board meeting, Margie Lopez-Waite resigned as President of their board and was than voted into the new Head of School position.
This is one of the things I can’t stand about Delaware. Weeks will go by without anything momentous going on and then BOOM! Everything all at once on the same night. Tonight is no exception!
The biggest, which will likely draw a great deal of media attention, is the debate between Republican John Marino and Democrat Stephanie Hansen for the 10th Senate District seat. The winner of this special election will dictate who holds the power in the Delaware Senate. There is a lot of heat on this election already and it will only ramp up until the February 25th voting day. Hosted by Allan Loudell with WDEL, this debate at Middletown High School begins at 7pm. As well, Libertarian candidate Joseph Lanzendorfer will be a part of the debate.
The State Board of Education has their first Joint Sunset Committee review tonight in the Joint Finance Committee room at Legislative Hall, 7pm. The State Board of Education was put on review last Spring by this committee. There could be big changes coming out of this review and this will be one to watch.
Capital School District is holding a forum on “potential building configurations” at the William Henry Middle School Auditorium, 6pm. Many in the district have felt their current grade configuration doesn’t work. Coming out of their ongoing Strategic Plan, this could draw a lot of attention for Senator Citizens in Dover. This part of their strategic plan is under the long-range master facilities plan. I say make it K-5, 6-8, and 9-12. But there is also a potential of pre-school and Kindergartners getting their own building.
The Progressive Democrats for Delaware are holding a pot-luck dinner tonight at the New Castle Democrat Headquarters over on 19 Commons Blvd. in New Castle from 7pm to 9pm.
The Down Syndrome Association of Delaware is holding a forum with state legislators covering topics such as education, Medicaid, and employment. This event, sponsored by Eventbrite, will be held from 7pm to 9pm at State Troop 2 in Newark, DE.
The Wilmington Education Improvement Commission is holding a meeting for the Meeting the Needs of Students in Poverty at United Way of Delaware, 625 Orange St. at the Linden Building, 3rd Floor, in Wilmington from 4pm to 6pm.
Earlier today, the Joint Finance Committee heard opening remarks for Public Education as well as the Chief School Officers down in Dover. After that, the JFC got to hear the Delaware Department of Education’s FY2018 budget request which is still going on until 4pm.
Busy day with no ability for everyone to get to all these things. I will be attending the debate tonight. Let’s see who wins this one!
After some starts and stops, the Delaware Special Education Strategic Plan is almost finished. The plan has been underway since 2014 when Governor Jack Markell inserted the creation of the strategic plan in the FY2015 epilogue language of the state budget. Matthew Korobkin, the Special Education Officer through the Secretary of Education’s office at the Delaware Dept. of Education, will give a status update on the plan to the State Board of Education at their meeting on January 19th. This is not to be confused with the State of Delaware Strategic Plan for Specialized Education Opportunities.
Last fall, the Special Education Strategic Plan was retooled after disability advocates viewed an initial draft. As a result of that, along with a very big push from State Rep. Kim Williams, a Facilitated Workgroup came into formation to fine tune the plan and make sure all voices were heard. In mid-December, the newly created group had a public two-day retreat to decide what should be in the plan. From there, sub-groups worked on different parts of the plan. It is expected to be released for public comment at some point in February, shortly after the State Board of Education meeting next week. From there, at some point in March, a presentation will be given to the State of Delaware Oversight Group for the Special Education Strategic Plan which includes members of the Delaware Interagency Resource Committee, a representative from Governor Carney’s office, and the Chairs of the Senate and House Joint Finance Committee.
The stakeholder workgroup has seven goals for development of the strategic plan which include the following: Students, Parents & Families, Community, Staff/Partners, Resources, Policies & Regulations, and Delivery/Structure/Systems. Like most Strategic Plans, this one will be not be set in stone and will be considered a fluid document whereby changes and tweaks can be added as needed. But every plan needs a foundation and what we will soon see are the building blocks for this plan. Things can happen which could substantially change the plan including the Delaware state budget and the upcoming ruling on the United States Supreme Court special education case of Endrew v. Douglas County School District.
Various groups and committees revolving around special education have occurred in Delaware over the past decade, but this is the first time I have seen such a huge mix of school districts, parents, and advocacy groups. The last group to form policy around special education was the IEP Task Force from 2014 which led to a large number of changes to state law and regulations. No education plan will ever please everyone and there will be parts people love and some others disapprove of. If there is one thing I have learned in education, it is constantly evolving and nothing will ever be perfect. But I would encourage any and all persons who care about special education to give this plan a very careful read when it comes out and let your thoughts be known with a goal of improving education for special needs kids.
