At the State Board of Education committee meeting on February 21^st, Secretary Murphy recommended revocation of the charter of Pencader Charter Business and Finance School.  The State Board unanimously voted to enact his decision, which will close the school at the end of this academic year.  The Department of Education will host meetings with students and their families to address the transition to other schools in Delaware.  The closing of Pencader Charter is understandably difficult and emotional for students, teachers, and the entire school community. Yet, this act was a bold and necessary step toward improving the quality of all charter schools in Delaware.  This event warrants another look at the upcoming performance frameworks for charter schools in Delaware.

Charter schools offer school leaders greater flexibility to utilize innovative models and operate with autonomy, but with that opportunity comes increased responsibility.  Serving students with high-quality choice options is the ultimate goal.  With that in mind, the State Board of Education, the Delaware Department of Education, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and charter school advocates proposed charter school performance frameworks, which the State Board of Education approved in September.

As detailed on our blog this past July, the three frameworks will focus on:

• Academic, including DCAS proficiency, growth-to-proficiency (a new measure assessing on track to proficiency within three years or by 10^th grade), and SAT and graduation rates for high schools. Each category will receive a score (exceeds, meets, does not meet, far below).
• Organizational, including mission, governance, whether or not they meet the needs of students, and their staffing information. Each category will be determined meets or does not meet.
• Financial, including near and long-term metrics, such as debt-to-cash ratios, cash flow, and total margin. Each category will be determined meets or does not meet.

Beginning this summer, DCAS data will be used to weigh decisions regarding charter authorizations and renewals.  These frameworks will be a clear determination on how Delaware’s charter schools are serving our state’s children.  It is important to stress the necessity of high-quality and accountability in all schools so that we can ensure children are being served at the highest standard.

As the legislature moves forward to review Governor Markell’s proposed budget, it was inspiring to see that the Governor’s State of the State reflected his vision for education in Delaware well before he was elected Governor. In his “Blueprint for a Better Delaware”, then Treasurer Jack Markell outlined his policy goals to make Delaware’s schools globally competitive.   On January 17^th, Governor Markell gave his annual State of the State address to the General Assembly, and the blueprint continues to guide his policy initiatives for our state’s future overall and education specifically.

Education initiative highlights from the 2013 State of the State:

• Work with higher education institutions to strengthen the admissions requirements and create more rigorous teacher preparation programs.
• Create role of Teacher Leader with appropriate compensation.
• Re-examine that pay structure so we can incentivize teaching in high-need schools and critical subjects, raise starting teacher pay, and reward teacher leadership.
• Establish a central location for information on Delaware’s schools and create a common application to make it easier to apply to multiple schools.

Compare these initiatives to the policy goals outlined in the Blueprint for a Better Delaware authored by Governor Jack Markell and you won’t be surprised.

• “Recruit students with the highest academic potential into teacher preparation programs.”
• “Create mid-and late-career roles that provide additional compensation for different types of non-management work within the schools (e.g., new teacher training, academic leadership, curriculum development, peer mentoring.)”
• “Create economic incentives for teachers to make long-term commitments, including additional salary stipends and/or contributions to deferred compensation accounts.  These are especially important in hard-to-staff schools in order to attract skilled, veteran teachers to difficult teaching environments.”

It is encouraging that education policy continues to be at the forefront for Governor Markell, and each year has focused on new initiatives from his plan. Our state continues to make strides, and he should be commended for the successes of initiatives proposed in his Blueprint, such as the world language immersion program and the commitments to early learning. Much work remains to be done, but we can be optimistic about the path set forth by Governor Markell as he continues to move ahead making the education of Delaware’s children his priority.

Last week the State Board of Education hosted its monthly meeting where forward momentum was the theme for the day.

A presentation on the performance evaluation dashboards, which are a product of the school districts’ Race to the Top Success plans, revealed the evaluation structure utilized for tracking district progress on Race to the Top implementation goals.  These dashboards create a common set of measures statewide that all Delawareans can use to assess the performance of each district.  More importantly, they will offer perspective, based on DCAS student learning data, into what Race to the Top initiatives have been successful, which have not yielded intended results and finally what is worth replicating in additional schools. While DCAS results were the end of school year focus in 2012, additional measures are being built into the dashboards for the future.  In addition to providing transparency around performance, these dashboards enable the Delaware Department of Education and districts to communicate clearly around a common language of success.  All 19 school districts are participating, and the district-based dashboards will be available to the public.

Board members also took action on an amendment to the regulations pertaining to the student and organizational performance reviews of charter schools.  The changes reflect a process to adopt standards by which to evaluate existing charter schools’ success as well as future applicants for renewal and authorization.   Charter schools will be required to establish a performance agreement that outlines the financial, organizational and performance expectations that will become part of the school’s charter.  This is an ideal step toward creating accountability on the part of school leaders, the Department of Education and the State Board of Education to create and sustain quality charter schools for Delaware students.

In addition, the Board reviewed a summary of the 2011-2012 DCAS results, indicating an overall growth in math and reading.  There also was an update on the DCAS Alt Assessment.   The alternative assessment will have similar standards established by DCAS and will be just as challenging an assessment for the non-special needs population.  The operational field assessment will offer three different starting point and stopping points.

On January 19^th, 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 through an investment in infrastructure, addressing the health care needs of the state, and to providing a quality public education system.  The value of a strong education system is clearly not lost on our governor as it prepares the workforce for the future and also provides a significant draw for existing companies to relocate to our state.

In terms of education initiatives there were a number of highlights from the 2012 State of the State:

• Moving forward with the Performance Appraisal System (DPAS II), with its focus on student progress.
• The World Language Expansion Initiative began with the requirement to take a foreign language to qualify for graduation, but also creates language immersion programs in twenty schools statewide over the next five years.
• Follow through on commitments to early childhood educations, as outlined in the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge application which includes training for early child care professionals, improved teaching and learning tools, monitoring of programs to learn from the successes and challenges, and finally a new kindergarten assessment.

It has been said that Delaware is a national leader based on its plan for improving the state’s education system and the subsequent award of the Race to the Top grant in 2010 and the Early Learning Challenge – Race to the Top grant in January 2012.  We’ve made great strides as a state in planning, and Governor Markell acknowledged, “I realize there are those who are uncomfortable with the changes that are being made and that not all of these changes will work exactly as intended on day one.”  As the details of some complex and important initiatives are being ironed out – such as DPAS II and the kindergarten assessment design—we remain committed to forging ahead without letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.