The Echo

The following excerpts are from the http://widgeteffect.org/ 
A Report conducted by The New Teacher Project, http://www.tntp.org/ 
Please visit http://widgeteffect.org/ to view this report in its entirety.


If teachers are so important, why do we treat them like widgets?

"Effective teachers are the key to student success. Yet our school systems treat all teachers as interchangeable parts, not professionals. Excellence goes unrecognized and poor performance goes unaddressed. This indifference to performance disrespects teachers and gambles with students’ lives."

From the Overview:

The Widget Effect is a wide-ranging report that studies teacher evaluation and dismissal in four states and 12 diverse districts, ranging from 4,000 to 400,000 students in enrollment. From the beginning, over 50 district and state officials and 25 teachers’ union representatives actively informed the study through advisory panels in each state.

The Findings Revealed:

• All teachers are rated good or great. Less than 1 percent of teachers receive unsatisfactory ratings, even in schools where students fail to meet basic academic standards, year after year.
• Excellence goes unrecognized. When excellent ratings are the norm, truly exceptional teachers cannot be formally identified. Nor can they be compensated, promoted or retained.
• Professional development is inadequate. Almost 3 in 4 teachers did not receive any specific feedback on improving their performance in their last evaluation.
• Novice teachers are neglected. Low expectations for beginning teachers translate into benign neglect in the classroom and a toothless tenure process.
• Poor performance goes unaddressed. Half of the districts studied have not dismissed a single tenured teacher for poor performance in the past five years. None dismiss more than a few each year.

The Policy Implication is:

Though it is widely accepted that a teacher’s effectiveness matters more than any other school factor in student success or failure, it is almost never considered in critical decisions such as how teachers are hired, developed or retained.

The Resulting Recommendation:


The Widget Effect is deeply ingrained in the fundamental systems and policies that govern the teachers in our public schools.


Reversing it depends on better information about instructional quality that can be used as a primary factor in other important human capital decisions.

• ADOPT a comprehensive performance evaluation system that fairly, accurately and credibly differentiates teachers based on their effectiveness in promoting student achievement and provides targeted professional development to help them improve.
• TRAIN administrators and other evaluators in the teacher performance evaluation system and hold them accountable for using it fairly and effectively.
• INTEGRATE the performance evaluation system with critical human capital policies and functions such as teacher assignment, professional development, compensation, retention and dismissal.
• ADDRESS consistently ineffective teaching through dismissal policies that provide lower-stakes options for ineffective teachers to exit the district and a system of due process that is fair but efficient.

School officials concerned theft could hurt Referendum Efforts

From the News Journal:

LAUREL -- The Laurel School District's finance director has resigned after telling officials that he overpaid himself from district funds.


William Hitch Jr. volunteered the information after being confronted by district officials who spotted inconsistencies on a payroll report, said Laurel Superintendent John McCoy.


McCoy said he did not know how much money Hitch diverted, nor from which funds it came.

Click on passage for link back to full article.

http://kilroysdelaware.wordpress.com/2009/12/29/race-to-the-clock/

A little research and maybe it's not all roses in Louisiana:  (If it's big and in bold text, it's my comment. If it's red, it's a link.)

In 2003, the Louisiana passed legislation creating a Recovery School District, administered by the Louisiana Department of Education.  The RSD is designed to take underperforming schools and transform them into successful places for children to learn.  After the hurricanes of 2005, the majority of schools in New Orleans were turned over to the RSD. 

"Rather than following the common paradigm for school takeovers nationally – that is, taking over entire school districts with all their dysfunctions, central office bureaucracy, employees, and restrictive collective bargaining agreements, the Recovery School District takes over only individual schools, their employees, their students and their funding."

The RSD employs a number of strategies to turn around struggling schools, and a key strategy is charter schools. The District is supporting both charter conversions for struggling schools and charter conversions for schools that are improving.  To learn about the The RSD Strategy, click here.

How does the LA state intervention work?
Schools that fail to meet state minimum academic standards for at least four consecutive years are eligible for state intervention. These schools can be placed into the RSD or retained by the local school board under the terms of a supervisory Memorandum of Understanding and related School Recovery Plan.

What is a Memorandum of Understanding?

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is a binding agreement between a local school district and the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE) that outlines necessary actions that must be implemented at a failing school in order for it to avoid placement in the Recovery School District (RSD). If the district fails to comply with the terms of the MOU or fails to make progress toward the implementation of the school recovery plan during the first year of the agreement, the Department may exercise the option of placing the school in the RSD. The degree of oversight involved in each school’s MOU will vary and will be based on the level of intervention Department officials deem necessary for the school to succeed.

The 2009 School Performance Scores (SPS) report released October 13, 2009 by the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE shows the Recovery School District is improving school performance in New Orleans schools.

Prior to being transferred to the RSD, most schools were labeled Academically Unacceptable for at least four consecutive years, meaning they failed to meet the minimum score of a 60 SPS. Of the 60 RSD schools that received scores in the LDOE report, 26 have raised their scores to a 60 or higher. Additionally, the District Performance Score (DPS) improved from 51.4 to 54.0 from 2008 to 2009.

The strong performance of RSD charter schools is particularly noteworthy. Three-quarters of the District’s charter schools received scores above 60, giving them a rating of one-star or above.  Cick here for Accountability information.

Sounds a lot like Race to the Top???  Maybe that's why I keep seeing the RSD referenced in my RTTT Research.  Yet, RSD is not Immune to the challenges facing education today.  Check out the flip side:

• The Recovery School District responds to allegations made by the  Times-Picayune about their Alternative Programs at Schwarz Academy  http://www.rsdla.net/media/NoticesAll/NoticeSingle/09-06-28/RSD_responds_to_Schwarz_Academy_allegations.aspx
• The Recovery School District looks to make charters pay rent.  The Recovery School District and the Orleans Parish School Board, the two major overseers of charters in New Orleans, have historically provided their charters rent-free building space.  But, in certain cases, it's been unclear whether the district or the charter school bears responsibility for maintenance or repairs on the buildings. Such issues have typically been resolved on a case-by-case basis.  "What we are doing now is not sustainable," said Ramsey Green, the district's director of operations, who said nearly half of his staff's time goes to handling the charter requests...  More Here:   http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2009/12/recovery_school_district_looks.html
• Recovery School District lays off dozens of teachers (August) -- Many replaced by Teach for America.  http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/recovery_school_district_to_la.html
• Recovery School District to close four schools.  "The changes reflect a mix of broad goals. The cash-strapped district, which has spent heavily under Superintendent Paul Vallas, is struggling to balance its 2009-10 budget as it braces for the loss of millions in one-time federal dollars next school year. At the same time, the state-run system is moving forward with plans to convert most of its schools to charters, representing one of the nation's largest public school privatization efforts. http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/recovery_school_district_to_cl.html

(C&E 1st actually started this post before the Christmas Holiday)

And the winner is ... American Institutes for Research!

