Tucked away in President Obama’s $3.8 trillion federal budget was a $5 billion competitive grant program aimed at elevating the teaching profession to its rightful status – which could have significant and long-lasting effects on teacher quality throughout the United States. The fund, called the RESPECT Project (Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching), [...]
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Delaware RTTT Early Learning Challenge Out of the Starting Gates
The hard work has begun; after a short celebration for Delaware’s nearly $50M award for the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge, the Governor’s Office and Departments of Education, Health and Social Services, and Services for Children, Youth, and their Families are beginning to build capacity to implement all our commitments. Two initiatives were [...]
National AP Test Report: Delaware Trails in Advanced Placement
Earlier today the College Board released its 8th annual AP report, highlighting data and trends on AP test participation and results of the nation’s 2011 graduates. The report says that the nation’s graduates are not as college ready as they should or need to be—and Delaware is no exception. DDOE’s press release trumpeted “More Delaware [...]
No Longer a “D” for Delaware
It’s been a busy couple of years for education policymakers, especially when it comes to “teacher quality.” And with all the recent apprehension about teacher evaluation and DPAS II—and all the revisions that have occurred—it’s easy to forget about the progress we’ve made. But the fact of the matter is that we have made progress—more [...]
Delaware Still Leads National Pack Despite Mid-Course Corrections
Secretary Lowery recently announced changes to DPAS II for this year as well as highlighting that more changes are upcoming for the next school year – all of which will impact various decisions, including bonuses for “highly-effective” educators and tenure decisions. For this school year, all teachers will be evaluated based upon Components I-IV, which [...]
Waiver Presents Opportunity to Reorient State’s Turnaround Strategy
After seeking input from various stakeholders throughout the state, the Department of Education will submit their final ESEA waiver application to the feds on February 6th, outlining our state’s vision for education reform in the coming years – with a particular focus on revamping our accountability system for school recognition and support. Parts I and [...]
State of the State: Governor Markell Remains Dedicated to Education
On January 19th, Governor Markell gave his annual State of the State address to the General Assembly. This speech provides an opportunity to gauge the priorities of the executive branch, and this year Governor Markell did not disappoint. He noted a continued commitment to supporting business and bringing jobs to Delaware, attracting and keeping business [...]
Delaware Maintains C+ Average As a Few States Pass Us By
Delaware maintained our C+ average while falling three places from last year to 25th among states according to Education Week’s recently released Quality Counts report, which measures states’ progress across six categories (chance for success, K-12 achievement, transitions and alignment, school finance analysis, the teaching profession, and standards, assessments, and accountability). Key findings from the [...]
Happy 2012: Full Steam Ahead
As we take stock of 2011 and look to 2012, we ask ourselves: Are we closer to creating world-class schools for Delaware’s children? For me the answer is clearly, “yes.” In fact, if Delaware’s public school system were a train, it would be moving at full steam. Why? In 2011, the state adopted higher standards, [...]
