The Echo

It's been eight months since I assumed the role of board member to finish the term of another before me.  Four years once seemed liked eons. Now three years seems to be not nearly enough time (though the jury is still out on whether I will run again) to empower the changes to education that both Christina and Delaware need.

Education in Delaware is facing uprecedented challenges to which Christina will not be immune.  National and Global economic failings have left their mark on Delaware.  Though stimulus funds staved off the impact for this current year, the future is a much different monster.  It's time for some honest and frank discussion of what lies in the future.

The State of Delaware is facing a near $50 million education funding deficit, the impact of which boils down to a funding cut of  appoximately $500 per student, your student and mine.  It will come across all districts, all programs, and all schools.  For Christina the much debated 25% rolling decrease in state transportation funding will add an average of $40 to every school tax bill, if a referendum can be successfully run.  The jury is out on whether the match tax portion of the tuition bill will stand -- meaning that districts may not be able to levy that portion of the tuition bill next year as indicated by the Department of Education's budget presentation in Dover.  At the time of this writing, Christina has not entered into discussions with its board as to any intentions of going to referendum.  And most homeowners will tell you, this is not the time to ask the public for more tax money.  Where does that leave us?  Where does that leave Christina?  And where does that leave our children?

I'm staring at the FY 2011 Operating Budget Briefing dispersed to legislators by the Department of Education.  Within the organization structure (who holds what position) the vital role of Associate Secretary of Teaching and Learning is vacant while the positions of Assoc. Sec. of College and Workforce Readiness and Assoc. Sec./Chief Financial Officer are filled.  I see before me an unbalanced scale, weighted heavily against the Department's mission of Teaching and Learning, a Branch without an advocate and a Budget that reflects that lost voice.

I am alarmed by page 10 of the briefing which reflects the Federal Stimulus Funding for Education Stabilization.  In Fiscal year 10, the Technology Block Grant, the Student Success Block Grant, the Academic Excellence, Limited English Proficiency and Division II Allocations were removed from the General Fund and replaced by Stimulus Funds.  Essentially, Delaware abdicated funding these categories, drawing the needed monies from one-time stimulus funds.  Those allocations have not been returned to the General Fund.  What does it mean:

• In 2008, the State funded the associated positions.
• In 2009/10, One-time Stimulus Funds were used to fund these programs for a total of $33,891,000.
• In the 2010/11 Budget, the proposed funding for these programs decreases to $13,121,100. 
• That's MORE THAN $20 MILLION Cut from Education Spending.
• There is no plan to draw additional monies from the State's General Fund to support these programs and teachers.
• If DOE does not fund these needed positions and programs that directly affect our children, and if local districts are unable to find replacement funding, these positions will GO AWAY.

While it's true that the proposed budget we see before us today may look very different come June/July when our legislators ratify it, it's important that we begin the conversation now.  And that conversation must be centered around the desire of stakeholders to inform the legislature that cutting education funding is not an acceptable solution to Delaware's budget dilemma and that we as constituents expect our legislators to generate new sources of revenue for the state, and particularly education.

While the topic will certainly be debated by the Statewide PTA, the Delaware State Education Association, and the Delaware Schools Chiefs Association, locally-elected school boards must engage not just with their constituents but as constituents of those in Dover.  Delaware's School Boards cannot fail to lead today.  We cannot be idle and are obligated by our oath to lead the seach for solutions.

Education is in need of solutions and we must come together to find them!

Saturday, February 27 ~ 10:00 am

2010-2013 Strategic Planning Process Community Meeting
Sum it up Saturday for Innovation and Instruction and strengthening Partnership Topics
Eden Support Services Center
http://www.christina.k12.de.us/Maps/Eden.htm

My comments follow!
From the Philadelphia Daily News:

Posted on Fri, Feb. 26, 2010

A 'routine investigation' of a shocking treatment
Associated Press

BOSTON - The U.S. Justice Department has begun a review of whether the use of electric-shock therapy by a Massachusetts special-needs school violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Canton-based Judge Rotenberg Educational Center uses the treatment, known as aversive therapy, as a way to control aggressive behavior and to prevent severely autistic students from injuring themselves or others. The privately operated, residential school administers the shocks in 2-second intervals.

In a Feb. 18 letter, the Justice Department refers to the review as a "routine investigation.
Nancy Weiss, director of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities, based at the University of Delaware, wrote to the Justice Department in September, asking that action be taken to end the electric shocks. The letter was signed by 30 other advocacy groups.

Weiss said she hoped the federal scrutiny would ultimately lead to the closing of the 38-year-old school. The school receives public funds for some students and accepts students from several states. In 2007, it had about 230 students.

"If you tell this to the average person on the street, people are horrified and they can't believe this can possibly be legal and going on in this day and age," Weiss said.

Michael Flammia, an attorney who represents the center, said there was nothing at the school that would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"The pain created by the skin- shock devices is far less than the severe injury, in some cases the permanent injury, that the kids are doing to themselves," he said.

Some states have banned or severely restricted the use of electric shocks in mental-health treatment. Besides Massachusetts, the states of California, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and the District of Columbia permit students to be referred to the Judge Rotenberg Center.

In their September letter to the Justice Department, critics said that students sometimes receive disciplinary shocks for behavior as minor as stopping work, getting out of their seats without permission, or interrupting others.

----------------------------------------
My Take (as both a human being and the parent of a special needs child):

The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center includes on a their website "21 reasons parents place their child at JRC." 

The list includes taking children off their psychotropic meds, a zero- rejection policy, high level of communication, anytime parent visits, computerized behavior charting system, a zero-referral to police policy for discipline infractions, and a powerful and varied reward system. 

Does "powerful = voltage"?  The Kicker:  JRC contends they are fully IDEA compliant! 

Absolutely disgusting.  Federal funds and Delaware recommends children to JRC!

Thanks Nancy Weiss from UD for leading the charge against such abominable practices!!! 

In contrast to recent events in Rhode Island, the LA school board voted last night to turn over management of 30 schools to non-profit education groups, including some that are comprised of parents, teachers, and administrators already in place.  Of note, the school board was instrumental in creating a mechanism by which communities could propose plans for the operation of their schools.  And the board resoundingly, with the superintendents recommendation, reaffirmed many of those plans. In a small number of cases, the board chose operaters other than those recommended by administration.

 Here's the latest: from http://www.dailybreeze.com/.  Click on the story to link back.

The Los Angeles school board on Tuesday approved a plan to turn over the operation of 30 campuses to nonprofit educational groups, but most of the groups are led by teachers and administrators already in place.



After a 4 1/2-hour meeting that featured nearly 50 speakers, the board approved most of Superintendent Ramon Cortines' recommendations for 12 of the district's most problematic schools and 18 new ones for the 2010-11 academic year.


The vote represented the first round of Cortines' plan to turn over about a third of the district's schools to nonprofit groups with the goal of boosting student achievement.


The groups were selected from among 85 proposals submitted to the district under the Public School Choice Program adopted last year.


"Today we launch a new era at LAUSD of quality, of leadership and accountability - something that this board had the courage to elevate and make real," said board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, who last year introduced the School Choice Program resolution.


"Today we are no longer the insular institution we once were," she said. "But more important, what today represents is that mediocrity is not OK, and that we place high value first and foremost on quality education for all students."

In most cases, members backed Cortines' recommendations, but at some schools - such as Barack Obama Global Preparatory Academy, Esteban Torres High School and Griffith-Joyner Elementary School - the board selected different operators.


"We need to act now for all our students to succeed," Cortines said at the start of the meeting. "We must ensure our students are successful from pre-K to adult schools."


After several weeks of review, Cortines last week made his recommendations for each of the affected campuses - with the proposed operators including charter school companies; collaborations of parents, teacher and local district administrators; and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.


"This has been a process of inclusion, collaboration, transparency and transformation at all levels - within the staff rooms, community centers and living rooms of everyone involved," Cortines said.