According to today's News Journal AIR will provide the replacement assessment for the DSTP.  We, at C&E 1st, are doing bit of celebrating!  It has long been speculated that the DCAS would come from Northwest Education Association, since DOE had to re-bid the assessment following lawsuits filed over the summer by both AIR and NWEA.  NWEA already had a substantial footprint in Delaware as the provider of the Measures of Academic Performance Assessment, utilized here in Christina, and in other districts throughout the state.

As far as C&;E 1st is concerned, NWEA has always warranted a bit of extra scrutiny due it's relationship with former Christina Superintendent Joe Wise, a NWEA board member.  We've made it clear from Day 1, that it is our opinion that both Christina and Delaware need to move boldly in a new direction. Perhaps, DOE is laying the groundwork. 

We can always be hopeful. 

And when praise is due, we offer it:  DOE, nice job.  AIR appears to be a solid company with many proven successes, run by a board of post-secondary education visionaries from leading Universities across the nation.

Federal Money Will Help Nevada District Build Academy for Highly Gifted Students

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/2009/12/federal_money_will_help_nevada.html

Wednesday, January 6 ~ 6:30 p.m.


Special Board Workshop
Eden Support Services Center
Sec. of Education, Lillian Lowery, is scheduled to participate.

Where's Eden?
http://www.christina.k12.de.us/Maps/Eden.htm



Christina Dates to Remember:
Monday, January 4
SCHOOLS REOPEN

Tuesday, January 5 ~ 7:00 pm
Strategic Planning Process
Community Meeting
Topic - Learning Environment: Creating Positive School Environments
Brader Elementary School

Wednesday, January 6 ~ 6:30 p.m.
Special Board Workshop
Eden Support Services Center

Thursday, January 7 ~ 7:00 pm
Student Code of Conduct
Review Committee Meeting
Keene Elementary School
Click here for more info

Tuesday, January 12 ~ 7:30 p.m.
Board of Education Meeting
Gallaher Elementary School

Notice for Wednesday, December 23:


Schools & Offices Open

All schools and offices in the Christina School District will be open on Wednesday, December 23.

Students Report!

Last week I posted the following information:

The Christina BOE will be asked to vote on the Memoranda between the State of Delaware and the district. Perhaps you've come to conclusion that I've already decided my vote. I have not. But, I am seeking fair and balanced information and making an effort to share it with you.


The CSD has tentatively scheduled a meeting regarding the Race to the Top for Jan. 6th. More details and confirmation to come so stay tuned.

On Friday I learned that this meeting is very much up in the air.  As of now, it appears that the Board will not convene regarding Race to the Top prior to its regularly scheduled Jan. 12th meetings.

 I have vocalized to my fellow board members my support for some type of public forum to engage all interested constituents regarding this weighty decision and will continue to advocate on behalf of all for a thoughtful and meaningful discussion to occur in advance of the state-mandated Race to the Top deadlines.

Perhaps, I am naive.  But, I believe we must forge ahead together if we are to be able to create and sustain the improvements that our schools need.

http://www.t-g.com/story/1596182.html

"Race to the Top" school guidelines approved

Friday, December 18, 2009
By JOHN I. CARNEY ~ jcarney@t-g.com

Bedford County Board of Education, meeting Thursday night, approved a memorandum of understanding with the state to comply with the guidelines of President Obama's "Race To The Top" grant program.


The program will evaluate teachers and principals based on criteria such as student test scores, and make tenure more dependent on the results. "This was somewhat controversial a month ago," said School Superintendent Ed Gray.


Now, however, Gray said it's likely that conditions similar to those in the memorandum will be enacted into state law during a special legislative session which Gov. Phil Bredesen and Lieutenant Gov. Ron Ramsey have called for next month; board members said it was better to approve the memorandum now and have a chance at Race To The Top grants, since the school system will likely end up having to adopt those rules anyway...

More Here

http://www.redclaynow.com/

Have you participated in my totally unscientific Race to the Top poll? It's in the bar to the right.

Should Christina participate? Have your say and while your at it, drop me a comment by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post. (It's the envelope icon.)

So, Why the Race Watch?   The official media spin from our federal government is that Race to the Top is "the way" to go.  We know that Delaware has been repeatedly characterized as being "well-positioned" to win some of those dollars.

But, it would be foolish to come to conclusions about this money with its many strings attached within the single scope of the "Delaware bubble."  We can and should seek guidance from other districts and states, and search out valid opinions and relevent questions.  We are the greatest threat to our own success when "We don't know what we don't know."

The Christina BOE will be asked to vote on the Memoranda between the State of Delaware and the district.  Perhaps you've come to conclusion that I've already decided my vote.  I have not.  But, I am seeking fair and balanced information and making an effort to share it with you.

The CSD has tentatively scheduled a meeting regarding the Race to the Top for Jan. 6th.  More details and confirmation to come so stay tuned.

Bossier School District opts out of Race to the Top


By Nicole Blake • nblake@gannett.com • December 18, 2009

To the applause of people at the Bossier School Board meeting Thursday, the panel unanimously rejected further involvement in a federal rewards program designed to address education reform.

After considering suggestions from schools Superintendent D.C. Machen and board member Eddy Ray Presley, the School Board agreed not to send a letter of intent to the state signaling the district's interest in Race to the Top.  More HERE!

Nevada Governor's office holds off on Race to the Top grant

Nevada Appeal Capitol Bureau http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20091218/NEWS/912179961/1070&ParentProfile=1058

Stacy Woodbury, deputy chief of staff to Gov. Jim Gibbons, told lawmakers Thursday the governor will wait until the second round before applying for a grant under the federal “Race to the Top” education program.

Members of the legislative education study committee had urged the governor to apply immediately for the grant money. For the first round, that would require a grant application by January. Grant applications for the second round of awards, Woodbury said, aren't due until June.

Race to the Top is a challenge grant program for K-12 programs created as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Woodbury said the governor “respectfully disagrees” with those lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, who charged that failure to apply by Jan. 19 would be a lost opportunity.

Woodbury said waiting could greatly increase Nevada's chances of receiving a substantial grant. She said by waiting, Nevada will get the chance to see all the grant applications from the 34 other states that are applying in round one.

“We'll get a look at everybody's best practices and all the feds' comments on them and be able to tailor our application to them,” she said.

She said if Nevada rushes to put together an application by Jan. 19, it might get a grant.

“What if we apply but only get a very small grant?” she asked.

She said the state should use what everybody else learns from round one to put in the best possible application and, hopefully, get a much larger grant for a well developed program.

Woodbury said, however, the governor agrees with Horsford's proposal to create a Race to the Top stakeholders group to help develop that application.

She also informed the committee Thursday that Nevada has already missed the Dec. 10 deadline for filing a letter of intent to seek grant money in the first round.

By Kym Reinstadler
The Grand Rapids Press
December 18, 2009, 8:27AM

E-mail Kym Reinstadler: kreinstadler@grpress.com

GRAND RAPIDS -- As the state Legislature worked Thursday considering education reforms to make the state's request for a slice of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top pie more savory, some school officials wonder whether competing for the federal funds is worth the effort.

"In tough economic times, you don't want to leave money on the table that could help students," said Ryan Kelley, Rockford's assistant superintendent for instruction. "But there are still so many details that Lansing hasn't filled in that we can't know yet what we're being asked to support."

