School funding is complex and can be difficult to change, but change is coming. As the subject of a lawsuit settled in 2020, Delaware’s system is getting a closer look and more attention. Here are five reasons we think change to our education funding system is coming in the near future.

1. The agreements made in the lawsuit settlement by the Governor and his Administration are being met and exceeded. In response to the 2018 lawsuit– brought by Delawareans for Educational Opportunity, the NAACP, and the ACLU–that challenged the constitutionality of our current funding system, Governor Carney settled the case in 2020 and has exceeded his required commitment to additional funding for low-income and multilingual learner students each year by several million dollars. In his proposed FY24 budget, he recommended $53M for these students. In early learning, his proposed budget will double our state pre-k program and increase funding for special education pre-k for the first time in decades.

2. Legislators are showing interest. Last year’s General Assembly instituted a mid-year student count and allocated additional funding to supplement September 30 student count that determines school-year funding. This year, HB 33, lowers pre-K special education child-to-teacher ratios to align with K-three and four-12 grades as agreed upon by the lawsuit. During this past election cycle, funding and teacher compensation were hot topics on the campaign trail: six senators and four representatives included these in their campaign platforms.

3. Related policy areas are gaining significant momentum. The funding system supports policy goals in education, and a few that are gaining momentum are teacher pay, pre-k and multi-lingual learner funding. Last year’s SB 100 created the Public Education Compensation Committee to address a wide range of salary scale issues – and a year before their recommendations are due, the Governor has proposed a 9% increase in his budget. Pre-k will be increase for the first time since it was created in the 1990s; a coalition has been pushing for a broad expansion for several years. And, the Governor’s Advisory Council for English Learners recently released their final report and a coalition issued fact sheets, both requesting state investments in student supports and educators.

4. The Independent Assessment underway is required to make recommendations to improve outcomes for students, equity and efficiency. American Institutes of Research (AIR), a national research firm, was selected as the vendor for the independent funding assessment and they are conducting an analysis of the current system, comparison with other states, and developing recommendations with timelines. To supplement the data in the report, AIR will also be conducting educator panels to incorporate educator voice and to determine funding levels necessary to educate each student. In similar projects, AIR has recommended a student-based funding system with more resources to adequately fund special populations of students. The report is expected to be completed between November of 2023 and January of 2024.

5. Education system leaders and community-based advocates are coming together to advance the issue. The Vision Coalition is planning a series of information sessions featuring local and national speakers, to lay the groundwork for the funding assessment coming out at the end of this year. This group represents the broadest coalition of stakeholders: superintendents, charter schools, the

Delaware State Education Association, higher education institutions, the Department of Education, school boards, community-based organizations, faith community, and businesses. The Student Success 2025 plan, published by this group, recommends increasing funding system equity by factoring student needs into funding allocation and updating the system so that funding follows the student. They also recommend allocating more into flexible funds, allowing districts and schools to use funding to address their individual needs. In a 2018 report conducted by the group, there was consensus among Delawareans on a focus on how funding is spent—not just how much funding is spent; the importance of building on the strengths of the current system; and prioritizing equity, flexibility, stability, and transparency. Will we join other states like Tennessee and Maryland, that have made significant shifts in how and how much they support students and educators? As we get closer to the 2024 gubernatorial election, school funding action will be ready to go– with analysis and recommendations made public, advocates engaged, and stakeholders better aligned. The window of opportunity for greater equity and excellence is now, and Delaware will find its own unique way to learn from other states and build on the strengths of its current system. To learn more about Delaware’s funding system and to keep up on online and in-person events to engage, please visit the Vision Coalition site at https://visioncoalitionde.org/.

I was honored last Sunday to serve as a judge for the latest installment of the MLK Voice4Youth program, a spoken-word competition for middle and high school students. Their charge was to follow the trail blazed by Dr. King by speaking up for change through their performances.

An eighth-grader named Ayomikum Adeojo from Newark Charter Junior High took this year’s competition by storm, winning the middle school competition and the overall competition.

All seven finalists were amazing. Some used soaring rhetoric, others rap. All of them involved a deep analysis of King’s life and work. They had clearly studied his speeches well beyond his more well-known, letter from Birmingham Jail or the “I Have a Dream” speech, and not only interpreted them, but brought personal reflections on how his words impacted their lives and are still relevant today. We in the nonprofit/advocacy space can do more to uplift the voices of our students when it comes to making policy and shaping our shared priorities.

Check out all the 2023 finalists’ speeches here. Ayomikum’s comments begin at about minute 54, he was announced as Contestant Four, but I recommend you taking a look at all seven. They are only about five minutes each. As we move into 2023, I hope it renews your faith in the power of the next generation. It did for me.

Scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a countrywide assessment for K-12 students known to insiders as the “nation’s report card,” were released earlier this week. And as observers like Future Ed have pointed out, the results paint a stark picture of the educational fallout from COVID-19.

The assessment—which captures student proficiency in math and English language arts in fourth and eighth grades—revealed “declines in every state between 2019 and 2022. In two thirds of states, proficiency rates dropped in both subjects and in both tested grades.”

Delaware wasn’t spared from the dips, with declines in all four categories. And increasing the urgency to act is that the gaps in performance that went along with race and economic standing have only expanded.

