A new name came forth recently in Delaware education. I must admit I had never heard of him before. Or had I? But who is he and how could he become a voice in Delaware education?
TeenSHARP
Learning To Count With Atnre Alleyne And Secretary Godowsky
Atnre AlleyneA week ago, I published an article about the Alleyne Consortium. They wanted to give Delaware Secretary of Education Dr. Steven Godowsky some suggestions for the Delaware Dept. of Education’s Every Student Succeeds Act first draft of their state plan. A source was able to give me the emails Alleyne sent to Godowsky. The irony that Secretary Godowsky didn’t respond to Alleyne is not lost on me.
From: Atnre Alleyne <atnre.alleyne@50can.org>
Date: Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 11:23 AM
Subject: An Open Letter: Opportunities for Delaware under the Every Student Succeeds Act
To: steven.godowsky@doe.k12.de.us
Dear Secretary Godowsky,
I am writing to share an open letter (see attached) a collection of 20+ Delaware community and business organizations crafted to provide an initial set of recommendations regarding Delaware’s implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in Delaware. Specifically, this first letter from our group focuses on school accountability and reporting under ESSA.
The diverse set of organizations that came together around this statement did so because we believe ESSA offers us an opportunity to turn the tide for Delaware students and renew our commitment and urgency toward ensuring equity for every student. As a group, we recognize that while there are examples of success in Delaware’s education system, our system has a long way to go before we can claim every Delaware student is receiving the high-quality education he or she deserves.
Where possible, many of our organizations have participated in the opportunities created by the Delaware Department of Education to provide input on the transition to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for the state. Some of us also have the opportunity to directly provide feedback on the state’s ESSA plan as members of the Governor’s ESSA Advisory Committee.
We compiled this letter understanding that, in order for the state’s implementation of ESSA to be successful, advocates and community groups need to play a more active role in pushing the system toward excellence.
Thank you in advance for considering the recommendations above as the state develops its ESSA plan.
Regards,
Atnre Alleyne
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Hell no, he didn’t try to get Rodel and the gang to usurp Delaware’s ESSA plan, did he? He sure did. But nine days later, not only did he email Godowsky again but he made a broad claim that more organizations joined in.
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From: “Atnre Alleyne” <atnre.alleyne@50can.org>
Date: Nov 4, 2016 9:05 AM
Subject: An Open Letter: Opportunities for Delaware under the Every Student Succeeds Act
To: <steven.godowsky@doe.k12.de.us>
Good Morning Secretary Godowsky,
I hope all is well with you. Last week I emailed to share an open letter a collection of 23 Delaware community and business organizations crafted to provide an initial set of recommendations regarding Delaware’s implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in Delaware.
As we have not yet received a response from the Delaware Department of Education, we are sending the letter again. I have also copied the members of the ESSA Advisory Committee so that they can consider the perspective of the community groups represented via this letter as they review the DDOE’s ESSA plan.
The version of the letter attached to this email now includes 24 Delaware organizations. Thank you in advance for considering the recommendations in the attached letter as the state develops its ESSA plan.
Regards,
Atnre
Now this is the funny part. Because in Alleyne’s march towards educational excellence, he seems to have forgotten to count. He put, in bold, there are now 24 organizations. In looking at this letter, I only saw 23. I blame Common Core for this.
I didn’t miss something here, did I? I counted 23. Luckily, I wasn’t raised with the Common Core standards. I imagine everyone at the Delaware DOE is given the Clockwork Orange brainwashing with Common Core so I am able to understand how 23 becomes 24 in Alleyne’s world. Unless he forgot to put in one of the pretty pictures for a 24th organization. But, I must admit, Alleyne did inspire me. Oh, how he inspired me. He is absolutely right. We DO need more input on this state plan. Much more! And I plan to get that. Because there is no way in hell Alleyne, Rodel, Teach For America, the Delaware Charter Schools Network, the Delaware Business Roundtable and TeenSHARP are going to steal this plan. So be on the lookout for my “stealing the thunder” plan. It will be marvelous! Okay, bad terminology to use in this day and age, but you get my point!
