The Echo

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.