The plan to allow outside groups to govern individual campuses angered some education advocates, including the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles. On Tuesday, about 200 teachers and parents protested outside the board meeting.


But given the board's approval of the process, UTLA helped some groups of teachers and local school administrators submit management proposals, and those groups make up the bulk of Cortines' recommendations.


UTLA President A.J. Duffy said last week he was pleased that Cortines had recommended that the parent/teacher/administrator teams operate more than three-quarters of the schools up for bid. But he called on the school board to reject the superintendent's recommendation that outside operators, such as charter school companies, be given control of some campuses.


"We want the school board members to review all the teacher/parent plans the superintendent did not recommend," Duffy said. "Local communities wrote plans. Parents made their choice. Both of these should be respected."

The board's vote was preceded by dozens of speakers lobbying for their own particular group. Most were supportive of the concept of allowing different groups to operate schools in hopes of bringing new ideas into the district.


"I always hoped this day would come," teacher Roberta Benjamin told board members.


The school choice program "is the first step to breaking down the wall between charter public schools and non-charter public schools," she said.


Former teacher Yvette King-Berg said that no matter which side you were on, "the bar is being set higher" by allowing outside groups to manage certain campuses.


Former U.S. Rep. Esteban E. Torres, whose name graces an East Los Angeles high school, said the principal goal of the Public School Choice program is to develop the kind of schools "the community wants."


Although there was disagreement among some groups over the operators of particular schools, board member Steven Zimmer said he was impressed with all the proposals that were submitted.


"This is not about politics," he said. "It's not about pressure. It's not about power. It's not about land. It's not about facilities. It's about our children and our families and this could be about hope. Because there was hope in the living rooms and classrooms and community rooms where these plans were being written."

Johanna Wald is the director of strategic planning for the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. Lisa Thurau is the founder and director of Strategies for Youth, a Cambridge, Mass.-based organization that works to improve relationships between police and young people.

Taking School Safety Too Far?

The Ill-Defined Role Police Play in Schools
By Johanna Wald and Lisa Thurau

This past November, a food fight in a Chicago middle school resulted in the arrest of 25 students between the ages of 11 and 15. Parents, youth advocates, and others rightly questioned the decision to criminalize teenage antics that, let’s face it, seemed relatively mild. Plenty of us, after all, can recall hurling food at friends in the school cafeteria at a similar age.


As we write this essay, the final resolution of the Chicago incident is not yet known. But regardless of what that may be, the 25 students involved are likely to carry with them for a very long time the trauma of being handcuffed, taken away in a police van, and forced to sit in a jail cell for several hours...

Another area of concern involves training requirements—or the lack thereof. School resource officers must deal daily with hundreds of students, many with serious health and mental-health needs. Yet they are not required to undergo any instruction in adolescent development or psychology, in de-escalating volatile situations, or on the effects of exposure to trauma, violence, or poverty on adolescents’ behavior. They are not taught how to recognize manifestations of students’ disabilities. As a result, students with special needs, students of color, and students from disadvantaged communities face a heightened risk of arrest.

Arguments that such heavy-handed tactics are necessary to keep schools safe no longer fly. Schools with harsh, zero-tolerance codes and heavy police presence are often less safe than those that embrace more flexible and nuanced responses to student misbehaviors. They are also frequently the same schools with shockingly high dropout rates.

A wide array of promising interventions and strategies exists for addressing problem behaviors without resorting to the mass arrests of students...
 

Click anywhere on the story to link back to the full article.

Obama Plan Would Tie Title I to College-Career Standards


By Alyson Klein


Washington
President Barack Obama told the nation’s governors Monday that he would like to make funding for districts under Title I—the flagship program of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—contingent on states’ adoption of reading and math standards that prepare students for college or a career...

Go here for the rest of the story:  http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/02/22/23esea_ep.h29.html?tkn=UZRFAcKBO7nuUHtSZ%2Bympr%2BZ0K9Kqc000gUu&cmp=clp-edweek

http://educationnext.org/the-case-for-special-education-vouchers/

• Four states already have them.
• Includes the research that debunks the myth Special Ed. vouchers lead to higher costs and over-identification. 
• Provides a well-thought argument as vouchers being an extension of IDEA and a better method of providing FAPE
• Could dovetail quite nicely with Lt. Gov. Matt Denn's New Legislation for Students with Disabilities.  Link here to learn about the bill:  http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100220/NEWS02/100219042

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100221/NEWS03/2210340

University of Delaware plans Main Street bookstore

Some Newark merchants fear impact of new Barnes & Noble

By RACHEL KIPP and DAVID LIPSCOMB • The News Journal • February 21, 2010

The University of Delaware campus wraps around Newark's downtown area. But plans to relocate the school's bookstore to Main Street would be the first time in recent memory that UD has had a retail presence along the city's main drag.

The plans are getting mixed reactions from business owners and public officials who want to see the retail strip grow without harming the small businesses that already reside there...

http://kilroysdelaware.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/breaking-newsnames-of-delaware-turnaround-revealed/

In lieu of the existence of a Sarcasm Font, be forewarned that my words are dripping with tongue-in-cheek Sarcasm.

I've solved the transportation dilemma. The state via DOE wants local districts to pick up 25% of the cost of transporting students to schools.  I can see their logic - The state's budget gets balanced without a tax increase while forcing districts to either go to referendum or increase the match tax.  Either way, there is a tax increase, but the state comes out shining while homeowners cry foul at their local school boards.

So how do cash-strapped locals pick up the cost?  We solve the childhood obesity problem. 

Let it be decreed that the Gov. shall enact a new physical fitness program and every bus-riding child must walk 25% of their route to school.  Perhaps, we can get a local hospital system to donate some pedometers, so our students can tally their steps toward earning PBS awards!  At 1 million steps, they can "buy" a bike! Can you imagine students using classroom math in real life situations?  Now, that's a reinforcer!

Of course, if you are a city kid attending high school in the burbs, as most are (the exception being Sarah Pyle students) we'll pick you up on I-95.  Watch out for those speeding tractor trailers and their sleepy drivers! If you're lucky, some well-meaning sap will pull over and offer you a ride.  If you write a report about your good Samaritan, you'll earn extra credit in English/Language arts.  Oh, the dedication and stamina we could cultivate in our students.  A culture of true dedication thanks to the thoughtful intuitiveness of our Gov. and DOE.

But, the real boon to this approach is that once the Gov and DOE get tired of the inevitable  flood of parental complaints, the state may actually fund a CSD Charter High School in the City of Wilmington, completing Delaware's ultimate agenda of re-segregation. Yes, that would cement Jack Markell as the Education and Transportation Governor.

Then in keeping with Race to the Top, the Gov. could end Christina's 30 year hold on its portion of the city and turn it over to Mayor of Wilmington, adopting US Sec. of Ed, Arne Duncun's, vision of mayoral control as education reform.  It worked so well in Chicago, we should be honored with this grand opportunity to be education visionaries.

It's a win-win all the way around!

Wilmington's Maurice J. Moyer Academy loses charter.

Story Here:  http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100219/NEWS03/2190353

Under the DOE's proposed budget, the State will only fund 75% of transportation costs of Public and Charter Schools next year.   The proposal directs local districts to pick up 25% of costs.  Independent schools will lose all transportation funding.  The cuts are directed at protecting the "classroom" according to an interview taped yesterday by WDEL with State Sec. of Ed, Lillian Lowery.
The following text is from that interview.
The interview can be viewed here:  http://www.wdel.com/video/?v=education.wmv
I'd say my comments follow at the end, but this one left me speechless.  Let's protect the classroom, only it's not much of a classroom if we can't afford to get the students there.

