Let’s be consistent with funding exclusions – but how about not excluding kids in the process!

I read a Delaware Online opinion piece this morning and I wanted to comment. I do believe the funding exclusions should be consistent throughout the state. It is my understanding that the Department of Education approved the exclusions every year. That being said, charters are public schools and they need to open their doors and accept all students just like our school districts do. The charters should not be able to kick their accepted students out of their schools because of grades, attendance or behavior – they should keep those students and provide resources to the students just like our school districts do. Charters want flexibility, the flexibility should not come at the expense of our children. There are Delaware charters that open their schools up to all students, anyone who wants to apply can apply and they will add them to their lottery. Then there are other charter schools that shut their doors, hang a sign “experience needed” – this needs to stop.

We need to stop putting up barriers and work together for “ALL” of our children.

Rep. Kim Williams – 19th District – Delaware

 

 

 

 

When Delawareans vote in their Rep. District (RD) Presidential Primary, some of those votes are actually counted in other Rep. Districts!

The News Journal reported that Representative District 29 was the only RD in Delaware where Bernie Sanders won — I looked up the voting data and Delaware Online reported the wrong numbers — Hillary Clinton won that district. I started looking at the voting data to see if the Election District I live in supported Sanders or Clinton – they supported Sanders. I looked throughout the data to see if any RD supported Sanders over Clinton and I saw that the 13th District supported Sanders over Clinton by only 3 votes — I thought that was odd.

 

Clinton won 1,299 to Sanders 710 29th District.

If you look at the below photo of the votes from the 13th District, it shows that Sanders won that RD by 3.  While I continued to look at the data, I noticed that Election District 09 in the 19th District was missing.  I emailed the Department of Elections to ask why, here is what I was told:

Election Districts are combined in Presidential Primary if they are in the same building since it is all one ballot. Marbrook has both 02-13 and 02-19.  They both reported as 02-13 since that was the lower number.

The 13th District received votes from the 19th District RD from ED 09-19 (Marbrook). The 13th District RD 02-13 and 19th District RD 09-19  (see page 4) share Marbrook Elementary School during elections – they also share votes during the Presidential Primary election. All votes from 09-19 (Marbrook location) were entered into 02-13 – 13th District – I believe that is why Sanders won the 13th District by 3 votes.

Rep. District 13 – 02-13 includes votes from Rep. District 19 – 09-19.

Look at the 19th District vote total below,  you can see that the 19th Election District 09-19 was not reported on the State of Delaware Unofficial Election results.

09-19 voting data is not listed in the above photo.

There are 12 Election Districts in the 19th District and 10 polling locations – two of the 19th District polling locations have 2 ED’s on election day. When the state reports out, they do not show all the ED’s. An example:  If you look at the above photo, 01-19 includes 12-19 voters who vote at DelCastle High School and 07-19 includes 08-19 voters who vote at Stanton Middle School. The above report should reflect where 08-19 and 12-19 voting data is being reported to make it more transparent.

The Representative Districts (RD) should have only their constituents’ votes in a presidential primary election not neighboring districts.

 

University of DE Faculty Senate will vote on an admission requirement making SAT scores optional

It looks like Delaware Department of Education did not reach out to Delaware colleges before making their announcement about SAT scores. DE DOE recently announced that the SAT will replace the 11th grade Smarter Balanced state assessment starting this school year. In a recent Delaware Online article Gov. Jack Markell and DOE stated that Smarter Balanced gives a deeper, more nuanced picture of a student’s academic skills than previous exams., others may disagree with that statement.

I received information that the University of Delaware Admissions Guidelines Committee has made recommendations. The University of Delaware’s Faculty Senate will vote on whether or not to approve a resolution making the SAT/ACT optional as a criterion for admitting Delaware residents starting the class of Fall, 2017.  Many colleges are making submission of test scores optional for students when applying. Higher test scores, skeptics note, are closely associated with socio-economic status, making it harder for low-income kids to get into a good school (and hopefully move up the economic ladder), and easier for high-income students to take the test prep classes that can improve their numbers.