He was among about 160 school administrators and board members and teachers' union representatives taking part in a discussion on Race to the Top funding at the Kent Intermediate School District.

While reforms that Lansing the is mulling look good, Godfrey Lee Superintendent Dave Britten believes few school officials will support them until important criteria are defined.

Michigan's Race to the Top application is coming down to the wire. That is primarily because the federal government did not finalize requirements for the program until Nov. 18.

The looming deadlines are:

• Jan. 7, when districts requesting funds must file framework agreements signed by their superintendent, school board president and teachers' union president

• Jan. 11, when applications are due to the Michigan Department of Education.

• Jan. 19, when Michigan's application is due with the U.S. Department of Education.

In April, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will select 10 states with keen reform plans to split the funding.
Michigan's share is expected to be about $400 million, with half to be divided among districts that endorsed the reforms and get Title One funding, supplemental payments to schools where at least 40 percent of students' families are at or below federal poverty guidelines.

The other half -- minus the Michigan Department of Education's administrative fee -- would be divided among 14 demonstration districts, including Grand Rapids Public Schools.

The Wyoming school board Monday decided to support applying for the money, said Tom Reeder, the district's assistant superintendent for instruction.

"But we wish we were at the point we were at back in August," he said. "It's a touchy situation asking people to sign things before anybody has the nitty, gritty details."

He figures Wyoming could possibly land $500,000 through the initiative. By comparison, Grand Rapids figures it could possibly get $25 million to $30 million.

The $4.35 billion in available funding would be tied to implementing reforms in key areas and could not be spent to plug other budget holes.

Hot buttons in the state's reform package, local educators said, include defining student growth, which is to be a measure of teacher and principal evaluations; and defining a struggling school, a designation which would trigger interventions and staff changes and interventions.

The proposed reforms currently include differentiated compensation or merit pay; opportunities for successful charter schools to expand; and alternate routes to teacher certification for science and technology instructors.
All those are typically opposed by teachers' unions.

Many are miffed accepting Race to the Top funds would require Michigan to adopt a national curriculum. The state aligned public schools' curricula to be consistent over the past decade.

Have you participated in my totally unscientific Race to the Top poll?  It's in the bar to the right.

Should Christina participate?  Have your say and while your at it, drop me a comment by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post.  (It's the envelope icon.)

Thanks!

Vermont Commons, Number 31, Fall, 2009
from  http://www.pathsoflearning.net/articles_Race_to_the_Top.pdf
by Dr. Ron Miller (see links below for more information on Miller's alternative approach to education.)

I was inspired by Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency. When I read The Audacity of Hope, I was convinced that he was a genuine visionary, one who might lead us beyond the stale ideologies of our time. I thought my colleagues in the Vermont independence movement were a little too cynical to dismiss him as yet another, more slickly packaged, builder of empire. Sadly, except for a few history-jarring moments, such as his speech in Cairo, I’m coming to believe that their cynicism is justified. Nothing has driven this home to me more than the imperial educational policy that he and his technocrat Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, have unleashed on American youth. They call it “Race to the Top.”

The damage this approach will do to genuine learning and children’s lives is contained in its very name. To conceive education as a “race”—a competition forcing schools, teachers, and students to contend for some sort of victory—is to poison the inherent human striving for understanding and meaning. 

Keep Reading Here:  http://www.pathsoflearning.net/articles_Race_to_the_Top.pdf

Paths of Learning by Dr. Ron Miller offers a holistic approach to education.  The following is from his website, http://www.pathsoflearning.net/.  Learn about Dr. Miller HERE.

Holistic Education: a response to the crisis of our time This website features the work of Dr. Ron Miller, one of the leading pioneers in the field of holistic education, and provides connections to other resources that are available to parents, educators, researchers and policymakers.

Holistic education began to emerge as a coherent philosophy in the mid-1980s and is today becoming recognized in many parts of the world as an inspiring response to the serious challenges of this age of globalization, such as violence, cultural disintegration, and ecological decline.

Bringing together the best theory and practices from diverse educational alternatives, a holistic perspective asserts that education must start by nourishing the unique potentials of every child, within overlapping contexts of family, community, society, humanity, and the natural world. Holistic education is not a fixed ideology but an open-ended attempt to embrace the complexity and wholeness of human life.

Holistic educators reject the current obsession with educational uniformity: rigid standards, relentless testing, and authoritarian control of the learning process. Holistic education is essentially a democratic education, concerned with both individual freedom and social responsibility. It is education for a culture of peace, for sustainability and ecological literacy, and for the development of humanity's inherent morality and spirituality.

States who have submitted letters of intent to apply for Phase 1


The list below reflects the names of States who have submitted letters of intent to apply for Phase 1 of the Race to the Top. States are encouraged by the Department to submit letters of intent so the Department can plan for the Phase 1 peer review process. Letters of intent are not required for a State to submit an application in Phase 1. Likewise, States that submit letters of intent are not required to submit an application in Phase 1.

Yellow Highlights = our region
Noticeably absent is the state of Maryland.
To learn more go here:  http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/intent-to-apply.html

Head Here for updated commentary from Edweek: 
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2009/12/list_of_race_to_the_top_conten.html

Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Virginia
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

The Louisiana School Boards Association voted to oppose state participation in a bid for up to $300 million in federal dollars.

LSBA said that it is concerned local school districts would have problems financing improvements when federal dollars run out in four years.

Information from: The Advocate, http://www.2theadvocate.com

The author doesn't think so ... and he has a pretty compelling argument.

Is Merit Pay the Answer?
By Kim Marshall

To most people, it seems obvious that teachers should earn more when their students do well. If salespeople get extra pay when they sell more products, why shouldn’t teachers be rewarded for higher test scores? U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, among others, has been talking up this idea.


But it turns out that merit pay is an ineffective strategy for improving teaching and learning. Here’s why.

Thursday, December 10

• Porter Road Elementary School Winter Concert, 7:00 p.m. (Location Kirk Middle School Auditorium)

Saturday, December 12

• Delaware School for the Deaf Winter Bazaar Fundraiser, 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
• Glasgow High School Annual Craft Fair,  9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Tuesday, December 15

• Pulaski Elementary School Winter Holiday Cultural Arts Night, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
• Shue-Medilil Middle School Winter Concert, 7:00 p.m.
• Strategic Planning Process Community Meeting, Bayard Middle School, 7:00 p.m. Topic - Excellence and Equity: Accelerating Student Achievement

Wednesday, December 16

• Financial Review Committee Meeting, Gauger-Cobbs Middle School, 6:30 p.m.
• Bayard Middle School Winter Wonderland, 7:00 p.m.
• Brader Elementary School Chorus Concert, 7:00 p.m. Brookside Elementary School Winter Concert, 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, December 17

• High School Night at Bayard Middle School, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
• Bayard Middle School Winter Arts Festival, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
• Gallaher Elementary School Winter Concert, 6:30 p.m.
• Christiana High School Winter Concert, 7:00 p.m.
• Keene Elementary School Winter Concert, 7:00 p.m.
• Leasure Elementary School Winter Concert, 7:00 p.m. (Location: Kirk Middle School Auditorium)
• Newark High School Winter Choir Concert, 7:00 p.m.
  