Ex-DOE Employee Trying To Steer The Conversation With Delaware’s ESSA Plan… But He’s A Benefactor…
Atnre Alleyne, Every Student Succeeds ActI’ve written about Atnre Alleyne more than any other Delaware Dept. of Education employee (aside from Godowsky) in the past six months and he doesn’t even work there anymore! On Wednesday, Delaware Public Media released a letter Alleyne wrote to the Delaware DOE for input on the first draft of their Every Student Succeeds Act which should be out tomorrow. With a ton of other sponsors on the letter, including Rodel, Teach For America, the Delaware Charter Schools Network, the Delaware Business Roundtable, the Delaware Chamber of Commerce, and of course, TeenSHARP, an organization run by Alleyne and his wife. An organization he could potentially benefit from through ESSA grants. No conflict of interest there. But to make matters worse, he also sits on the Governor’s ESSA Advisory Committee.
Alleyne and the Delaware Corporate Education Reform Network (my new nickname for the above-mentioned companies) also rounded up every single civil rights group they could for this letter. The PACE Network, Christina Cultural Arts Center, the Wilmington Education Strategy Think Tank, Aspira of Delaware, and oddly enough, the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware. The same organization who submitted a Civil Rights complaint against the State of Delaware and Red Clay Consolidated School District for authorizing charter schools that continue segregation in Delaware (22 months later and no word on that one).
To say Alleyne is making a move would be an understatement. This was the same person who did everything in his power to kill legislation on teacher evaluations. He pretty much got his wish when Senator David Sokola added his amendments to the bill. Why should anyone listen to what amounts to a benefactor of ESSA? Thanks to Delaware Public Media for putting this letter up on Scribd. While I agree with very few of the points of the letter, it is definitely a power grab by Alleyne. Alleyne is also an “education fellow” at 50CAN, just another one of those education think tanks that sprung up in the past decade with funding by the Gates Foundation and a gazillion other foundations that support charter schools. And one of the documents Alleyne brings up in his letter was something Alleyne was compensated for at the Delaware DOE. He worked in the Teacher/Leader Effectiveness Unit before he sprouted his wings to do… this kind of stuff.
I have no doubt the Delaware DOE gave this letter very serious consideration and will incorporate the thoughts of it in the plan. Kind of like how Senator Sokola took Alleyne’s charges with House Bill 399 very seriously. But they were in cahoots the whole time. This is Rodelaware you know…
Reality Hits Delaware Teachers That SBAC Counts In Their Evaluations Now But Bigger Dangers Are On The Horizon…
Component VYesterday, Delaware Secretary of Education Dr. Steven Godowsky sent a memo to all Delaware public school teachers. This message reiterates existing Delaware law about Component V of the DPAS-II teacher evaluation system. In other words, Smarter Balanced counts in teacher evaluations this year.
It was supposed to “count” last year, but legislators from the 148th General Assembly persuaded the Delaware Department of Education to submit an ESEA flexibility waiver in 2015 to extend the exemption period another year. The US Dept. of Education approved that request. Beginning this year, for almost every single public school in the state, the highly controversial high-stakes test will be a major part of Component V.
House Bill 399 will start a pilot program in select Delaware schools where the teacher and the administrator can choose another type of assessment for Measure A of Component V, but the administrator has final say in the event of a deadlock. Governor Markell is expected to sign the legislation in the coming weeks.
Back in the spring of 2015, at a Common Core for Common Ground event, Governor Markell unwisely told a room full of educators to be prepared because he was:
Giving you another year before consequences kick in.
That was before the US DOE approved the flex waiver. In 2015, the Governor very condescendingly told WHYY/Newsworks:
We know that some people don’t agree with higher standards and accountability.