The committee’s conclusion that SAT is not a unique indicator of student success raises important concerns. There is a positive correlation between socio-economic status (SES) and SAT scores, and, in the state of Delaware and broadly across the region, less affluent students are often disproportionately students of color (Civil Rights Project: UCLA, 2014). The reliance on SAT scores as an indicator of academic potential may increase the risk of discouraging less affluent students and those from historically underrepresented groups from applying to UD. This runs counter to the mission and strategic direction of the University.

Last year, the Delaware Department of Education announced that colleges would use Smarter Balanced scores as evidence that students are ready for entry-level, credit-bearing courses and may be exempted from remedial courses.

College readiness indicators keep changing here in the first state.

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Why does the state continue to insist on punishing schools?

I have to say that I am very disappointed that the state may not take the recommendations of the Accountability Framework Working Group who met for over a year and a half. Instead, they are doing exactly what Donna Johnson with the State Board and the Governor’s Office wanted which was stronger penalties for schools who fell below the 95% Smarter Balanced state assessment participation rate.

I was at the last two meetings of the AFWG and I heard first hand what the Governor’s Office wanted; stronger penalties to be placed on our schools. Donna Johnson stated that the State Board was probably not going to approve the final recommendations that the group made. She indicated that the State Board would want stronger penalties as well. Really, how did the State Board come to that conclusion because they were not at the meetings. How would Donna know that they would not agree with these recommendations because the group just decided on the recommendations?

The AFWG recommended that if a school fell below 95 percent it would be required to submit a report explaining why that happened and how to improve participation and that school could not be named a reward school. The group decided on this penalty because it would cause the least amount of damage to a school. The group would have preferred not to put any penalties in place, but the state told the group it was mandated by the feds.

The group members consisted of school administrators from charter and traditional schools, the Delaware PTA , the Delaware State Education Association, and the State Board. The entire group, except for one, did not want to punish schools because the administrators at a school have no control as to whether or not a student takes the state assessment. If a parent wishes to opt their child out of the state assessment, a school has no control over that, so why does the state want to punish that school for something a school has no control over?

In an effort to ensure as many students as possible are taking the state standardized test, the state Department of Education is recommending schools lose points on a new “scorecard” if fewer students than expected take the exam.

That’s a harsher penalty for schools with low participation rates than a panel of administrators and teacher and parent advocates recommended.

Their plan, which the Working Group had previously rejected, would multiply a school’s score by its participation rate if that rate fell below 95 percent.

“The state feels this is a fair proposal that takes into consideration participation, crediting schools that work to ensure every child’s learning growth is considered,” May wrote.

Click here to read the entire Delaware Online article.

Former Chief Medical Examiner Gets No Prison Time, Unbelievable!

When I read that Delaware’s former chief medical examiner was sentenced to about a year probation, I was extremely disappointed. How can someone abuse the system like this guy did and only get probation? This is why folks continue to abuse the system because they know if they get caught nothing is going to happen to them. The state was paying him $198,500 a year, you would think making that kind of money one would appreciate the job a little bit more.

The state medical board will decide if he keeps his license, really, it should be revoked immediately.

He ran a private consulting business that did work in Rhode Island and other states using state employees and supplies.

Over a four-year period ending in December 2013, Callery used several state employees, including an administrative aide, histologist, medical transcriptionist and at least one morgue assistant, as well as his state car, histology slides, histological equipment and paper, prosecutors said.

AG Denn did post the following on on Facebook:

Matt Denn

10 hrs ·

I don’t normally comment on criminal sentencing decisions in this space, but it is important to me that people know that my office asked the court to impose prison time on the state’s former medical examiner for the activity to which he pled guilty. The reporter who wrote this story accurately noted that fact, but it wasn’t universally reported.

To read the entire Delaware Online story, click here: Ex-chief medical examiner gets probation