Monday, December 21

• Maclary Elementary School Holiday Concerts -- 6:30 p.m. PK, K, 1st & 2nd Grades; 7:30 p.m. 3rd, 4th & 5th Grades

Tuesday, December 22

• McVey Elementary School Holiday/Winter Concert, 6:30 p.m.
• Newark High School Winter Band Concert, 7:00 p.m.

December 24 - January 1  SCHOOLS CLOSED - Winter Holiday

December 24, 25, 28, 31 & January 1  OFFICES CLOSED

January 4  SCHOOLS REOPEN

The following text is an excerpt from:
Educating One and All: Students with Disabilities and Standards-Based Reform (1997) 
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (CBASSE)

Though the book was published in 1997, many of the concerns raised by CBASSE continue to hold true today. - Elizabeth

BOX 4-1 Credentialing, the High School Diploma, and Students with Disabilities

The credentialing issue is critical in standards-based reform because credentials are the means for communicating students' high school performance to the public. Since a high school diploma is the minimum requirement for a variety of employment opportunities, some educators are concerned about the impact standards-based reform could have on the high school credentialing process for a number of students, including some with disabilities.

Over the last several decades, as the proportion of high school students receiving a high school diploma has increased, not having a diploma is regarded as damning to one's job prospects. At the same time, having a diploma has seemed, for some time now, to be only minimally impressive to employers (Bishop, 1996; Hawkins, 1978; Pedulla and Reidy, 1979). Some argue that there is no substantive relationship between academic content and the awarding of a high school diploma (Bishop, 1989, 1994; Sedlak et al., 1986). They see the move to ratchet up standards required for a diploma as an attempt "to hold schools to standards that the lay public could easily measure and understand" (Sedlak et al., 1986:28). Raising standards in a credible way is thus a response to employer concerns about the devaluing of a diploma, as well as to more general concerns about U.S. international competitiveness.

Some students with disabilities in certain states receive differentiated diplomas, which distinguish students following a rigorous academic track from those following a minimally academic or vocational track. The latter group receives certificates of attendance or other nonacademic diplomas (see Chapter 3). Thus, students with disabilities operate in a credentialing universe much more complex than their general education counterparts. Potential employers may face difficulty in putting an applicant's credential in the appropriate context, given the diversity in the credentialing of students with disabilities. This diversity makes it that much harder for students with disabilities to showcase their achievements and abilities.

A number of issues about credentialing for students with disabilities warrant attention. First, if standards for a high school diploma are increased, more students—including those with disabilities—may not receive diplomas and, more to the point, they will not easily be able to convey to potential employers what they have achieved in high school. Some students, including some with disabilities, who currently receive certificates of attendance face this problem. All students—whether they currently would receive a diploma, certificate of attendance, or no certification whatsoever—deserve to leave high school able to signal credibly to potential employers what they have achieved.* The students who do not attain a diploma may experience hardship, particularly in the short run. In the medium to long run, job requirements will presumably adjust to the new standards, although what form of readily ascertainable certification will replace the high school diploma is unclear.

Second, as one changes the nature of the credentialing process, whether by increasing standards or by requiring minimum competency tests, students must first be adequately prepared to meet the challenges posed by the new credentialing process. In other words, the K-12 curriculum ought to provide students with opportunities to learn the material required for the credential. This concept has proved controversial and subject to litigation (Debra P. v. Turlington 644 F. 2d 397, 1981), both for students with disabilities and for other disadvantaged groups (see Chapter 5 for further discussion). The issue is further complicated by the laws requiring accommodations for students with disabilities. Phillips (1993) and Vitello (1988) discuss issues relevant to this debate in more detail.

Third, it is important to recognize that employers are constantly looking for ways to lower costs. To the extent that the credentialing system makes it more, rather than less, costly for business to evaluate the capabilities of students with disabilities, the system makes the transition to employment harder. The importance of providing clear and credible evidence of what students have achieved and are capable of should not be underestimated.

*Such certification should be flexible enough to signify differential achievement to allow potential employers to distinguish among them. Bishop sees students having the opportunity to signal higher achievement to potential employers as providing an important incentive. Michigan, New York, and Tennessee have honors diplomas to acknowledge those whose achievements sufficiently surpass the basic requirements (Bond et al., 1996).

It's a good time to be a part of Christina.  That much was evident last night, as our community convened for the first of many strategic planning sessions.  We are a district poised for growth and change, led by a new superintendent, and guided by a board newly infused with fresh ideas, creativity, and energy. 

As the end of one decade bears down on us, it's clear that there is much work to be done.  But, we move forward with a stronger foundation.  The last three years have seen much change as we adopted Neighborhood Schools, implemented some full-day kindergarten classes, completed a new elementary school and have now begun construction on new facilities for Sterck.

I am bouyed by the collaboration of our first community meeting surrounding our strategic plan.  Deep in the heart of Newark High School, educators, parents, and community leaders came together to create the first vestiges of a wish list for our future.  Early education and secondary improvements were high on the agenda for many.  However, it was the group of four or five students who participated of their own free will that really stole the show.  Nothing can come close to the first hand experiences of our students and their stories.  They asked for smaller class sizes, more variety in extra-curricular programming, and stressed a need for all high schools to offer the same programs, such the Cambridge college prep program.  Though these are not new ideas, what was novel is that they were voiced by our children and heard by so many adults.

I'm not naive, there is so much work to be done and none of it easy.   And as much as we want every wish list item to become reality, the reality is that there are limits to what we can accomplish.  Change doesn't happen overnight.  It must be systematic and policy-driven -- which is why the Strategic Planning process is so vital to our future.

Yes, we are poised for great things.  Let's chart the course for success through community collaboration.  If you haven't been there yet, check out the district website for important meeting dates and other opportunities to particpate:  http://www.christina.k12.de.us/

http://governor.delaware.gov/news/2009/12december/20091201-schools.shtml

Community Meeting
Tuesday, December 1 ~ 7:00 p.m.
Newark High School

Strategic Planning Process
Topic - Excellence and Equity: Accelerating Student Achievement
http://www.christina.k12.de.us/StrategicPlan/index.htm

The first meeting, on the topic of Excellence and Equity: Accelerating Student Achievement, will focus on student achievement and ways the District can strengthen opportunities for all students to achieve their full potential. Participants will be asked, "What do you want to improve?" and "What are the problems we want to solve?" and will work as a group to begin the process of developing action steps to address these questions. In addition to volunteer community members, the group meeting on this topic will include teachers, school principals, administrators, and board members. The two community meetings scheduled on this topic will be held on the following dates:


• Tuesday, December 1 at 7:00 p.m.,
  Newark High School
• Tuesday, December 15 at 7:00 p.m.,
   Bayard Middle School

Shane's Story:

I first met Shane about two year ago, he was a UD student also employed by the University. By virtue of being a UD student, you know that Shane earned a high school diploma and he is, proudly a graduate of one of Delaware's Vo-Tech High Schools.