Dr. Lowery:  Well, I think the major piece is looking at the transportation piece for both public and independent schools and um trying to look at the use of the state dollars and see if we can find efficiencies at the local level where they can capture some of those costs.  With the 25/75 % split, with 25 % of the costs coming from the local jurisdiction.  We also looked at consolidating services where we possibly could.  Um, Mike Jackson, our associate secretary for finance is working with the Chiefs and heads of charters to look at procurement services so we can share costs through volume, find efficiencies there. And there are just some other hard decisions that we are going to have to make.  Some things, as we all know here today will go away.  And so we have to look at what is essential. And to the best of our ability protect the classroom so that the services or any programatic cuts that we make, as much as we can, make sure that they come from outside of the classroom, that we protect teaching and learning. 

When asked if the new plan was putting any unnecessary pressure on the districts or if it may mean cuts for local districts, she responds: 

Well, um, I hope really that we could work very collaboratively together.  We have a lot of creative, unique ideas of where we can mitigate those circumstances.  And, but, it comes to a point where, when people have been used to doing things certain ways that it's very hard to think outside the box of how we can be more creative managing and mitigating costs.  Now, at the end of the day, um, if millions of dollars go away, we have to find out and come to some terms about what are essential services and that's what we will have to find.  So if things go away we hope that they will be those that are most um most removed from our essential work which is teaching and learning and protecting the classroom. 

Interviewer:  So you're hoping it won't force districts to cut teachers?

We're hoping.  We hoping that they can find effficiences.  Yet by no means am I going on record saying what will and will not happen.  But we are going to work very hard with them to mitigate that as much as possible as much as we can. 

When asked if eliminating funding for private school transportation essentially forces parents to pay taxes for public schools and not get anything out of it, she responds:

Yeah, well, I mean one could look at it that way.  We talk about that.  But, ah, it's tax payer, and I really do emphasize with them, I have a relationship with our independent schools both private and parochial, but as tax payers of Delaware, we have lots of good services, too, from which they benefit.  But, it is the Governor and his staff, including the Department of Education personnel, have put forth our budget.  Now, it's in play and is going through the process.  At the end of the day we'll see what are decisions that we will have to make including ones around transportation, both public and private. 

When asked how she feels about the effect of Stimulus money to the the budget, Lowery responds:

Well, I really do think someone made a great point.  One of the representatives, Senator Miro, the monies because of that 800 million dollar budget deficit last year were removed from the general fund um, with the understanding from President Obama and Vice President Biden that their administration was going to try to put stimulus funds in to try to circumvent some of the hard hard decisions.  We just have to remember that we knew going into this that the monies had been moved from the general fund because we had like a 25 percent structural deficit and these monies were going to come in to help us mitigate that so the impact would not be so quickly and so severe.  Um, but here it is.   We have to plan for that and we should have been as the governor has expected all of his agencies to do, planning for the possible loss of of these funds because we knew it was coming. 

When asked about the new teachers that Gov. Markell made mention of in his Budget Address, she answers:

One has to understand that teachers are not hired at the state level.   We really do, um, the Gov. has put forth a budget where the govenor's intention is that there will be no personnel costs for teachers or any other state employees. But at the end of the day the local jurisdictions who have boards elected by their constituents and they choose superintendents, have to make decisions. If peoples enrollments decline, as we've just discussed, federal and local dollars decrease, local jurisdictions have to make some hard decisions.  We're going to work with them as much as we possibly can to come up with alternative ways of thinking and saving so we can protect as much as we can.  But at the end of the day, the local jurisdictions will have to make decisions based on their realities.   That's just not a perscriptive statewide um cookie cutter approach.  One has to act according to his local needs. 

When asked to offering examples of creative thinking, Dr. Lowery suggests:

Well, with transportation, is there any way for example that counties can merge specialized transportation for students who go to alternative schools, for students who go to countywide programs.  If they are going, having extracurricular activities is there any way they can merge those costs together.  Look at what kind of cost savings we have around buying textbooks.  If, if your district is next door to my district which is next door to another district and we're all using the same math book, but you're paying one cost for it, I'm paying another, the other district is paying another because we are negotiating with vendors individually instead of as a collaborative where we can get more volume and then be a little more forceful in our negotiations.  Those are the kinds of things we have to start thinking about. 

From Today's News Journal:

Consider the Cape Henlopen School District's warning the first of many. The district announced it is in danger of losing 19 teachers because the federal stimulus money is drying up.

It's the Cinderella Effect, and it will be happening all across the state, as well as across the country.

The massive stimulus package -- the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- will run out in the next fiscal year. School districts like Cape Henlopen used the money as a stopgap measure to keep people employed -- and to put off the hard decisions on money that will eventually come.

The recovery act is a year old this week. It was passed with great fanfare and enormous partisan bickering. White House officials promised it would reduce unemployment and get the country moving again. The actual effect, though real, was less than announced. The nation still has to spend a lot of the $862 billion the Congressional Budget Office now says the bill will cost. We're likely to see benefits in the future. However, few economists believe jobs will come roaring back.

The stimulus helped Delaware and other states to pay for Medicaid help for the newly unemployed and to keep teachers working.

The Cinderella Effect comes when that money disappears. Another stimulus is likely, but it should be smaller and offset by taxes and cuts stretched out over a longer time. In the meantime, school districts and local and state governments should be preparing for a long-term fiscal crisis.

Here's the link to the News Journal story.  Nice Job by new ed beat reporter, Jonathan Starkey.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100217/NEWS03/2170328

And then take a gander at Kilroy's Breakdown -- http://kilroysdelaware.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/school-board-members-letting-the-sunshine-in/#comments -- Thanks, Kilroy. 

Yesterday, I took DOE to task for lacking the transparency, fortitude, and courtesy to name the schools selected for the Mass Insight Partnership Zone last week as the News Journal had previously reported they would.

From today's News Journal:

"It will be sometime this summer before state officials name the Delaware schools that will be part of a vast new public-private partnership program to turn around failing schools..."

"State officials originally expected to name the participants last week, a decision they thought had to be immediate to satisfy requirements for federal Title I school improvement grants, said Dan Cruce, the state's deputy education secretary. They since have learned from the U.S. Department of Education that they do not need to name the schools before submitting the application. Delaying the decision will give them the chance to consider 2010 testing data when choosing the schools."

Delaware's DOE needs the 2010 testing data to tell them which schools are in the worst shape?  With at least eight years of DSTP data and with some schools that have been under some form of Improvement for at least seven (and into their 8th) years, DOE needs data from this year's expiring DSTP to inform their decision.  WHAT????

The Partnership Zone is a done deal.  As I previously blogged, the ink is on the contract with Mass Insight and the regs have been approved for the State Board of Education.  Whether Delaware receives Race to the Top funding or not, this state is moving schools into the Mass Insight PILOT of their Turnaround Challenge Report.  I've made it clear that I have concerns about embarking on a journey that is without proven results, when we have failed to do the most basic of interventions -- reduce class size. 

But, I accept that this is our destiny as penned by Delaware's DOE.  So, why wait?  Why play this game with parents, voters, and other stakeholders?  Why hold-out?  At the end of the day, will DOE come forward and say that the 2010 DSTP Data spared a school from Turnaround?  I highly doubt it.

What this lack of transparency exposes is that DOE is afraid of the political fall-out of Turnaround.  The models that the State Board of Ed approved are predominently pro-Charter and as drastic as closing schools.  Mass Insight continues to cite Chicago as evidence of reform that is working.  Yet, Longitudinal data out of Chicago clearly indicates that the "reforms" there were superficial and without longterm gains.

It's a nasty cycle that the education "reformers" continue to exploit to further the agenda of the Business Model of Education.  And it's time to start calling the kettle black -- Education Reform is the status quo.  We've been reforming for twenty years.  We've been infusing equalization funds into schools in high poverty zones for decades.  Mass Insight implies that they've determined a new methodology for using Title I funds - in a report to be released this month - to turn schools around. 

Yeah, I have a methodology, too.  It didn't require the Gates Foundation to fund research into it or the Broad Foundation to train me on hands-off management.  I listened to my frontline providers, my teachers, and I think they've got a pretty good idea:  Smaller Class Sizes and an infusion of supplies (technology, textbooks, training) in a whole child model that brings community services into the schools and the home for those who need it, so that we are addressing the individial needs of every child. 