When those “higher standards” and “accountability” are rigged from the get-go, it is hard to take the Common Core loving Jack Markell seriously. It is very convenient for Markell to be okay with Component V hitting teachers after he leaves office. Just yet another example of our “education” Governor creating destruction and leaving it for others to clean up the mess.
In the meantime, the dynamic due of Senator Sokola and Atnre Alleyne all but assured House Bill 399 was morphed into something from the corporate education reform playbook when it passed the Delaware General Assembly on July 1st. Sokola’s amendments added a student and parent survey to the pilot program which enraged teachers across the state. Newark Charter School has these types of surveys and it is something the DOE has been planning for a lot longer than we think…
In June of 2014, Atnre Alleyne worked at the Delaware DOE in the Teacher/Leader Effectiveness Unit under Chief Christopher Ruszkowski. He contacted a company called Panorama Education Inc. since they administered surveys to schools in New Haven, Connecticut public schools. They provided information to Alleyne showing what these parent and student surveys could look like in Delaware:
And here are examples of the surveys this company wrote:
Student Perception Surveys for 3rd-5th Grade Students:
Student Perception Surveys for 6th-12th Grade Students:
For those who may be wondering how I was able to uncover these documents, they came from a FOIA request a Delaware teacher received from the Delaware DOE over a year and a half ago. While looking back at the emails in this FOIA a few weeks ago, I found this. It didn’t mean a lot at the time I initially reviewed the FOIA material, but in context of the Sokola amendment added onto House Bill 399, it is huge. As an exclusive bonus, here are the emails that allowed Ruszkowski, Alleyne, and Laura Schneider (still with the TLEU at the Delaware DOE) to begin looking at student surveys over two years ago:
The problem with any survey is how it is worded. Surveys can very easily slant towards a very specific purpose. There are a multitude of factors that can cause surveys to be tainted. For students, there are many reasons why they could bash a teacher in a survey. But Sokola and the DOE seem to want these surveys, along with parent surveys. For what purpose? I think we can all figure that one out: to label more teachers as ineffective in their path to destroy teacher unions.
For the Delaware DOE, they have already paid a very large chunk of money to Panorama this year. What were the services Panorama provided for the DOE? I can only imagine it was for the implementation of surveys into DPAS-II. Note the date on the below picture. This was before House Bill 399 had the Sokola amendment added to it. Almost two months before…
I firmly believe the original intention of House Bill 399 was hijacked from the Delaware DOE and Senator Sokola even before it was introduced. They knew exactly what the outcome of this bill would be. I would almost prefer Governor Markell does not sign it because of the Sokola amendment and the potential damage this could do to the teaching profession in Delaware.
In terms of Atnre Alleye, he is a nice guy. But I have serious “heartburn” as Senator Sokola frequently says, about his role as a founder of TeenSHARP and the work they do while he was an employee of the Delaware Department of Education. I believe there was a clear conflict of interest. While he did leave the DOE in February of this year, he was very involved with House Bill 399 and what became of it.
Going back as far as 2010, Alleyne’s motivations were very clear for what he wanted in education:
I don’t believe a company he co-founded should in any way benefit from policies he helped contribute to as an employee of the Delaware Dept. of Education. There is a blurring of the lines so to speak. In fact, when you look at Alleyne’s Twitter account, it is filled with love for corporate education reform companies.
For Delaware teachers, this year will be the true test for them on the absolute damage one high-stakes test will do to their careers. But is this a smokescreen for something even worse coming to all of education in America? I believe it is. I think the very loud protest coming from teachers in this state will lead to an elimination of the Smarter Balanced Assessment as we know it. The test will evolve into weekly or bi-weekly tests in a personalized learning/competency-based education environment where the role of the teacher will be reduced to that of a glorified moderator. Now, more than ever, teachers in Delaware need to not only fight what is here but what is coming. And prepare now!
The Season Of Myths 