Unlike the long-term trends NAEP assessment data from earlier this year, these data points show scores are still up from where they were 20 years ago. And with the massive shifts wrought by the pandemic, including remote learning and waves of economic and health distractions at home, this outcome was expected by many. NAEP assessments also carry certain limitations, including the logistics of a fully online test that only takes place during a specific testing window. This, plus the fact that students know there are no academic implications for their performance, decreases motivation for students to do well. In addition, NAEP only shows a snapshot of student performance at a given time and does not reflect accumulated growth over the year.

As Secretary of Education, Mark Holodick told Town Square Delaware: “These scores align with what we saw in our state assessment when comparing pre-pandemic to post-pandemic assessment results,” Holodick said. “Just as the losses didn’t occur overnight, we know recovery won’t happen overnight either. But our educators, school leaders and state leaders are committed to providing supports to help students accelerate their learning and make up for lost learning during the pandemic.”

The question is: Now what? As we wrote last month, this could be an opportunity to double down in a few key areas, from investing in early learning and real-world experience through career pathways.

The good news is that we know some elements of our national strategy were working. As Education Next and others point out, performance nationally on NAEP was moving up over the last decade-plus.

But the results affirm what teachers have been telling us the last few years: that we need to do more to support our students in the wake of COVID-19, especially in math and reading. Delaware has committed to improving literacy in recent years, including developing a statewide literacy plan, and has a math plan under development. The state has focused resources on getting high-quality resources and training to educators.

Significant investments of ARP funds and state funds are being directed to learning acceleration to address these score gaps.

Several outlets have shared out best practices on math instruction, which can be leveraged to improve outcomes for students in this learning recovery period. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommends encouraging math discourse and leveraging student thinking by posing purposeful questions. EdWeek also outlines some best practices as it relates to teaching mathematics that also promote student-led math exploration and discovery.

We saw this coming. As “Good to Great” author Jim Collins would say, we have seen the “brutal facts.” It’s time to double down on our efforts to achieve our collective vision of equity and excellence for all our public school students.

. . .

Notes:

NAEP reports results using widely accepted statistical standards; findings are reported based on a statistical significance level set at 0.5. Only those difference that are found to be statistically significant are referred to as “higher” or “lower.”

Math Assessment Sample: Representative samples of students from across the nation participated in the 2022 mathematics assessment as follows: 116,200 fourth-graders from 5,780 schools and 111,000 eighth-graders from 5,190 schools.

Reading Assessment Sample: Representative samples of students from across the nation participated in the assessment as follows: 108,200 fourth-graders from 5,780 schools and 111,300 eighth-graders from 5,190 schools.

Both assessments were administered digitally to the above samples.

 

Next week marks the potential next step in a multiyear process led by Governor John Carney to bring together the Wilmington community to support schools in the city. As the state’s most populous city, with a history of structural racism and persistent poverty, Wilmington often stands apart in policy conversations—especially when it comes to supporting our city’s children. Starting next Monday, October 10, after decades of efforts, some key votes will be made by school board members of three of the districts serving these children—Brandywine, Christina, and Red Clay. The big question on the table: Should they support an initiative called the Wilmington Learning Collaborative (WLC)?

While there are still valid questions about the structure and governance of the WLC, we are impressed by the commitment the Governor, the son of Wilmington educator, has dedicated to this effort and we’re optimistic about the opportunities it provides. At its base, it provides a focused team dedicated to these schools to help with sharing of best practices and empowering the educational leaders in those schools to build the partnerships with the community they need to better support their students.

At Rodel, we are focused on policy, advocacy and partnerships to help build an excellent and equitable system of public education in Delaware. Here are just a few ideas that we believe could support these schools.

Expand efforts to grow our own strong and diverse teacher workforce. Delaware continues to grapple with two historic challenges when it comes to its teacher workforce. First, there are simply not enough teachers to keep pace with projected student growth. And second, the teachers that are in our classrooms and educator prep programs do not look like the students they serve. Red Clay and other districts have already started new efforts to attract and retain teachers, especially teachers of color, to these schools. This is an opportunity to expand this effort across these schools and build new partnerships with our higher education partners.

Broaden efforts to support our youngest learners. Families in Delaware today struggle to find available, high-quality, and affordable care. Instead, they often find long waitlists, closing childcare centers, and untenable schedules. Childcare workers continue to earn minimum wages and lack health insurance. Local businesses have rallied around childcare as a lever for economic growth.

Gov. Carney and legislators made historic investments in childcare and state-sponsored pre-K earlier this year—including a $3.7 million chunk of funding allocated to the Redding Consortium in next year’s budget is expected to support additional pre-K slots in Wilmington. The WLC is a great opportunity to build a coherent set of services that will  improve children’s school readiness and lifelong health.

Accelerate literacy. Especially in the wake of COVID, children statewide have taken a step back when it comes to reading and writing by third grade, a critical benchmark for success in school over time. Of the nearly 37,000 low-income students in Delaware, only 33 percent are proficient in reading by fourth grade. Challenges tend to be more acute in schools like those in consideration for the WLC. In response, Gov. Carney released the Delaware Literacy Plan in 2019 and allocated ongoing state resources to support teacher training, classroom materials, and summer learning supports, and evidence-backed literacy approaches. The WLC provides an opportunity to double down on these efforts and a chance to forge new partnerships across district lines.

Engaging in this new approach comes with some risks, but continuing on the same course presents its own risks. There’s good reason to feel optimistic if these three local school boards move forward in the affirmative on the Memorandum of Understanding regarding the Wilmington Learning Collaborative later this month. For our part, we welcome the chance to partner with them in supporting Wilmington’s schools.