Here's a Turnaround Challenge:  Give me three years, one elementary school, an infusion of "human capital" -- business jargon for teachers -- social services and smaller classes in my building, and the needed supplies and training and I'll give you turnaround.  If I fail, I won't run for office again.

Challenged?

Diane Ravitch, with Deborah Meier, writes the Bridging Differences Blog (a personal fav. or mine)

Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch have found themselves at odds on policy over the years, but they share a passion for improving schools. Bridging Differences will offer their insights on what matters most in education.Conflicts of Interest and the Race to the Top

By Diane Ravitch on February 16, 2010

Dear Deborah,
It is not surprising that the Race to the Top has generated enormous buzz among educators since it dangles $4.3 billion to states that do what the U.S. Department of Education wants them to do. Now President Obama has announced that he is so pleased with the response to the Race that he intends to add another $1.3 billion in prize money to the competition.

Since this is an administration that claims to be about results, it is surprising, is it not, that they are increasing the prize money in the absence of any evidence that the competition is on the right track?

No, it is not surprising because the competition is in the hands of people who arrived in Washington with an ideology. They are not pragmatists. There is a nexus of power, and it begins with the Gates Foundation, which has a lock on decisionmaking at the Department of Education. If this election had been held five years ago, the department would be insisting on small schools, but because Gates has already tried and discarded that approach, the department is promoting the new Gates remedies: charter schools, privatization, and evaluating teachers by student test scores.

As we both know, personnel is policy. Secretary Duncan put Jim Shelton, a Gates Foundation executive, in charge of the department's half-billion-dollar Innovation Fund. And he selected Joanne Weiss to run the Race to the Top competition. Weiss was chief executive officer of the NewSchools Venture Fund, whose primary purpose is to launch charter school networks. I do not know Weiss, and I assume she is an upstanding citizen; but to my knowledge, she has never been an education practitioner or scholar or policymaker. She is an education entrepreneur, who has sold goods and services to the schools, and who most importantly led an organization dedicated to creating privately managed schools that operate with public money. So, why should it be surprising that the Race to the Top reflects the priorities of the NewSchools Venture Fund (charter schools) and of the Gates Foundation (teacher evaluations by test scores)?

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE

We do a lot of waiting here. 
For snow removal. 
For schools to reopen. 
For the Gov. to forgive snow days. 
For the State Sec. of Education  to announce the schools that will pilot the Mass Insight Turnaround Zone. 

The News Journal initially pegged last week for the big "announcement," but those who've been around a while know that DOE is more strategic than that, or rather their waters are too muddy for the transparency tax payers deserve.  If they had played the transparency card with Race to the Top, chances are some school boards would not have signed on.  And so, I can't help but hypothesize as to why our turnaround schools have yet to be named.  Perhaps, they are busy lining up their lead partners, partners, DOE employee Dan Cruce earlier speculated, that must be local due to Delawareans' deep trust issues.  (Any wonder why we have trust issues?)

Or perhaps, they are busy aligning to Mass Insight's latest Turnaround Strategy -- Internal Lead Partners.

Or waiting for M.I. to release any of the following reports:

Leveraging Title 1 School Improvement Grants (scheduled for release in February 2010)
Provides recommendations to states on the most effective process to allocate the Title 1 School Improvement grants under the new federal guidelines.
Best practice state policy (scheduled for release in March 2010)
Offers advice on how policy can be created to encourage optimal conditions for school turnaround, drawing on promising practices from existing and forthcoming state legislation.
Building a District Turnaround Office (scheduled for release in May 2010)
Provides guidance on creating a District Turnaround Office, an organizational structure designed specifically to manage turnaround efforts within the district.
Building a State Turnaround Office (scheduled for release in April 2010):
Describes the structure and functions of the State Turnaround Office, an office of the State Education Agency responsible for all turnaround efforts within the state.

It's all conjecture, but in lieu of transparency and hard facts, conjecture is all we have.

2010-2011 Draft Calendar Now Available for Review

The draft calendar for the 2010-2011 school year is now available for review. To access the calendar draft and share feedback, please click here.

Attention all CSD 10th & 11th graders!
SAT Mock Exam and Comprehensive SAT Course Offered at Newark High
Newark HS PTSA is sponsoring a practice SAT exam at Newark High School on Saturday, February 20th from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm for just $10! You will receive an online score report with detailed performance analysis, including written feedback on the essay.

For questions, more information or to sign up for the Mock SAT, call 1-877-REV-PREP OR go to www.revolutionprep.com and click on "SAT", then "Mock Exams", put in zip code "19711" and then click "Enroll" next to the Newark High School, Feb 6th option.

Students can also sign up for a comprehensive SAT group course to be held at NHS on Tuesdays (6:00 pm-9:00 pm) and Saturdays (9:00 am-1:00 pm) beginning February 27th. This six week course is $499 (Princeton / Kaplan costs $899-$1099). Scholarships are available for any student in need. All high school students attending Christiana HS, Glasgow HS or Newark HS are welcome to participate in both of these programs.

Eligible Students Could Save $12,000 in College Tuition Next Year

If a college major is not offered at the University of Delaware or Delaware State University, college students may be eligible for in-state tuition rates at more than 100 southern public colleges that participate in the Academic Common Market (ACM). Last year, Delaware residents who enrolled in undergraduate programs such as athletic coaching education at West Virginia University, speech-language pathology at Towson University or architecture at the University of Maryland saved an average of $12,320 in tuition costs.

The ACM is a tuition savings agreement among the 16 member states of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). Public colleges in SREB states that elect to participate in the ACM select the programs of study they will offer. Both baccalaureate and graduate-level programs are offered in the ACM, but first professional degree programs - such as pharmacy, law, dentistry, and medicine - are not.

In addition to the ACM campus-based programs, the ACM/Electronic Campus offers distance learning opportunities. There are currently three undergraduate and 22 graduate-level degree programs available to Delaware residents. Working adults pursuing degrees such as a bachelor of science in dental hygiene, master of library science or nursing informatics, or doctorate of nursing practice can complete their degree and receive the ACM tuition savings while remaining employed in their current job. (North Carolina and Texas do not participate in the ACM/EC).

SREB is the nation’s first interstate compact for education. Founded in 1948 by southern leaders in business, education and government, SREB works to improve every aspect of education from early childhood to doctoral degrees and beyond. More than 2,000 students in the 16 member states are certified each year for the ACM. The participating states are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Florida, North Carolina and Texas offer graduate-level programs only.

Students and parents with questions about the ACM are encouraged to contact the Delaware Higher Education Commission at (302) 577-5240 or (800) 292-7935 (toll-free outside New Castle County). Program guidelines, a list of participating institutions and eligible programs, and the application form are available online at www.doe.k12.de.us/dhec.

Calendar Reminders...


Monday, February 15
SCHOOLS & OFFICES CLOSED - President's Day

Tuesday, February 16
Strategic Planning Process Committee Meeting, Bancroft Elementary School, 7:00 p.m. Topic - Strengthening Partnerships: Welcoming Parents and the Community as Partners learn more

Wednesday, February 17
Student Code of Conduct Review Committee Meeting, Marshall Elementary School, 4:00-6:00 p.m.

Financial Review Committee Meeting, Gauger-Cobbs Middle School, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Thursday, February 18
Shue-Medill Middle School PTA Family Fun Night, 6:00-8:30 p.m.

Tuesday, February 23
Strategic Planning Process Community Meeting, Keene Elementary School, 7:00 p.m. Topic - Strengthening Partnerships: Welcoming Parents and the Community as Partners

Shue-Medill Middle School "Shue Strings" Concert, 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, February 25
Glasgow High School Musical, 7:00 p.m.

Shue-Medill Middle School Band Concert, 7:00 p.m.