The members of the Facilitated Workgroup consist of the following:
Michele Marinucci, Woodbridge School District
Daphne Cartright, Autism Delaware
Edward Emmett, Positive Outcomes Charter School
Katheryn Herel, PIC of Delaware
Jon Cooper, Colonial School District
Kendall Massett, Delaware Charter Schools Network
State Representative Kim Williams, Legislator
Kristin Dwyer, DSEA
Kristin Pidgeon, Down Syndrome Association
Lisa Lawson, Brandywine School District
Mary Ann Mieczkowski, Delaware Dept. of Education
Elisha Jenkins, Division for the Visually Impaired
Bill Doolittle, Parent Advocate
Sarah Celestin, Red Clay Consolidated School District
Vincent Winterling, Delaware Autism Program
Wendy Strauss, Governor’s Advisory Council for Exceptional Citizens
Annalisa Ekbladh, University of Delaware Center for Disability Studies
John Marinucci, Delaware School Boards Association
Sonya Lawrence, Parent Advocate
Teresa Avery, Autism Delaware
Laurie Kettle-Rivera, Delaware School for the Deaf
Mark Campano, Delaware Statewide Programs
Josette McCullough, Appoquinimink School District
Mondaria Batchelor, Woodbridge School District
*above photo courtesy of State Rep. Kim Williams, photographed by yours truly at the 12/9 retreat
Judging by the below email sent to legislators and the State Board of Education, they might:
Yes, I do regularly read the Rodel blog on their website, but I never commented on one until I saw their post from Friday called 5 Data Takeaways From Smarter Balanced Test Scores, written by Rodel employee Liz Hoyt. I’m always curious what the “opposition” writes about things like this. I have been very vocal in my thoughts on the Rodel Foundation of Delaware. They are a non-profit whose CEO happens to make over a quarter of a million dollars a year. I do not believe they have students best interests at heart. This article drove that point home for me with very clear and concise words. I will go through the areas that bothered me the most.
“Aligned to the Common Core state standards, the new state assessment was designed to ensure students have the skills and knowledge they need in jobs and college.”
I think this has always been my biggest problem with the Smarter Balanced Assessment. Please tell me how a 3rd grader taking this test is going to be in any way prepared for college based on how they answer questions on a test? Even if they put them at a 5th grade level, there is no test in the world that can prepare any student at a young age for a career or post-secondary education. The education reformers need to pick a side and stick with it: is the test meant to create data to see where students compare with each other or is it to prep them for a world they can’t even fathom until they are 15 or 16? They can’t have it both ways. Furthermore,.wasn’t the whole point of Common Core that a student in Alaska would get the same information and be assessed on the same information as a student in Louisiana? Instead, we have 18 states taking Smarter Balanced, 11 or so taking the PARCC, and the rest developing their own state assessments. It isn’t very common when states aren’t taking the “common” test. Funny how life works out…
“While this year’s scores are lower than last year’s DCAS results, Delaware students outperformed estimates (based on the 2014 national field test) in both subjects for every grade with the exception of 11th grade math.”
Why does the DOE and Governor Markell keep trying to pump up the fact that students did better than expected? Isn’t that the whole point of a field test, to find out what the kinks are and what problems might come up and strive to fix those issues? How many rockets did Russia blow up before Sputnik launched? If students did worse than the field test, it would prove unequivocally that this was a bad test. But since students did better than the field test, we are acting like this is the best test Delaware ever created (which Governor Markell did say at a speech for New America earlier in the Summer). And this is my major issue with this statement. We have nothing to measure this test by, and even the Feds wouldn’t allow states to compare any test scores to field tests for this very reason with their accountability frameworks. It’s not often I agree with the US DOE, but anyone can see the fallacy in comparing a field test to the actual test.
“Scores dropped as Delaware set a new baseline for student proficiency.”
Once again, how can scores drop when you are comparing apples to oranges? This test didn’t set a baseline for student proficiency, it set a baseline for Smarter Balanced proficiency based on whatever arbitrary number the Delaware Department of Education set it at. So what happens if by chance some miracle happens, and every student scores proficient on the test next year. Would the DOE allow that? They had a meltdown when the vast majority of teachers were rated as “effective”. What happens to the baseline then? I firmly believe they would change it because if everyone is proficient, the test is useless and has outlived it’s purpose. On the flip side, if everyone scores at a non-proficient level, we can’t have that either, because that shows 1) the test is bad and 2) we need to make all our schools a priority and fire all the teachers. So the baseline will ALWAYS be set somewhere so that anywhere from 30-70% of students are proficient. But that really doesn’t tell us what students need. It tells us the DOE will do whatever they have to for certain results.
