Governor And Department of Ed: “Announcing New Education Initiative” Event
I just returned from attending this:
Announcing New Education Initiative
What: Governor Markell and the Department of Education will announce a new initiative to support many of the state’s most disadvantaged students–Joined by state legislators and education and community leaders, the Governor will provide details of the state’s plan.
Who: Governor Markell
Secretary Mark Murphy, Department of Education
State legislators
Education and community leadersWhen: Thursday, September 4th at 10:00 a.m.
Where: Warner Elementary School, 801 W 18th Street, Wilmington
Here’s my summary. (It was extremely difficult to hear so please correct any mistakes I may have made.)
Governor Jack Markell:
6 schools – 3 in Christina (Stubbs, Bancroft, Bayard) and 3 in Red Clay (Warner, Shortlidge, Highlands) will be part of this initiative
Poverty is a big problem, but can’t delay in improving education
Research shows it can be done – cites Boston
New strategies = 6 million dollars = hold them accountable
There will be “unprecedented authority” for school leaders (things like extending the school day, recruiting teachers) – I’d list other things, but I don’t think any were mentioned – the sound quality was awful, so if anyone knows what else “unprecedented authority” included, please let me know.
Accountability for everyone, but parents and teachers were mentioned most often by almost every speaker. Parent accountability was stressed a LOT, but no details were given on how one would achieve this.
Below I will briefly summarize what I heard (and that wasn’t easy to do) from each speaker. (Needless to say, this is not a transcript.)
Guest speakers:
Mervin Daugherty (Superintendent Red Clay): We need to summon the will/ We have to do it now. This is a state issue not a school issue
Freeman L. Williams (Superintendent Christina): New day, new opportunity – opportunity to cut down barriers
Pastor Merredith Griffith (IMAC): Education is a community issue. Excited that action is being taken. Parents and children are/need to be (not sure due to mic quality/traffic) represented.
Councilman Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha: Attended Warner. This is a wonderful opportunity. Not a magic wand, but a step in the right direction. City needs a defined role.
Mayor Williams: I’m sorry, but I couldn’t understand what he said. If anyone else did, please let me know. I did hear part of his closing – Our children are the future.
Senator Margaret Henry: Hold teachers and parents accountable. (Again, it was so hard to hear all she said)
Rep. Stephanie Bolden: Need parent involvement. “We (city schools) have all the resources other schools have.”
*Sorry, but that last statement of Rep. Bolden’s isn’t true and a big part of the problem facing city schools.
Councilman Jea Street: Separate but equal is inherently unequal. As soon as court order lifted we intentionally re-segregated our schools – cites NSA (Neighborhood Schools Act), Choice and Charters. Called for less districts in the city – city has no control. Funding equalization. Has 6 million reasons why he’ll support this initiative.
Okay, here’s the gist of it… This is a “great opportunity” that will cost 6 million dollars and we need accountability.
What? You expected details of the initiative? Me too.
Tags: Education, Featured, Governor Jack Markell
Throw it on the pile with the Clean Water Initiative and Transportation funding initiative.
Way to turn n run, Gov.
So what is the Boston experience that they reference here? I’d like to be able to compare it to this.
I’m not sure, Cassandra. I’ve been searching since I got home.
Note to whoever was in charge of sound for this event – do better.
Could it be this Boston experience? Don’t know.
Snippets are starting to show up. Delawareonline has this clip where Gov. Markell says to go see the progress East Side Charter and Kuumba Charter have accomplished. They have an article accompanying the video which has a few more details – 6 million over 5 years. These 6 schools are now labeled priority schools.
Years ago when the NSA was first talked about I attended an informal meeting in the City County Building hosted by Sam Guy. It was mainly attended by city residents who overwhelmingly were excited about the prospect teaching their own children in their own neighborhood. This was the first time I heard the story about how difficult it is for a single parent with no car to get out of the neighborhood to make it to something a teacher conference or even the Halloween parade. It’s hard to be an involved parent when you have to change buses two times along with a toddler.
$6 million across 3 years (still looking for clarification), divided by 6 schools divided by 180 school days per year, is an infusion of $1851 dollars a day per school.
In almost every other such initiative (Newark NJ and LA CA) the bulk has been siphoned off by consultants.
All relevant parties (inc. you Pandora, Mike, and Kilroy) need to fight every proposal to bring a consultant on board to analyze the problem. We need action; not consultants.
Massachusetts has the best educational system in America and that includes its inner city compared to other inner-cities across America. If searching, go back to the early 90’s when it was begun. and look for Massachusetts Educational Reform Act.
it’s 5 years, you need a downward revision.
What about dissolving the school districts in favor of a county school district? Eliminates millions in administration and helps to even out disparities in property tax funding from one district to another and could help even out disparities in race and socioeconomic status.
What about neighborhood schools, smaller class size, hazard pay for teachers in schools with tougher students and families, and counselors/social workers for every family in the school? More funding for each socioeconomically disadvantaged student? Make schools want to compete to attract disadvantaged students because the payoff would be irresistible.