Friday, February 26
Glasgow High School Musical, 7:00 p.m.

Student Code of Conduct Review Committee Meeting, Drew Educational Support Center, Public Community Forum Event.

Saturday, February 27
Strategic Planning Process Community Meeting, Keene Elementary School, 10:00 a.m. Sum it up Saturday for Innovation and Instruction and Strengthening Partnerships.

From the Newark Post:
Published: Thursday, February 11, 2010 11:45 AM CST


Concern is growing about a pregnant Glasgow-area teen who never came home from school

Approximately one week ago, New Castle County Detectives released information regarding the teen who disappeared from her home after leaving school early. Investigators have since received no confirmed sightings or information regarding her whereabouts from the media or public.

Janteyl Johnson, a resident of the unit block of Winterhaven Drive in the Autumn Park Apartments, was last seen after she left school early on February 3rd.

Police later used an automated alert system (A Child is Missing) notifying the surrounding communities of the search for the teen.

Johnson was last seen wearing a black ski jacket with fur around the hood. She is 5’2”, 120 pounds, and has long braided black hair. To offer information regarding her whereabouts, please contact the New Castle County Police Department at 395-8110 attention Detective Seth Polk.

I find it absolutely reprehensible for a state Board of Ed. to adopt anything without review of  the FINAL product!

In National First, Kentucky Adopts Common Standards

By Catherine Gewertz
Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.

Kentucky yesterday became the first state to adopt common academic standards that were drafted as part of a nationwide initiative to establish a widely shared and ambitious vision of student learning.

In making their decisions, the Kentucky boards relied on late-stage drafts that have been circulating among state officials for review. But their decisions direct their staffs to implement the final version of the common standards once it is completed. The state will also wait for the final version to begin the normal 30-day regulatory-review period, officials said.

View Full Article HERE

Notice for Thursday, February 11:




All Schools in the Christina School District are CLOSED on Thursday, February

11. Preschool programs, Parents as Teachers Stay and Play, Continuing Education

Classes, Adult Education classes, and Distance Learning are also canceled.

K-8 Teacher Conferences scheduled for Thursday, February 11 are canceled.
Offices will be open. Employees should use extreme caution and discretion when
traveling. Inclement weather procedures for staff are located on the district
website at the following link: www.christina.k12.de.us/Staff/InclementWeather.htm

REMINDER: At this time, all schools are scheduled to be closed on Friday,
February 12 and Monday, February 15.

In her Bridging Differences Blog, with Deborah Meier,  Diane Ravitch puts the dilemma into the words that I have struggled to find myself. Diane's post is especially eloquent when you stop, and listen to the teachers who keep telling us that they need resources and smaller class sizes.  Our education status quo is education reform and despite all the efforts, we've yet to see the promised progress, nor listened to our frontline providers, our teachers.  Insread we've come up with class-size waivers and pass the buck to the state assembly for failing to provide enough funding for textbooks and supplies.

From Edweek.org, http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/BridgingDifferences/2010/02/two_types_of_superintendent.html

Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch have found themselves at odds on policy over the years, but they share a passion for improving schools. Bridging Differences will offer their insights on what matters most in education.

Two Types of Superintendent


By Diane Ravitch on February 9, 2010 10:02 AM

Dear Deborah,

As I watch events across the nation, I have concluded that district leadership today falls into one of two varieties.

On one hand is the traditional superintendent, who believes that he is responsible for the schools and students in his care. He visits the schools often and consults frequently with mid-level superintendents to make sure that the schools get the resources they need. When a school is in trouble, he sends in a team of experienced educators to assess its needs and devise a plan to help the staff. If the school continues to struggle, he works harder to try to solve the problems. He may decide to remove the principal and shake up the staff. He is relentless in trying to get the school to function well. This superintendent believes that he will be judged by his efforts to help the neediest of the students and schools.

On the other hand is the new breed of reform superintendent. Whether he (or she) was a business executive, an education entrepreneur, or a lawyer, he is steeped in a business mindset. He wants results. He surrounds himself with business school graduates, lawyers, marketing consultants, and public relations staff. He focuses on management, organization, budgeting, and data-driven decision-making. He shows little or no interest in curriculum and instruction, about which he knows very little. He is certain that the way to reform the schools is to "incent" the workforce. He believes that accountability, with rewards and sanctions, makes the world go round. He plans to "drive" change through the system by being a tough manager, awarding merit pay to teachers and principals, closing struggling schools, and opening new schools and charter schools, all the while using data as his guide. He believes that the schools he oversees are like a stock portfolio; it is his job not to fix them but to pick winners and losers. The winners get extra money, and the losers are thrown out of the portfolio. When addressing the business community, he speaks proudly of his plan to give maximum autonomy to school principals, thus absolving himself of any responsibility for the performance of the schools, and then sits back to manage his portfolio. If a school fails, he is fast to close it. The failure is not his fault, but the fault of the principal and the teachers.

You can see why the reform superintendent would love the Race to the Top. It incorporates all the principles that he loves. Charter schools, accountability, merit pay, school closings, data-driven decision-making. It is the same mindset, the same belief in rewards and sanctions that we have seen in NCLB, taken to a higher level with a pot of gold containing almost $5 billion at the end of the rainbow. (I read a blog a few days ago, forget which one, that refers to RTTT as "dash to the cash.")

Now, the problem with the reform superintendent is that he usually knows very little about schooling and education. He focuses on organization and strategic planning and so on, but is in the dark about what happens in the classroom. This is why he relies so much on data. Numbers don't lie, do they?

Well, yes, they do. A major front-page story in The New York Times on February 6 described a major study conducted by criminologists who found that the numbers do lie. More than 100 retired, high-ranking police officers in New York City told them that intense pressure to produce improved crime statistics had led to manipulation of the data. For the past 15 years or so, the city boasted that its data system, known as CompStat, had brought about a major reduction in crime. But the survey said that the data system had encouraged supervisors and precinct commanders to relabel crimes to less serious offenses. The data mattered more than truth. Some, for example, would scout eBay and other Web sites to find values for stolen items that would reduce the complaint from a grand larceny (over $1,000 in value) to a misdemeanor. There were reports of officers who persuaded crime victims not to file a complaint or to change their accounts so that a crime's seriousness could be downgraded.

This is not only a major scandal, it is a validation once again of Campbell's Law, which holds that: "The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decisionmaking, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor."

Anyone who wants to learn more about Campbell's law and how it applies to education should read Richard Rothstein's Grading Education and Daniel Koretz's Measuring Up. Or Google Rothstein's "Holding Accountability to Account," if you want to see what happens when data becomes our most important goal.

For just as the police officers felt compelled to game the system to meet the demands of CompStat, so educators are now gaming the system to meet the demands of NCLB. Some states have dumbed down their tests; some have rigged the scores to produce greater numbers of "proficient" students. Some districts have narrowed their curriculum and have replaced instruction with intensive test-prep. Some schools of choice exclude low-performing students. All in the service of making the numbers, making AYP, looking good rather than doing well.

Anyone who thinks that these methods will produce first-class education for our nation's children is either a fool or is fooling himself.

Diane

While looking around to see if our Sec. Ed. had announced her partnership zone schools, I stumbled upon the following tidbit.  I've always liked my daughter's drivers, so I thought that I would share.  BTW, I do thoroughly believe our buses are the safest transportation for students on the road.  A couple years ago, my daughter was the final stop on the route, she disembarked, and while I was talking to the driver, my next door neighbor opened his garage door, floored it into reverse and smacked into the back of the bus.  The bus didn't even have a scratch, but his van sure did.

School Bus Industry Encourages Parents and Children to Love the Bus

Delaware to honor school bus drivers February 14th

(Dover, DE) Parents, students and teachers are celebrating the men and women from the Delaware districts/schools that take more than 107,500 students safely to schools each day as part of the fourth annual National Love the Bus program this February.