“Despite concerns about the opt-out movement’s potential impact on assessment, student participation remained strong.”
Concerns? How many times does Dr. Paul Herdman speak in public at Legislative Hall about pending legislation for education? He said it was the first time he ever came to an education committee meeting and gave public comment. It wasn’t a concern for Rodel. It was a five-alarm fire! I’ve said all along I expected opt-outs to be small the first year. I also said once parents receive the scores, it will be another story in the second year of Smarter Balanced. One only needs to look at New York and New Jersey to see the difference between the first and second year opt-out rates to gage how Delaware will be with this in the Spring of 2016. This is a wake-up call for parents, and they will show how much they support this test with higher opt-out rates in six months.
“Scores varied widely across districts and schools, highlighting the hard work of educators implementing the Common Core State Standards and schools that may need additional support.”
Scores varied widely among low-income schools and higher income schools. They varied between charters and magnet schools with selective enrollment preferences and those without. They varied between the haves and the have-nots. Are you telling us then that schools with low-income just happen to have teachers who aren’t good at “implementing the Common Core State Standards”? Because that’s the way I’m reading this. Are you saying that EastSide Charter School, who was publicly praised by Governor Markell for their incredible growth on DCAS has teachers that now are not implementing Common Core the right way? Or is it because EastSide performed about the same as other schools with comparable low-income populations? Don’t answer. We already know.
“…learn more about the Smarter Assessment and the Common Core State Standards at DelExcels.org.”
Since we know Rodel provides invaluable help to Donna Johnson, the State Board of Education and Delaware DOE in getting resource material on the DelExcels website for parents, and Rodel is a non-profit, did Rodel get paid with tax-payer money to help get the material on the DelExcels website? And how much of that money gets invested into one of the hedge funds Rodel invests in? Can you please answer those questions?
On August 4th, Delaware Governor Jack Markell will sign two bills to improve education in the City of Wilmington. House Bill 148 creates the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission while Senate Bill 122 allows the State Board of Education to redraw district lines to allow for City of Wilmington schools to shift to Red Clay Consolidated School District away from the Christina School District.
The signing will occur at Hockessin Colored School #107C, 4266 Millcreek Rd. in Hockessin, DE. I will fully admit when I heard the name of this location my eyes bulged open while my brain was feverishly wondering why they wouldn’t do the signing in the city proper. On the Facebook page, Solutions for Wilmington Schools, Wilmington Education Advisory Committee chair Tony Allen provided a link to a USA Today article on the historic location.
The “colored” schools in Delaware, as they were called, were created by Pierre DuPont in the 1920s. The Hockessin Color School #107C became the heart of a pitched legal battle regarding integration into the much better School #29, which only white people were allowed at. The legal cases involved with this situation became a part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and is considered an historic landmark in Delaware.
Many fear the redistricting of Wilmington schools under two school districts, Red Clay Consolidated and Brandywine is a smokescreen to create an all-charter Wilmington school district. At this time, Delaware is projected to have a $160 million deficit for FY2017 and the Delaware Department of Education is going back on the original promised amount for Red Clay’s three priority schools. The legislation, which looks great on the surface, could face numerous obstacles in the implementation.
Citizens of Wilmington have desired a reduction in school districts for decades, ever since the Secretary of State created the current four district control of Wilmington schools. While I can easily see the need for this reduction, the thorn in the foot is the charter schools in Wilmington. Not that all of them are bad, but they have taken away so much local and state funding away from the cash-poor school districts and created even more segregation in the city.
I will be writing a considerable amount about the history of segregation in Delaware education history in an upcoming article and how this led to the creation of Delaware charter schools.
It looks like Odyssey Charter School is having some pretty major financial problems in Delaware. Following many other charters in the past couple years, Odyssey somehow managed to spend $700,000 over their budget this year.
Some highlights from the below board meeting minutes from 5/13/15:
-They spelled “Public” wrong…
-This school continues to run their board meetings like a corporate board meeting and very little is discussed about actual academics at the school, in fact the word “student” is never even mentioned…
-Jennifer Nagourney from the Delaware DOE Charter School Office attended the meeting and reminded the board to make sure they are following FOIA regulations, she also asked the board to give her good news about the school so she can report it to the State Board of Education…
-The board told the administration they need to look at cutting all expenses…
What was the deal with Headmaster Nick Manolakos unbudgeted salary change? It was rumored he was looking to leave last winter and that he applied for the Providence Creek Academy Principal position.
Could Odyssey be one of the four unmentioned Delaware charter schools being investigated at the State Auditor office?
The Season Of Myths 