But, Shane was not always destined for post-secondary greatness, or post-secondary anything. In fact, it was through a moment of despair that Shane found the strength to achieve. It began with a principal who thought so little of Shane that he flat out told him, "You will never get a diploma from my school." Perhaps such an edict was issued to inspire the student? Shane assures me that this was not the case. The words stung and left Shane feeling helpless and demotivated, as intended. But, that statement also sparked a fire and ultimately it drove Shane to apply himself, to overcome lifelong challenges, and to define his own destination.
Had Shane's principal never issued such a demeaning challenge, this young man would have drifted through high school, his formal education culminating with a Certificate of Performance. Most principals would consider Shane's success a feather in their cap. If only, this administrator had had such noble intentions.

High School Diplomas are revered as interest property. Those who argue for performance certificates assert that it is the integrity of the diploma itself that they are trying to protect. I disagree, let the post-secondary educators sort that out. Young adults are admitted to college based upon more than the ownership of one document; they are judged on their applications, essays, records, and assessments. The possession of a diploma is a formality for students who have truly earned acceptance to college (and I am not by any means devaluing the supreme accomplishment of these students.

In fact, in the 1982 case of Brookhart v. Illinois School Board of Education, the court ruled that " In deciding whether a high-school diploma was a "protective liberty or property interest," the denial of a diploma clearly affects a student's reputation and attaches a stigma that "will have potentially disasterous effects for future employment or educational opportunities." (Don Severner; Edweek.org; January 19, 1983, Special Ed Decision Reversed.)

To that end, a brief query of the Career Builder website found 171 jobs in the Wilmington Region requiring either a High School Diploma or GED, such as jobs working in healthcare facilities doing laundry or serving meals to residents. And herein lies one of the biggest problems for adults with Certificates of Performance: When a potential employee fills out the online job application, the employer's filter to is going to flag it for deletion because that application does not reflect that applicant holds a Diploma/GED. And they don't. However, the last time I checked, it was well within the scope of our many of special education vocational track students to be able to perform either task by age 21.

Let's be clear: No self-respecting adult would give a typical high school student of document entitled Diploma of Attendance, Performance, or Completion. Yet, we are comfortable giving out certificates of such names to student who frequently work harder and longer to learn practical skills than their typical peers work to earn academic credits.

Why?

Why, indeed?

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20091128/NEWS03/911280346

A CLOSER LOOK AT PREKINDERGARTEN PROGRAMS IN THE U.S. AND LOCALLY

• Delaware Early Childhood Assistance Program (ECAP)
• Total state pre-kindergarten spending: $5.73 million
• State spending per child enrolled: $6,795
• Total state program enrollment: 843
• Income requirement: 90 percent of children must be at or below the federal poverty level ($22,050 for a family of four)
• Special-education enrollment: 1,336
• Federally funded Head Start enrollment: 1,639
• State-funded Head Start enrollment: 843 (represents ECAP enrollment; all state-funded Head Start is through ECAP.)

The following article caught my attention this morning for more than one reason.  Yes, it's uplifting.  Yes, it's about special education students.  Yes, it reveals the ingenuity of the human mind when creativity is allowed to flow forth in education, in physical education. 

But, it also spoke to concerns that I heard voiced by Christina's own REACH parents at a recent meeting.  I have submitted the questions about Adapted Physical Education raised by those in attendance and awaiting a response from our own CSD administration.

In the interim, I'd like to share excerpts from today's Edweek.org article, GAO Probes Access of Students With Disabilities to Sports by Lisa Fine.  Click the headline for the whole article.  It's definitely worth reading!

"Last year, Maryland passed a landmark law, the Fitness and Athletics Equity for Students with Disabilities Act, that requires district boards of education to develop policies to include students with disabilities in their physical education classes and athletic activities. The law requires that students be provided reasonable accommodations to participate, have the chance to try out for school teams, and have access to alternative opportunities such as Special Olympics-type teams or events that include students with and without disabilities. It is the only state law of its kind in the nation..."

"The high-profile case of a high school track-and-field athlete who uses a wheelchair and sued in 2006 for the right to race on the same track as her teammates helped inspire the law, proponents say.



Tatyana McFadden, who is a Paralympics medalist and world-record holder, won a lawsuit against the Howard County, Md., district to be able to compete on the same track, at the same time, as her teammates. She had been required to race alone on a separate track, she says, out of concern that her wheelchair would pose safety concerns.

“They would have everyone else run, and then they would stop the meet and have me run by myself, a person in a wheelchair going around alone,” says Ms. McFadden, now a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who is majoring in dietetics and takes part in the university’s adapted-sports program. “Having it like that hurt a little bit. People feel sorry for you when they see you like that. People didn’t see how athletic I was.”


U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., says Ms. McFadden’s case made him aware of the need for schools to have guidance on how to offer students with disabilities access to sports..."

"School staff members often lack training and experience in how to adapt physical education classes for students with disabilities—and the quality of services is reduced as a result, says Timothy Davis, an assistant professor of physical education at the State University of New York at Cortland and the chairman of the Adapted Physical Education National Standards, a project established by a professional group to create standards and a certification program for the profession.


Only 13 states suggest additional training for physical educators to teach adapted physical education, according to Mr. Davis. Most states do not require any additional certification.


Teachers in an undergraduate program for physical education are often required to take one three-credit course in adapted physical education in the last year of the program, he notes. “By the time they get interested in adapted physical education, they are done and they are out student-teaching,” Mr. Davis says. “Then because they have had the one course, they get a job in a district teaching adapted physical education..."


"Because of a lack of training, physical education teachers often feel uncomfortable attending individualized-education-program, or IEP, meetings for students with disabilities—and the absence of those educators troubles him.




“Even if we are not invited to the meeting, we have to knock on the door. It’s your student, in your class,” Mr. Davis says. “If the physical education teacher is not at the meeting, somebody else makes the idea for placement. Somebody else is writing the goals and objectives for physical education. We need to be there; we need the representation.”


Sometimes an attitude shift can make a big difference, he says, in how to teach sports to students with disabilities"


“You focus on ability and not disability,” Mr. Davis says. “Focus on what a kid can do, and you can make it work. If you say, ‘He can’t run, he can’t throw,’ I cringe. Tell me what he can do, and now we can start teaching.”


For students with disabilities, too often being in physical education class or sports has meant being left on the sidelines. Such a student might serve as a “coach” or “scorekeeper,” or receive physical therapy instead of physical education, says David Martinez, who was named the 2009 National Adapted Physical Education Teacher of the Year by the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation.




Mr. Martinez, an adapted physical education specialist in Cherokee County, Ga., says adapted physical educators must think constantly of how to make an activity work for a child, or come up with a piece of equipment or technology that could assist the student.


He researched and built a Frisbee-throwing machine, for instance, that is switch-operated for some of his students. It lets them throw a disc 30 to 40 feet with accuracy.


Talking with students about what they think would be ways to make a sport work for them also can be helpful, Mr. Martinez says...


Noting the reluctance of many students with disabilities to join in sports, he suggests what he says are creative ways to include those students in the athletic culture of high school. The Cherokee County district, for example, created a varsity-letter program for students in Special Olympics. If students complete two seasons of a Special Olympic sport, they can wear a varsity letter in that sport for the school.