The Love the Bus program, founded in 2007 and coordinated by the American School Bus Council (ASBC), is celebrated on Valentine’s Day and throughout February in school districts across the country as a way to raise awareness and appreciation for the hundreds of thousands of school bus drivers who safely transport more than 26 million school children to and from school each day. It is also an opportunity for parents and children to learn more about the safety and environmental benefits of school bus transportation.

“We want to honor the bus drivers that safely take our Delaware students to school each day,” said Ron Love, Delaware’s Supervisor of School Transportation. “Love the Bus is a great opportunity to thank the people that protect our most precious cargo—our children—and serve as role models on the 480,000 school buses that transport children to and from school each day across the country.”

To help celebrate Love the Bus, parents, teachers and children are encouraged to visit the program's Web site, www.LoveTheBus.com to share stories about their favorite bus drivers, and make interactive valentines to email or print and give to their bus driver on Valentine’s Day,

February 14. Educators also may log on to www.LoveTheBus.com to download an educator’s toolkit, which provides details on incorporating Love The Bus into their lesson plans and offers best practices for communicating about pupil transportation.

Bus drivers receive specialized classroom and behind-the-wheel training in driving a school bus, student loading/unloading procedures, student evacuation, student behavior and security management. All school bus drivers are also required to participate in pre-employment, random and post-accident drug and alcohol testing, frequent driving record checks, and pass periodic medical exams to ensure they are physically qualified.

In addition to the qualified drivers, school buses are, by far, the safest vehicles on the road, with a safety record confirmed by government authorities to be better than any other form of transportation. School buses are designed and constructed with more safety features than any other vehicle, and the school transportation industry works continually to incorporate the latest technology, training and testing to keep school buses safe.

Throughout February, the American School Bus Council and its members will hold a series of local events across the United States to educate parents and children about school bus safety.

Educators sought for externships


The Delaware Business, Industry, Education Alliance, in partnership with the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce and the Delaware Department of Education, are coordinating a Teacher Externship Program for Delaware educators for summer 2010.

Educators will be placed inside the business community to gain knowledge about the academic skills students need for tomorrow’s workforce. Businesses statewide will host educators for 18 hours the week of June 21.

Open to all Delaware certified educators, the three-day program awards 25 professional development hours toward renewal of a continuing education license. Interested educators should contact Lori Aldrich at 836-4591 or laldrich@bie.k12.de.us, and visit www.bie.k12.de.us (click on externship) for complete registration information.

Notice for Tuesday, February 9:

All Schools in the Christina School District are CLOSED on Tuesday, February 9. Preschool programs, Parents as Teachers Stay and Play, Continuing Education Classes, Adult Education classes, and Distance Learning are also canceled.

The Nation is moving closer to Common Core Standards, leaving School Boards scrambling for intel.  Forty-eight States signed on last fall to support the initiative.  More than anything State Boards are pointing out the challenges of adopting national standards -- curriculum, assessments, and professional development.  

Local-level Board Members need to be asking questions now, like where will the funding come from to provide textbooks, technology, and supplies that support the standards?  The easy answer is Race to the Top b/c Delaware is well-positioned to win that grant.  But, I won't count my chickens before the eggs hatch and I can't count on Race to the Top.

State School Boards Raise Questions About Standards


By Catherine Gewertz

Las Vegas

States that adopt proposed common academic standards must use the entire document word for word, leaders of the initiative said this week.

Answering questions from state school board members at a meeting here, representatives of the two groups leading the effort to design common standards said that states may not revise them or select only portions to adopt.

“You can’t pick and choose what you want. This is not cafeteria-style standards,” said David Wakelyn, the program director of the education division of the National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices.

“Adoption means adoption,” said Scott Montgomery, a deputy executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, which is organizating the common-standards endeavor with the NGA.

More HERE

King County Judge Rules State Failing Education

Kent, Wash.

The state of Washington isn't fully paying for basic public education, a violation of its constitutional duty, a King County judge ruled Thursday in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of school districts, parents and teachers.

The decision from Superior Court Judge John Erlick came after nearly two months of testimony in the case. School districts, community leaders and others participating in the suit said the state was leaving school districts to rely on local levies, donations and PTA fundraisers to educate students.

The state disagreed, saying it does meet its constitutional duty.

Erlick acknowledged the state's efforts at reforming the way its pays for education and encouraged lawmakers to continue that. But he said he based his decision on a state Supreme Court ruling from 30 years ago which found the state must amply provide for basic education. Relying so heavily on local levies fails that standard, he said.

The state doesn't provide enough money to give every child a chance to meet the state's essential learning requirements, the judge said. Instead, the state depends on funding formulas that don't correlate with the actual cost to teach the state's 1 million children, he wrote.

"The court is left with no doubt that under the State's current financing system the State is failing in its constitutional duty to make ample provision for the education of all children," the judge wrote in his decision. "This court is convinced that basic education is not being funded by a stable and dependable source of funds provided by the state."

More HERE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBWVWjdNWC0

From the CSD website:
NOTICE FOR FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5: Afternoon Kindergarten and Preschool are Canceled, Schools to Dismiss 30 Minutes Early

Afternoon Preschool and Kindergarten are canceled and all schools will dismiss 30 minutes early. Childcare programs will be closing 1 hour early. Childcare parents should pick up children no later than 4:30 p.m.

All activities for the afternoon and evening of Friday, February 5th are canceled and all activities scheduled for Saturday, February 6th are canceled.

From:  http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2010/01/30/news/doc4b647ca1c5070055293122.txt

GIBRALTAR: Students' text messages add fuel to fire during lockdown

Published: Saturday, January 30, 2010
By Jackie Harrison-Martin

GIBRALTAR — Students at three schools might have been on an emergency lockdown Wednesday morning, but their cell phones apparently were not.

While a massive manhunt was under way for a suspect fleeing from police, some students at Carlson High School, Shumate Middle School and Parsons Elementary School were busy texting parents about what they thought was occurring at their schools.

Police Chief Raymond Canterbury said Thursday that untrue rumors were running rampant throughout the city, upsetting parents.

He said some of the unfounded messages said:
Someone was in one of the buildings and shot two students.
A gunman was inside Carlson.
A man who killed children in Delaware was on the loose.
A man being hunted by police was cornered on the Carlson football field.
A gunman was inside one of the schools with students as hostages.

Canterbury said those text messages contributed to the confusion, but police were given some misinformation, as well.

He explained Thursday what really transpired.

Canterbury said Gibraltar police were contacted Tuesday evening by the U.S. Marshals Service, which said it had information that a suspect it was tracking — Daemont L. Wheeler, 29, of Delaware — was hiding in Kingsbridge Apartments.

Initial reports that he was wanted on a homicide warrant proved to be wrong.

Wheeler is suspected of shooting his mother’s boyfriend in Delaware after an argument Nov. 13. The boyfriend survived.

Canterbury said Wheeler is facing charges of felonious assault with intent to murder.

Canterbury said Gibraltar officers, with the assistance of police from Brownstown Township, Trenton, Rockwood and the U.S. Marshals Service, went after Wheeler, but he fled into a wooded area north of Carlson and west of West Jefferson Avenue.

“There is no way he could have spent the night in the woods,” Canterbury said. “He would not have survived the cold.”

Canterbury said he contacted Carlson Principal Bill Stevenson and apprised him of the situation.

Canterbury said a member of the Detroit Fugitive Task Force, a division of the U.S. Marshals Service, told Gibraltar police they were convinced Wheeler was no longer in the area. He said he contacted Stevenson again and, based on that information, told him schools should open Wednesday as scheduled.

Nevertheless, bus drivers were informed of the events and police were told to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious, Canterbury said.

Police went back on high alert for Wheeler when a bus driver and a couple of residents called to say there was someone suspicious near the railroad tracks between West Jefferson and Old Fort Road.

