NAEP Math Scores, comparing Delaware’s 2009 scores with 2015 scores

Delaware won the Race to the Top grant back in March of 2010. We received a total of $119 million dollars. The NAEP scores were released and by looking at the scores Delaware is no better off today compared to 2009.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest nationally representative​ and continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do in various subject areas. The students do not prepare for this test and no one receives a grade. It is given every other year in every state. It is run by the Commissioner of Education Statistics, who heads the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department of Education, is responsible by law for carrying out the NAEP project. The National Assessment Governing Board, appointed by the Secretary of Education but independent of the Department, sets policy for NAEP.

When you look at the NAEP “State Profiles” Delaware’s 4th grade math the average scale score for Delaware it is the same as it was in 2009 (239) and Delaware is one point lower than the 2015 National Public score. Comparing today’s scores to 2009, Delaware has a higher percentage of students below basic compared to 2009. We have a lower percentage of students at or above basic and one percent higher at or above proficient compared to 2009. Delaware has the same percentage of students at advanced as we did in 2009.

Delaware’s 8th grade math, the average scale score in 2009 was 284; Delaware was two points higher than the National Public score in 2009. Delaware’s scale score today is 280, one point lower than the National Public score; we have dropped 4 points compared to 2009. Comparing today’s scores to 2009, Delaware has a higher percentage of students below basic, a lower percentage of students at or above basic and a lower percentage of students at or above proficient compared to 2009. Delaware saw a one percent increase of students at advanced compared to 2009.

Multi-billion dollar policies that have most assuredly contributed to the embarrassing drop in NAEP scores

We’ve had 15 years of education reform policies under Bush/Obama/Markell.  Those policies have included — but are not limited to — more charter schools, more testing, most consultants, RttT, fewer reading and math specialists, more bloated bureaucracy at the Department of Education, more threatened school closures and turnaround, PLCs, “deep data dives,” “rigor,” “grit,” Teach for America, priority schools, focus schools, focus plus schools, Charter School Performance Fund monies for schools who a) don’t show a financial need for it or b) have shown no track record to deserve it, data coaches from FOX News’ Wireless Generation…need I go on?

The same policies and ideologies towards which millions of dollars have been ostensibly wasted all in the name of student achievement and heightened teacher accountability that could have been used to provide immediate supports to our neediest of schools. These are the policies of the last 15 years that have attempted to corporatize and privatize our schools.

And you know what? They’ve failed. Miserably. The gold standard of assessment — the NAEP — tells us we’ve failed. And you know who takes this stuff the hardest? The classroom teachers and specialists who’ve been saying for years that failed policies under two presidential administrations and this governor have given many cause to quit well before they’ve hit their peak.

It’s too late for the kids who’ve already gone through the system these last 15 years. Will we have the courage to stop the insanity NOW so we don’t risk the future of the next generation of kids?

Mike Matthews

Delaware Department of Education playing a shell game – Delaware State News | Delaware State News

As a legislator, this is so frustrating, seeing how the positions were funded using vacant positions. How many vacant positions did the Department of Education have to use to fund these positions: 8, 10, 15, 24, 30 – no one knows.

Last spring, the Delaware Department of Education asked for $7.5 million to, among other things, continue funding 10 Race to the Top positions. The Joint Finance Committee was quite clear on the subject when we told DOE, “No.” We gave them $3.75 million as direct pass-through money to go to programs in schools and very […]

Source: Delaware Department of Education playing a shell game – Delaware State News | Delaware State News

Race to the Top and How the State Continues to Fund the Expired Grant

Once again Delaware’s Governor has chosen to add to the ever burgeoning Department of education bureaucracy in Dover. In this instance there has been a particular concerning manipulation of the General Assembly’s intentions and authority. When the Governor’s budget was originally presented it included $7.5 million to continue Race to the Top (RTTT) initiatives funded by expiring federal funding. In that $7.5 million was a proposal to create and fund ten positions created under RTTT and place the funding burden on Delaware’s taxpayers. I, and others, had consistently and persistently warned that it would be unacceptable for the taxpayers to assume the costs of continuing the failed policies of the federal education reform movement known as RTTT. When the full $7.5 million was challenged and halved, I and other GA members were assured that the remaining $3.75 million added to the budget would not be used to fund those positions and that essentially those temporary employees would not be continuing once the RTTT federal funding expired. In what has become a commonplace practice under this Administration there has been a deliberate effort to manipulate and circumvent the intentions and will of the General Assembly. This Governor has stated time and again that his efforts to shrink government involved freezing vacant positions and the funding for those positions as part of his austerity plan to balance the budget. It therefore becomes even more striking that the Governor and DOE have continued their expansion of the Department of Ed bureaucracy, which has grown over 10% in recent years, with the addition of these ten positions to the budget despite assurances that these jobs would not be funded except by RTTT monies. I only discovered this secretive maneuver by happenstance when I requested a full and specific accounting of the use of the budget approved $3.75 million from the Controller General’s office. The email chain that follows shows the specifics of that budget addition and is accompanied by the rather shocking revelation that the ten temporary RTTT positions were being added to the DOE bureaucracy funded by Delaware taxpayer money.

 Representative John Kowalko (25th District)

Delaware Leadership Project all candidates to work in lower performing schools for 3 years what happened?

• Delaware Leadership Project is an alternative route to principal certification for teachers who aspire to lead the state’s lowest performing schools. The Delaware Leadership Project is ran through Innovative Schools.
• The School Improvement Grant describes the program in more detail.
• The Leadership Project is operated by a nonprofit organization (Innovative Schools) that has experience working with the state’s low-performing public and charter schools (I was not aware that Innovative Schools has so much experience working in the state’s lowest performing schools). DDOE opted for an external provider for the program (rather than an established educational institution such as a university or school district) to secure independence in the recruitment, selection, evaluation, and dismissal of candidates. (Interesting that DOE would not actually want an educational institution providing these services. It is also interesting that DOE points out that they would want an independence in recruitment, selection, evaluation, and dismissal of candidates, not really sure I understand that statement.)
• The Delaware Leadership Project is a 15-month fellowship program for aspiring principals that begins and ends with two full summers of training and includes a school-year residency during which candidates work under a mentor principal in a low-performing school. The program, which is free for participants, also leads to a principal certificate. Participants receive a stipend of up to $65,000 based on their present salaries. The Leadership Project is funded through the state’s Race to the Top grant as well as two private foundations.(Now that Race to the Top Funds are gone, who is actually paying for this program?) Program graduates must make a commitment to work in one of Delaware’s low-performing schools for at least three years after completion of the program; however, there is no guarantee of a principal’s position at the end of the 15 months. (On Innovative Schools website, they do not advertise that the candidate must work in a low performing school, 
• Some of the folks who have graduated from the program have been place into some of our schools. Not all of the schools where these folks have been placed are low performing schools, so my question is how can this be? Two of the candidates were sent to Forest Oak Elementary School and Conrad Schools of Science neither one of these schools is a low performing school.)  Click here to see candidates.
• To be eligible for this program you must have a valid teacher certification from any state or from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, (Interesting, Delaware does not have reciprocity with every state.) 

What are the selection criteria for Delaware Leadership Project aspiring principals?

 

Admission to the Delaware Leadership Project is highly selective. In order to be eligible for the program, candidates must have:

• A master’s degree in any field from a regionally accredited college or university
• A minimum of three to five years of teaching experience
• Valid teacher certification from any state or from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards 
• A graduate school GPA of 3.0 or higher
• A willingness to commit in writing to working in the Delaware public school system for 3 years upon graduation from the program

Read more about the Delaware Leadership Project click here.