“It lets them enjoy a part of high school culture,” Mr. Martinez says. “It lets parents celebrate along with their children. It lets nondisabled peers say, ‘Wow, that’s neat, what did you letter in? What position do you play?’ It creates a true appreciation for individual differences.”

Okay, I happen to feel that NCLB was another calamatous failure of the Bush Administration.  But, hey, I can give credit where due.  The latest observations released show that Math scores improved under NCLB for fourth and eighth graders.  That's fantastic, if American students never have a need to figure out word problems.  Did I mention that the same study failed to find that NCLB improved reading scores?

Yes, I know that I sound a bit cynical here.  And there are some that would argue I shouldn't.  But, NCLB has created such frustration for so many.  Talk about unfunded mandates.  The credit is not due to NCLB but to every state, school district, and teacher that found a way to incorporate the requirements of the act without the appropriate funding to do so. 

Go HERE for an evaluation of the study by Edweek.org

Here's the abstract with link to source:
Thomas Dee, Brian Jacob
NBER Working Paper No. 15531
Issued in November 2009
NBER Program(s): CH ED LS PE

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act compelled states to design school-accountability systems based on annual student assessments. The effect of this Federal legislation on the distribution of student achievement is a highly controversial but centrally important question. This study presents evidence on whether NCLB has influenced student achievement based on an analysis of state-level panel data on student test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The impact of NCLB is identified using a comparative interrupted time series analysis that relies on comparisons of the test-score changes across states that already had school-accountability policies in place prior to NCLB and those that did not. Our results indicate that NCLB generated statistically significant increases in the average math performance of 4th graders (effect size = 0.22 by 2007) as well as improvements at the lower and top percentiles. There is also evidence of improvements in 8th grade math achievement, particularly among traditionally low-achieving groups and at the lower percentiles. However, we find no evidence that NCLB increased reading achievement in either 4th or 8th grade.
You may purchase this paper on-line in .pdf format from SSRN.com ($5) for electronic delivery.

3.0 Graduation Requirements Beginning with the Class of 2011 http://www.doe.k12.de.us/infosuites/ddoe/gradreqs/update.shtml


3.1 Beginning with the graduating class of 2011, a public school student shall be granted a State of Delaware Diploma when such student has successfully completed a minimum of twenty two (22) credits in order to graduate including: four (4) credits in English Language Arts, four (4) credits in Mathematics; three (3) credits in Science, three (3) credits in Social Studies, one (1) credit in physical education, one half (1/2) credit in health education, three (3) credits in a Career Pathway, and three and one half (3 ½) credits in elective courses.
3.1.1 Students shall complete mathematics course work that includes no less than the equivalent of the traditional requirements of Geometry, Algebra I and Algebra II courses.
3.1.2 Scientific investigations related to the State Science Standards shall be included in all three science course requirements.
3.1.3 During the senior year students shall maintain a credit load each semester that earns them at least a majority of credits that could be taken that semester including one (1) of the four credits required in Mathematics.
3.1.3.1 Senior year credits shall include regular high school course offerings, the options available in 8.0 or a combination of both.
3.1.3.1.1 Options for the senior year in 3.1.3.1 that the districts and charter schools provide shall be submitted to the Department with a copy to the office of the State Board of Education for review.


Christina School District's High School Graduation Requirements:
http://www.christina.k12.de.us/Students/GraduationRequirements.htm

English ............................................................... 4 credits
Mathematics ...................................................... 4 credits
Science .............................................................. 3 credits
Social Studies ..................................................... 3 credits
Additional Science or Social Studies (choice) .......1 credit
Physical Education .............................................. 1 credit
Health ...............................................................  .50 credit
Computer Literacy .............................................  1 credit*
World Language ................................................. 1 credit
Career Pathway .................................................  3 credits
Electives .............................................................. 4.5 credits*
Senior Project ..................................................... 0 credit
Total Credits Required ....................................... 26 credits
Plus 60 Hours of Community Service

* Students who started with the Class of 2011 or beyond will not require a credit in computer literacy. Instead, those students must complete one additional elective credit for a total of 5.5 elective credits.

NCLB is overdue for re-authorization and will eventually make its way through Congress at the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). 

From Edweek.org
Education Department to Demand School Pay Data


Goal Is to Find Out How Spending Between Title I and Other Schools Differs

By Stephen Sawchuk

U.S. Department of Education officials plan to require districts receiving economic-stimulus aid to report school-level salaries—a sign, observers say, that the Obama administration might seek key changes to district accounting procedures for federal Title I funds.
The reporting—the first collection of its type undertaken by the federal government—could give a clearer picture about the extent to which district spending on salaries differs between schools that receive Title I dollars for disadvantaged students and those that do not.  Go HERE for the rest of the story...

My Turn:

Each month, I try to recap the CSD BOE's Public Board Meeting.  As always, this posting is my interpretation of the events of the evening, and does not reflect in any way the views of the Christina School District nor speak for the board itself. These are NOT official minutes.  I do welcome any and all feedback.


The meeting proceeded to the Honor Roll when we awarded certificates to all Students Achieving All 5's on the the DAPA Assessment Test.  The DAPA Assessment is an alternate assessment tool to the DSTP given to some children in special education.  The Board also commended Fostina Dixon-Kilgoe with the Outstanding Art Educator Award.  Students, Holly Firlein, Jessica Palmer, and Anna Dmytrenko, all of Newark High School, were honored for their achievements with the National Merit Scholarship.

Public Comment (As always, I apologize for any names that may be misspelled.)

Harrie Ellen Minnehan spoke regarding the use of ARRA funds to contract a vendor headquartered overseas to perform a district review and encouraged the district to look inward at it's own resources of Problem Solvers and Innovative Thinkers to perform any review internally.

M.J. Pulaski spoke regarding the CLEAR Review and use of ARRA funds and the perceived lack of community involvement in the decision.  She iterated the that better communication and imput from the community was needed and reminded the district that the measures of testing currently performed take teachers away from their jobs of teaching.

Mac Hatcher spoke on behalf of AFSCME.  He discussed the efforts of the district transportation employees to run a clean campaign for unionization.  He felt that the employees had a positive meeting with Dr. Lyles in which the union agreed it would not "trash" the district if the district remained neutral during the efforts. He expressed that AFSCME has an effective legislative lobby that could be helpful to the district, but was upset with the district for releasing "a union busting memo" after the board pledged , at a previous meeting, its adherence to the laws governing unionization.  He exceeded the time allotted for public comment and drew the ire of some board members who attempted to enforce the rules governing public comment.

Eric Carlin, a transportation employee, spoke on behalf of the employees seeking to unionize, reminding the district they live and work within the district and send their children to district schools.  He state that he "felt intimidated that the administration is against the campaign."

Maria Anderson yielded her time to Rosetta Hamilton who read the district-issued memo regarding unionization into the record.

Richmond Jones, another transportation employee addressed the board and asked "how much is it costing for a union busting lawyer?" and informed the district that a Freedom of Information Act request has been filed for those documents.