Another call came in about a suspicious man seen in the Meadowland subdivision. The description fit Wheeler and police mobilized again, this time bringing in officers from Flat Rock, Trenton, Rockwood, Woodhaven, Brownstown, the U.S. Border Patrol and the Downriver Special Weapons and Tactics team.

Gibraltar police Sgt. Larry Williams was first to confirm spotting Wheeler head into the woods.

With more than 30 officers and two police dogs, a perimeter was set up to flush Wheeler north toward Middle Gibraltar Road.

Woodhaven and Border Patrol officers spotted him come out of the woods. As they approached, he surrendered without incident and lay on the ground.

Canterbury said Wheeler was at least a mile away from the locked-down schools and students were never in danger.

“I believe he did leave the area, but came back,” Canterbury said. “Someone may have picked him up. His clothes were dirty and he had 20 cents in his pocket.”

Canterbury said he believes Wheeler might have returned to the apartment area because he had no money and nowhere else to go. The apartment was rented by telephone by a woman in Delaware, Canterbury said.

Police said it is their understanding that the woman told an employee at the apartment complex that someone else was going to be coming there to stay.

Canterbury said the U.S. Marshals Service might be looking for anyone who assisted Wheeler, but Gibraltar police are no longer involved in the case.

Wheeler was taken to the Gibraltar jail, where he stayed for about an hour before U.S. marshals took custody of him.

"He’s probably in Detroit in federal lockup now,” Canterbury said. “He most likely will be extradited back to Delaware.”

Police don’t know why Wheeler was in Gibraltar or how he got here from Delaware. They believe he might have connections in Detroit.

Canterbury said telephones were “ringing off the hook” during the ordeal from concerned residents and parents with children in the schools.

A few parents were critical of the Police Department’s handling of the situation and not making sure school was closed.

One parent sent an e-mail to The News-Herald Newspapers, criticizing the media and police for not informing residents sooner.

Some others, such as Dee Gordon, applauded the swift efforts of police to arrest Wheeler. She praised teachers at Parsons, where her grandson attends.

“Those teachers put themselves in harm’s way to rush the children inside the school,” Gordon said. “I was there when it all went down, and the staff went beyond the call of duty. The police called the school every hour, so the staff was well informed. I think the police did an awesome job.”

Canterbury said it is unfathomable to him that anyone would think he would put students in harm’s way, including his own.

He has a son and a daughter attending Carlson and a daughter at Shumate who were in the lockdown.

Race to the Top: A Quick Look at Delaware's Bid

By Lesli Maxwell on February 2, 2010 
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/state_edwatch/2010/02/race_to_top_a_look_at_delawares_bid.html

It would be a tall order to read every page of 41 Race to the Top applications, but over the next few weeks, I'm going to take a crack at highlighting pieces of some states' bids for a slice of the $4 billion prize.

Today, we'll look at Delaware, a state that is generally regarded as being at the head of the pack when it comes to teacher and principal evaluations and having a useful student data system, two key priorities of the Race to the Top competition.

Delaware's pitch stands out for its proposal on school turnarounds, particularly its emphasis on what amounts to veto power for the state education secretary when it comes to selecting intervention methods for low-performing schools. (See sections E1 and E2 of the application narrative for full details.)

Under new regulations, Lillian M. Lowery, who is the current education secretary, can order any of Delaware's lowest-performing schools to participate in the state's "partnership zone," which effectively forces the leaders in those school districts to choose one of the four turnaround models outlined by the U.S. Department of Education: restart, turnaround, transformation, or closure. If district leaders and their union counterparts either disagree on how to overhaul a particular school or submit a proposal for turnaround that the secretary deems weak, she can override it. In the event that a particular turnaround model doesn't deliver improved results within two years, the secretary can demand a do-over.

By being in the state's partnership zone, though, districts are assured a level of operational flexibility and support from outside organizations to take on the difficult work of school turnaround. You can read about Delaware's participation in this six-state partnership zone project here. And here's a story on the state's application from The News Journal in Wilmington.

Finally, as each state goes about trying to distinguish its sales pitch from everyone else's, this pragmatic argument from Delaware struck me as a smart point to make:

"...Delaware brings another advantage to its reform - its size. With just 126,800 students, 19 districts, and 18 charters, Delaware is small enough to make true statewide reform achievable."

August 23,2009 Dear [Superintendent],


We hope that you are finding your participation in Mass Insight's monthly conference call for the State Turnaround Development Group to be valuable as you think through new strategies for turning around low-performing schools. We plan to continue to support this network of about 12 states on a sustained basis to share information about effective investments in school turnaround and to provide feedback from you to the U.S. Department of Education staff.

As one of a smaller group of states where we have developed a deeper partnership, we are now pleased to offer you the opportunity to participate in an exerting, high-profile national pilot, the Partnership Zone Initiative— a five year, $40 million dollar effort to create scalable and sustainable school turnaround. The Partnership Zone Initiative will bring together public and private support for partner organizations working with states and districts in transforming clusters of under-performing schools.

We believe that this initiative will help you access Race to the Top and other competitive federal funds in order to implement a scalable school turnaround strategy and a sustainable method of improving district systems. Your involvement this fall will also clearly demonstrate that you have moved beyond planning and are taking active steps to implement a turnaround strategy for the bottom 5% of your schools, adopting the President's challenge.

[State] is among the select group of states we are inviting to take the next step in committing to work with us in the Partnership Zone Initiative because of: 1) your commitment to the Partnership Zone framework set forth in the Turnaround Challenge report; 2) your commitment to investing the additional resources necessary for successful turnaround; and the 3) alignment and support of your state and district leadership.

In its first year, the Partnership Zones will be established in up to three states with at least one or two volunteer districts participating in each state (some states may choose to include more). We expect that the first group of finalist states will be selected by November 2009 in preparation to open Partnership Zones for the 2010-2011 school year. We will continue to work with states that are not selected for this first cohort and will seek additional funding to expand the initiative as we go forward.

Final selection of the first cohort of three states for the Partnership Zone initiative will be based on meeting milestones related to the principles summarized below under State and District Commitments. We will provide additional detail on the final selection in the early fall and will actively work with you over the fall to support your preparation for the Initiative.

Appendix E-13

Benefits to Participating States and Districts: A Public-Private Partnership

Private Funding and Strategic Services: Mass Insight is committed to raising $20 million of private national funding this fall for the five year initiative, which will support an integrated team of national strategic partners, and one half of a $2.5 million annual five year budget for a state-based non profit Strategic Partner to support the state's efforts and that of the participating district(s). We will work with the state Strategic Partners to raise the remaining $1.2 million of annual private funding within the state. Services to states and districts wll include:

• National Strategic Partners
Mass Insight will organize and Integrate the services of a leading group of national strategic partners to assist states and districts in strategic planning, state policy analysts, human capital analysis and implementation, district and school budget audits and other critical turnaround activities. To date, the following organizations have agreed to participate in the Partnership Zone Initiative:
o Strategic Planning and Initial Assessments
    • Parthenon Group
    • Apollo Philanthropies
o State Policy Analysis and Recommendations
    • EducationCounsel
o Human Capital Strategy and Implementation
    • The New Teacher Project
o School Needs Assessment/Capacity Review
    • SchoolWorks
o Evaluation/Research
   • RAND Corporation
 
 • Additional Services to States and Districts:
   o Assistance to states in completing turnaround strategy for Race to the Top applications in support of 
      consulting firms working with you on applications;
   o Assistance to states in applying for local and regional funding.

Public Funding for School-Level Implementation: Using federal school improvement and other funds along with a mandated re-allocation of local budgets, public funding will provide the school-level turnaround and Lead Partner support for the school clusters. Public funds will be invested in incentive and other increased compensation for school staff as part of a package extending the school day and providing for staffing flexibility in the Partnership Zones. (See public funding commitments below.)

