In Case You Stayed Home Due to the Weather…

At last Thursday’s State Board of Education meeting, DOE presented updates on Race to the Top Implementation, including planning, assessment and data.

Implementation planning is underway at both the state and district levels. Delaware DOE’s partnership with the Education Delivery Institute is yielding “Delivery Plans” that will monitor their progress against the timelines outlined in their application – and receiving praise from the U.S. DOE as an example for other states to follow. 

Secretary Lowery highlighted the LEA Support Program, which has helped bring superintendents and other district leaders together in a rigorous planning process through the analysis of current shortcomings and developing plans that address these needs.  The first section of the plans is due January 17, with the final plans due in April.

The initial DCAS results are looking good.  Students across the state are either where they were expected, or ahead of, to be on the interim standards; however, these standards will continue to be revisited to ensure we are setting an appropriate target for our students.  The DOE highlighted the need to develop an item bank, ensure item validity, and communicate about the results to ensure a successful transition to the new system. 

The use of data  was credited in contributing to the state’s decreasing dropout rate. And through an enhanced data infrastructure and dashboard, as proposed in Delaware’s winning Race to the Top application, additional data will be available and increasingly accessible.     

Coming up, look for announcements of the contracts awarded by DOE for the data and development coach positions.