Claudia Bock, president of the Christina Education Association, spoke regarding the use of ARRA funding and the CLEAR Review.  She lamented past collaboration with previous superintendents and expressed that the the CEA feels it has been shut-out of decision-making processes in recent months.  She praised the district for participating in the Eastside Community Schools project in the city schools.  She read a letter on behalf of Rep. John Kowalko urging the district to withhold voting on the Cambridge Education Contract and Clear Review until after community sentiment, including that of legislators, could be culled.

One Board Member addressed Ms. Bock at this time and informed her that Cambridge was incorporated in Delaware and is an established entity.  Words were exchanged and Ms. Bock and her supporters left the meeting early.

John Robinson, a parent at Kirk Middle, spoke in support of a state-sponsored voucher program.  He stated that he has received a School Improvement Letter for the second year and urged the district that  the need for action is both "critical and imperative. "

Mindy Cox, a CSD parent spoke regarding the CLEAR Review, stating that the district is "neck-deep in data." and asking why stakeholders were not engaged in discussions of the study.  She asked the Board for a policy regarding community input and cited problems encountered by our schools such as classes that are too big, a need for more staff, and technology deficits.

Superintendent Lyles addressed the public to explain that the CLEAR Review is not a study, but a method for developing a consistent standard to measure our schools.

Public Comment Ended.

Following the board's vote to accept the FRC report, Dr. Lyles presented the Superintendent's Report, a review of her first 100 days in Christina, followed by the kickoff of Christina's Strategic Planning process.

Action Items:
A. The Board voted to accept the Administrative Personnel Recommendations
B. The Board voted 6-1 to accept the class size waivers recommendation.  I initiated conversation regarding the waivers, asking the administration to explain the need for waivers vs making smaller classrooms, which ultimately comes back to funding.  The district utilizes teaching units generated by student census on Sept. 30th.  Funding from those units is shared by the state and local funding.  If the district wants more teaching units, the cost of those units, including benefits, must come solely from local funds.  If we utilize ARRA funding for teaching units, we will be unable to sustain those units (pay those teachers) once the funding runs out in the next 1-2 years.
C. The Consent Agenda presented much conversation.  One board member asked for information regarding the web based Educational Resource System, used by our Douglass Distance Education program, Sarah Pyle Academy, and the three district high schools.  This year the district will also subscribe to a K-8 Prescription package.

I pulled C.7.t. , CLEAR Review for a separate vote.  There was much conversation around the CLEAR Review, it's purpose and the funding source.  The CLEAR Review is intended to evaluate all district schools and programs through the same critical lens, to identify where fidelity in implementation is occurring and what our weaknesses are.  Funding for the project comes ARRA funds granted to our district through the consolidated grant application.

Consent Agenda passed unanimously.
Item C.7.t, the CLEAR Review, was voted on separately, passed 5-2.  Mine was among the dissenting votes.  While I value the desire for the review, I feel that we proceeded too quickly in that there are questions around the recommended vendor, Cambridge Education.  Cambridge is incorporated in Delaware, but is headquartered overseas.  I asked the district/board to consider postponing the vote until we could confirm the use of ARRA funds with such vendor as within the scope of our fiduciary responsibilities.  The Board proceeded to vote citing urgency in improving the education of our students. 

The Board proceeded through the remaining items on the agenda with little fanfare. The night wrapped up with a quick presentation by a representative of the Parent Information Center (PIC) of Delaware which has developed Parent Information Resource Centers (PIRCs) in some of our schools this year.  The PIC is a fantastic resource for families and I encourage all to check out their website at http://www.picofdel.org/.

The meeting adjourned.

And that 's the commentary from the bird's nest.

Final Reminder -- These notes do not reflect the opinions of the district or board and are not official minutes!

School Board's Bar on Repetitve Speech Upheld

A federal appeals court today upheld a school district's policy of barring frivolous...

from http://www.edweek.org/:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2009/11/court-upholds-school-boards-re.html#trackbacks

Courtesy of Edweek.org.

Rules Set for $4 Billion 'Race to Top' Contest

By Michele McNeill

For a good shot at the $4 billion in grants from the federal Race to the Top Fund, states will need to make a persuasive case for their education reform agenda, demonstrate significant buy-in from local school districts, and develop plans to evaluate teachers and principals based on student performance, according to final regulations set for release Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education.

Those three factors will rank as the most important to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and his staff as they weigh states’ applications based on more than 30 criteria, including how friendly their charter school climates are and how well they use data to improve instruction.

At stake for states is a slice of the biggest single discretionary pool of education money in the economic-stimulus package passed by Congress in February—a $4.35 billion prize, of which $350 million has been pledged to help states develop common assessments as part of a separate nationwide effort.

Each winning state’s share of what’s left will depend on its population of children ages 5-17, according to nonbinding estimates provided by the department.

At the high end, the four biggest states—California, Florida, New York, and Texas—could get between $350 million and $700 million each. At the low end are the smallest student-population states, such as New Mexico, Delaware, and Vermont, which could get between $20 million and $75 million each.

Keep Reading HERE!

http://www.newarkpostonline.com/

Thanks Louviers for Partnering with Newark High!

Challenge Program


Last month, Louviers Federal Credit Union participated in The Challenge Program's Orientation for Newark High School. The Challenge Program brings together high school students and the business community by providing incentives to students for successes they achieve while in school.

The Challenge Program's theme of this year's Orientation was "Preparing Students to be Competitive in the Global Job Market." The program began with a video of facts and statistics about how technology, populations, job markets, etc. are changing. After the video, an overview of the Challenge Program was presented to the students.

Louviers Federal Credit Union is the Business Ambassador sponsoring the Newark High School program. Marketing Coordinator, Faith Simpers, spoke to the students about her experiences with changing working environments and how good habits they form in high school now -- showing up for school, striving for improvement, always willing to learn new things and being involved in the community -- will help them to become the type of employee organizations are looking to hire in the future.
LFCU and TCP will return later in the school year and award four students from each of the sophomore, junior and senior classes a $250 check for the following categories: Most Improved in the Class, Attendance, Community Service and Best Overall GPA in the class.

From the "Leaders and Laggards, A State-by-State Report Card of Educational Innovation," commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and issued Monday:

"What Is Educational Innovation?

In our view, educational innovation means discarding policies and practices that no longer serve students while creating opportunities for smart, entrepreneurial problem-solvers to help children learn."

Delaware
C  School Management                                             
C  Finance                                                               
B  Staffing: Hiring & Evaluation                        
D  Staffing: Removing Ineffective Teachers
B  Data
D  Pipeline to Postsecondary
D  Technology
?   State Reform Environment
?   Gold Stars

School Management. Delaware does an average job managing its schools in a way that encourages thoughtful innovation. While 89% of teachers report that routine duties and paperwork interfere with their teaching, the state has established strong charter school laws.

Finance. Overall, Delaware earns a middling grade in this category. While the state gets a very low mark for the simplicity of its state funding mechanism, it receives an excellent score for the online accessibility of its financial data.