Appendix E-14

Overview of the Partnership Zone

The core elements of Partnership Zones provide a unique opportunity to create the conditions and support systems necessary to create sustainable, scalable change. States and local districts will support and fund Partnership Zones containing clusters of three to five high-need, low-performing schools, with a commitment to add additional clusters. Lead Partners will sign performance agreements with districts for full authority over staffing, school programs, and all service providers in the school clusters. In return, as part of the performance agreement, Lead Partners will accept full accountability for student performance. In order to support the Zones, states and districts will commit to creating flexible operating conditions for Zone schools with a particular focus on four key elements including:

• People—Who is recruited, hired, and retained
• Time—The length of the school day
• Money—How school budgets are allocated
• Program—The implementation of a rigorous, standards-based curriculum

State and District Commitments
As an initial step in the selection process, we are requesting six key commitments from states and districts identified as first cohort candidates for the national foundation proposal. Final selection of up to three states will be based on the timely ability to meet these commitments as detailed in the additional guidance to be issued in the early fall:

1. Commit to target funds to Partnership Zones (Titte I including 10O3(g), other federal finds) in the range of $750,000 per school per year for the first three years for up to 8-10 schools. While a large portion of the funding will come from new federal and state funds, some of the funding should also come from district re-allocations and budget flexibilities. After three years, some of the start-up costs associated with creating the
Zones will be reduced.

2. Commit to the creation of Partnership Zones with altered operating conditions in order to achieve:
• Funding and regulatory flexibility
• Extended school day
• Flexibility in hiring/program;
3. Commit to work with a nonprofit Strategic Partner on the state level who will support the initiative; act as a fiscal agent for private funding, provide policy support, build leadership coalitions at the state and district levels and provide support for the growth of Lead Partner organizations.
4. Commit to building local capacity by supporting a marketplace of Lead Partners which sign performance contracts with districts for school accountability;

Appendix E-15

5. Commit to the expansion and scalability of Partnership Zones beyond the original cluster, adding additional clusters of schools each year;

6. Commit to align the state's Race to the Top application with Mass Insight's school turnaround framework of Zones and Lead Partners.

Actions Required
We are asking you to indicate your commitment to these principles by signing this letter and returning it to our office by September 11th. Signing this letter indicates your agreement, in principle, to realize the commitments listed above, your willingness to be identified in Mass Insight's national grant proposal, and your interest in moving forward to the next stage of the state selection process.

The Partnership Zone pilot provides an opportunity for states and districts, for the first time, to create the conditions necessary for successful, scalable, and sustainable school turnaround. We look forward to your participation with us in establishing national models for this challenge.

Very truly yours.

William Guenther
President,
Mass Insight




Signature of State Commissioner/Superintertgent of Education Date


Appendix E-16

Click anywhere on the article to link back to Edweek.org

Six States Sign On to School Turnaround Project



By Lesli A. Maxwell

Dozens of schools are slated for aggressive interventions over the next three years under a new, multistate effort that aims to clear hurdles that have hindered previous attempts to improve underperforming schools.


Education officials in Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and New York have agreed to partner with Mass Insight Education and Research Institute, a Boston-based nonprofit group that has developed a set of strategies it says will reverse years of low achievement in schools.


The effort will be fueled in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is channeling billions of extra dollars in federal aid into school improvement, a top priority of the Obama administration.


The Partnership Zone Initiative, spearheaded by Mass Insight, is a $75 million effort that will tap into the $3.5 billion in new Title I school improvement aid that states will receive later this year, as well as private philanthropy.


And if any of the six participating states wins some of the $4 billion in Race to the Top grants also being financed by the economic-stimulus law, a slice of that money could go to districts that elect to be part of the school turnaround project. 

Much of the public money would be used to pay for increased salaries for teachers who are hired to work in the “turnaround” schools and to cover the costs of longer school days, project officials say, and the states have committed to spend roughly $750,000 per year, per school. 



“We saw this as a chance to be a real partner with our districts on one of the most challenging problems we face,” said Dwight D. Jones, the education commissioner in Colorado. “Historically, we’ve been in the business of monitoring our districts. We say, ‘Here’s what you need to do, and we’ll be back to check on you.’ ”


Previously, Colorado didn’t have the staff capacity or other resources to do school turnarounds on any scale or with any staying power, Mr. Jones said. Two districts—one in Pueblo, the other in Westminster—are likely to participate in the Partnership Zone Initiative, Mr. Jones said. The Denver school system is also considering it, he said.

“Now that we do have the resources, we wanted to make sure we spent them well and created the greatest possible impact,” he said.


Blueprint for Change


The partnership-zone strategy was recommended nearly three years ago by Mass Insight in a report called “The Turnaround Challenge.” ("'Turnaround' Work Needs Rethinking, New Report Says," Nov. 14, 2007). Mass Insight researchers laid out a flexible blueprint that states and school districts could follow to create protected “zones” free of traditional rules and operating conditions, such as restrictions on the length of the school day, or central-office hiring practices that give principals no authority to select teachers for their schools.


Under the initiative announced this week, states and school districts will set up specialized units to oversee the work of local “lead” partners, which will be tapped to manage a cluster of three to five low-performing schools and to supervise the broad array of services that each will need to reverse its downward slide.


“Look, we know what doesn’t work, which is the light-touch, drive-by coaches who come once a week to talk to principals in failing schools, or hiring a retired administrator to go into one of these schools to help out,” said William E. Guenther, the founder and president of Mass Insight.


“This isn’t that,” he said. “What we are talking about here is changing the underlying working and operating conditions at these schools that have persistently failed.”


Districts that opt to be part of their states’ zones will select their lead partners, although state schools superintendents will play a role in vetting and approving those partners. Illinois, for example, has already selected a group of potential lead partners for districts to choose from.


Whether the turnaround approach succeeds will hinge, in large measure, on the quality of the lead partners selected to supervise the schools targeted to be turned around, Mr Guenther said.


As envisioned by Mass Insight, lead partners could be local groups dedicated to school improvement, charter-management organizations, or a group of in-house turnaround specialists who are given a wide berth to operate outside regular school district rules. Every state will have to help cultivate the lead partners, Mr. Guenther said.


Regardless of who they are, he said, all lead partners must meet four conditions. They must agree to a multiyear performance contract that holds them accountable for student outcomes in the cluster of schools they manage. They must have the authority to select principals in their schools, and the power to supervise every program or provider that brings in support services. Finally, he said, they must place a staff member at each of the schools to work alongside the principal.


“This is about building real capacity,” Mr. Guenther said. “Simply having a deputy or area superintendent in charge of a network of schools has not been sufficient to actually produce turnarounds.”


In Delaware, education officials are working on strategies to foster home-grown lead partners that districts and schools won’t view as outsiders, said Daniel Cruce, the state’s deputy secretary of education.


“We know there is a need for a high level of trust to do this right,” he said.


Plenty of Advice


As part of the collaboration with Mass Insight, each of the six states will receive advice and services from several national education organizations in the areas of human capital, policy, budgets, and nonacademic supports for children. Mass Insight, in combination with state-based nonprofit groups in each of the states involved, has pledged to raise $30 million to help pay for those services.


The New York City-based New Teacher Project, for example, will conduct in-depth audits of human capital in the districts that participate in their states’ partnership zones.


“We’ll be examining hiring practices, recruiting practices, development programs for teachers, evaluations, retention of top performers,” said Dan Weisberg, the group’s vice president of policy and general counsel. “It will be all of those things that matter so much in every school, but matter in spades when it comes to chronically underperforming schools.”


In Delaware, state education officials expect to target two to four schools in one or two districts for the partnership zone initially, said Mr. Cruce, who is also the chief of staff to Lillian M. Lowery, the state’s secretary of education.


Ms. Lowery, under new regulations in Delaware, will have considerable influence over how the state’s lowest-achieving schools are restructured, a condition that Mr. Guenther said will strengthen the state’s partnership zone.


Once the schools are identified, Ms. Lowery will have authority to select those that she wants to join the partnership zone, Mr. Cruce said. She will negotiate, with the local superintendents, the best turnaround options for those schools, based on data and their history.