The Echo

Delaware Folklore, DOE, DSTPs, and thensome...

Roadblocks...

Some years ago, when the railroad crossing on Rt 7 just past Christina's Eden Center, was under construction, a misguided driver decided to forego caution and went headlights first into a crater where there had once been a solid surface. 

Playing Chicken...

Now, the natives know that the purpose of those craters is to shelter the cervesas from the sun.  No one likes skunked beer! One summer some years back, "beer drops" (as they are affectionately referred to) sprung up all over Newark.  Neighborhood kids would hang out at Old Oak terminus in Newark, watching the Lazy Daisy Construction company take breaks in an umbrella-covered subterrainean refuge.  The kids made a game of it.  The ultimate prize:  The blue cooler.  No one ever won.  The construction workers who could drag out a mile-long repaving project for three months easy were like stealth secret agents if you ever got too close to the treasure.

The Department of Education...

Last Thursday, DSTP results were released to the school districts ... with an embargo that is being used to prevent locally-elected school board members from viewing the data including district, school, and/or state generated reports. The Embargo, itself, is an annual rite in DOE.  They want the data sanctified by the State Board of Education.  I can understand that, but there are other devices in play here, not the least of which is Race to the Top.  No Sir, this is not a normal year.  We have RTTT to contend with and its DeDOE-imposed deadlines that come due before the embargo is scheduled to be lifted on July 15th.  Most school boards will want to sign off on these plans, but based on the nature of the embargo, they will be denied by the Department of Education the ability to make data-driven decisions, the same decision-making process stipulated by the state's RTTT application and the districts' MOUs with the state.

Talk about roadblocks and playing chicken.  If I was a conspiracy theorist, I'd think that there was something in that aggregated data that DOE doesn't want seen. By whom?  School boards?  By USDOE?  Should I surmise that this is another strong arm tactic by DOE to usurp local control from the publically elected boards?  Let's face it -- We - local members - don't serve at the pleasure of the Governor, we're not appointed;  we are elected to represent the public.  We take an oath to support public education and uphold the laws regarding it.  We're not paid.  Most do this job because they genuinely care about the direction of education.  I'm starting to understand why the Delaware Code stipulates that school board members cannot be paid.  And I can sum it up in two words:  competing interests.

The problem, as I see it, is that local boards are at the end of a long line.  The memo from DOE did not come to me, an elected official.  It was addressed to District Test Monitors and cc'd to everyone under the education sun, except board members.  I have in my possession an email directive from Delaware's Secretary of Education, Lillian Lowery, directing my board's employee - our superintendent - to notify "constituents/board members" that the data cannot be shared until the embargo is lifted.  Now I know that I am walking a fine line, and I am aware that my next statement will sound flat-out pompus, but the last time I checked, superintendents were employed by their boards, and not the Secretary of Education.  And perhaps I am erroneous, but I believe that it is the obligation of our Secretary of Education to provide the DSTP data first to the boards and only then to the superintendents.

There's a hierarchy at play here and DOE is distorting its role and the chain of command.  My opinion, of course. Now, if DOE wants Christina or any other district as its own, and wants the liability of employing its superintendent, then I suggest they need to invoke the revised code as far as dissolution of boards and receivership of districts.  And until they take that action, DOE is obligated to share DSTP data with boards immediately because their actions on this matter are preventing board members from upholding the oath and doing their jobs. 

Look, I just want to do my unpaid job well.  You have a tool I need?  You claim that you're collaborative?  Come on, come over, collaborate with me!  My lights are on.  Can you say the same?

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As for beer dops?  Did we ever find out what treasures lay in the bottom of those craters?  I'd tell you, but that information is EMBARGOED until further notice.