Staffing: Hiring & Evaluation. Delaware receives a good mark for its teacher hiring and evaluation system. Ten percent of teachers enter the profession through an alternative certification program, compared with the national average of 13%.

Also, Delaware requires incoming teachers to pass basic skills and subject-knowledge tests.

Staffing: Removing Ineffective Teachers. Delaware receives a below-average score on the ability to remove poor-performing teachers from the classroom. Seventy-one percent of principals say that teacher unions or associations are a barrier to the removal of ineffective teachers, higher than the national average of 61%. In addition, 67% of principals report that the length of time required for the termination process is a barrier to removing poor-performing teachers.

Data. Delaware gets a solid mark for its state data system. The state has a teacher-identifier system with the ability to match teachers to students and also has the ability to match individual students’ test records from year to year.

Pipeline to Postsecondary. Delaware receives a below-average mark for its efforts to improve college and career readiness. Only 24% of its schools report offering dual-enrollment programs, which allow students to earn high school and college credits simultaneously. That is 41 percentage points below the national average of 65%. Also, only 55% of Delaware schools report offering work-based internships.

Technology. Delaware receives a low grade in this category. The state does not offer a computer-based assessment,and it does not require technology testing for teachers. Delaware also needs to significantly improve how it evaluates its return on investments in technology.

State Reform Environment. There are few reliable state-by-state data on local education advocacy and research efforts—a reflection of the lack of overall commitment to this issue. As a result, we are unable to issue a meaningful grade.

However, the Rodel Foundation of Delaware is a member of the forward-thinking Policy Innovators in Education Network, and the state supports common academic standards.

Tuesday, November 10 - 7:30 PM


Board of Education
General Business Meeting
Bayard Middle School
200 South DuPont Street
Wilmington, DE

Agenda

Twenty-Six Delaware schools are classified as "Under Improvement."
Nineteen schools actually regressed in the last testing cycle.
With Race to the Top funding on the line, and more importantly, the futures of so many children, Delaware's educators can't help but wonder ... Convert or Close?  We're not the only ones.

From Edweek.org:  http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2009/11/the_turnaround_dilemma_convert.html

Posted by Debra Viadero on November 2, 2009 11:18 AM


Veteran reporter Debra Viadero has written more than 1,400 stories for Education Week and most of them have been about research. Not bored yet, she translates, shares, and dissects research findings on schools and learning, along with news about education research, for audiences that extend far beyond the Ivory Tower.

The Turnaround Dilemma: Convert or Close Down?

The report out last week on the results of a study looking at Chicago's efforts to close down failing schools got me thinking. In its study, the Consortium on Chicago School Research examined the impact on students of shutting down 18 chronically low-performing elementary schools in the Windy City. (Check out my colleague Dakarai Aarons' article on the study, if you haven't already.) The bottom line, according to this study, was that the students who were displaced by the closings just ended up at other low-performing schools in the district. Their achievement, as measured by test scores, did not improve all that much, compared to that of students who continued to attend similarly low-performing schools.

The findings are important because Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who presided over the turnaround efforts in Chicago, is pushing a similar effort at the national level. Districts won't be required to close down schools to qualify for the new federal turnaround grants, but it's clear from the draft guidelines issued so far that the federal government really likes that approach.

That means school superintendents faced with failing schools have a difficult choice to make: Transform the schools or shut them down and start from scratch? Over at the Institute for Research and Reform in Education, founder Jim Connell has developed a simulation tool to help school superintendents chip away at that question.

First off, you should know that the nonprofit institute has a little skin in this game. It developed the First Things First program for improving high schools—a strategy that has historically tended to focus on converting existing high schools.

For argument's sake, though, let's play along. Imagine that you're a superintendent of a 14,300-student district and you want to boost the on-time graduation rates in your five lowest-performing high schools by 20 percent within five years. Would it be better to replace the schools or convert them? You could get some idea by plugging data about your schools into the spreadsheet that Connell developed based on his experience with First Things First schools. If the replacement schools enrolled 200 students a year, the calculator would tell you, it would take 11 new schools to match the success rate that you could get from transforming the existing schools instead.

That figure is based on lots of assumptions, of course, some of which may not apply in every district. Connell explains the thinking behind his analytic tool in a paper soon to be posted on the IRRE Web site. Contact him directly to try the calculator out for free.
Comments

Let me guess--transforming schools almost always comes out first, and the First Things First model is at the top of the list. First Things First has been a DISASTER in Texas. But good marketing can overcome reality any day of the week.

Posted by: Bill Martin
November 2, 2009 4:45 PM

The State of Delaware will begin Swine Flu vaccinations this week for students in their public schools. Permission forms were due in October for children to be eligible for the innoculations.
Vaccination Date      

11/2/09                                    Booker T Washington Elementary, CAPITAL
11/2/09                                    East Dover Elementary , CAPITAL
11/2/09                                    Brennan School, CHRISTINA
11/2/09                                    Jennie Smith, CHRISTINA
11/2/09                                    Sterck School, CHRISTINA
11/2/09                                    Lake Forest Central Elementary, LAKE FOREST
11/2/09                                    Lake Forest ILC, LAKE FOREST
11/2/09                                    Lake Forest East Elementary, LAKE FOREST
11/3/09                                    Appoquinimink ECC, APPOQUINIMINK
11/3/09                                    Bunker Hill, APPOQUINIMINK
11/3/09                                    Silver Lake Elementary ,APPOQUINIMINK
11/3/09                                    Claymont, BRANDYWINE
11/3/09                                    Maple Lane, BRANDYWINE
11/3/09                                    Milton Elementary, CAPE
11/3/09                                    Frankford Elementary, INDIAN RIVER
11/4/09                                    Fairview Elementary, CAPITAL
11/4/09                                    Hartly Elementary, CAPITAL
11/4/09                                    Brandywine Springs, RED CLAY
11/4/09                                    Odyssey, RED CLAY
11/4/09                                    Sunnyside Elementary, SMYRNA
11/4/09                                    North Smyrna, SMYRNA
11/5/09                                    Alfred G. Waters, APPOQUINIMINK
11/5/09                                    Cedar Lane ECC, APPOQUINIMINK
11/5/09                                    Cedar Lane Elementary, APPOQUINIMINK
11/5/09                                    MOT Charter, APPOQUINIMINK
11/5/09                                    Forwood, BRANDYWINE
11/5/09                                    Harlan, BRANDYWINE
11/5/09                                    Prestige Academy, BRANDYWINE
11/5/09                                    Douglass, CHRISTINA
11/5/09                                    Lake Forest South Elementary, LAKE FOREST
11/5/09                                    Dunbar Elementary, LAUREL
11/5/09                                    Laurel Intermediate School, LAUREL
11/5/09                                    Seaford Central, SEAFORD
11/5/09                                    Blades Elementary, SEAFORD
11/5/09                                    Phillis Wheatley Middle School, WOODBRIDGE
11/6/09                                    Howard T. Ennis, INDIAN RIVER
11/6/09                                    North Georgetown Elementary, INDIAN RIVER
11/6/09                                    Allen School, INDIAN RIVER
11/6/09                                    Linden Hill, RED CLAY