There’s no reason it can’t be done here.
Oh, right. Except it would take political will and balls.
Nevermind.
Also, where can I find info on how we used Race to the Top funds and whether the state met the goals it used to get the funding?
EvolvDE, I haven’t read this so I’m not sure if this will help. DDOE also has RTTT site.
EvolveDE…
In synopsis form, the short answer to your question is that the money was spent on coaches to teach teachers how to read the testing data and development of the tests and computer infrastructure to support those tests, which are taken online…..
The goals met however, were all handed by the legislature which passed SB 51, HB 165, and HB 334 over the past two years which cost us nothing beyond their usual daily fees. In fact since discussion was kept to a minimum, one could say these bills cost less than say, something more controversial, such as naming a certain day after a local postmaster or something.
To make more sense of what I just wrote, please read page 3 of the first link Pandora posted above mine….
Is this where he tweeted a dominatrix? Way to Go Jack for teaching us what our new career should be and blazing a trail for the rest of the liberal elite.
Know what? There’s more to this than that stupid tweet. I really resent how that tweet overshadowed the initiative for city schools – which no one knows what that initiative entails – there are no details.
Any more comments on that tweet will be deleted because that’s Sarah Palin journalism. Not tolerating it.
“…..overshadowed the initiative for city schools – which no one knows what that initiative entails – there are no details.”
Just like his last initiatives.
Transparent Christina posts the MOU that these schools would have to operate under.
If I read this correctly, this new money is all about paying a new school administrator (160k!) plus some increased pay for teachers. It also makes the schools accountable to the DDOE, with the District in the position of paying the bills with no say in that.
What isn’t here is anything that is in Pandora’s Boston City Connects link. Because *that* would be genuinely revolutionary here. But this doubles down on the privatization effort — as though more money in the pockets of administrators trickles down to better school achievement.
And here’s the end game:
“6. c. The Plan must be submitted to the State by December 31, 2014. If the Plan is not approved by January 9, 2015, the State will elect one of the following options for the School: closure, reopening as a charter, or contracting with a private management organization to operate the School.”
FYI: There won’t be closure since that would involve sending our kids out to the suburbs. My guess is charter… but is there a way to get around the 50% teacher/parent support that’s in the law regarding charter conversion?
Take a look at the Delaware Charter Law:
§ 507 Labor relations.
(a) A public school may only be converted to a charter school by approval of the board of the school district in which it is located and that the charter application received the approval of over 50% of the teachers and over 50% of the parents residing in the attendance area of the school with a child or children under the age of 18 years, who, after 30 days prior written notice to all teachers and parents eligible to vote, attend a public meeting held for the specific purpose of voting on the proposed conversion; provided, however, that such approval shall not be required where a district school board converts a choice school or program with a specific career or academic subject matter focus already approved as of the effective date of this chapter to a charter school with the same focus. The employees of a school converted to a charter school who are not employed by the charter school shall be accorded the rights available to them under the provisions of their collective bargaining agreement and shall, to the extent permissible under their collective bargaining agreement, be given preference in filling positions in the school district.
I always wondered why that area I bolded was in there. Now I know.
Questions:
1. If one of these schools decides to implement extended hours (school year?) will all the children in its feeder still be assigned to this school? What if parents prefer (for any reason) the regular school day? Will they have to choice out – or… will offering an alternative schedule result in making these choice schools where parents must choice in?
2. Would changing the hours of the school day (or maybe simply by being labeled a “priority school”) equate to “program with a specific career or academic subject matter focus” which could then be converted to a charter?
All of the hoopla here made it sound like all of this extra money might be going to a classroom. Now it looks like it is for salaries, in particular for new school leadership. And they can do this without making the case that the leadership is performing badly.
In the corporate world, you can change leadership to get folks who can realign an organization to do what it should do — make money for its shareholders. My dad was the principal of a high poverty school in Baltimore for awhile, so I get the challenges. But it is certainly not clear to me that leadership is the problem in these schools (with the exception of DDOE and District leadership). And it is definitely not clear to me that kids are going to improve with extra administration in the building.
Wow. The last 48 hours have rocked my world on this. Considering no details or plan was actually offered when these folks decided to step before the mic, it’s fascinating to see some of the about-faces I’m getting. Theo Gregory on my Facebook today no says he probably shouldn’t have been standing there after he saw the MOUs that John Young leaked last night.
Expect more real soon from the impacted teachers in these six buildings. We haven’t even started yet. It’s going to get very, very interesting.
New post up on my blog:
http://mindofmrmatthews.wordpress.com/2014/09/06/putting-together-the-puzzle-pieces/
When I saw the media advisory advancing the Markell-Murphy event at Warner, I told a friend I was expecting them to announce the next step in the privatization of Delaware public school’s.
I guess I was almost right.
What we got was an announcement that represented their attempt to conceal their next step in the privatization of public education.
Two points of interest:
1. the only dollar amount mentioned in the MOU is the $160,000 minimum salary for the “school leader.” OK, do the math, six schools by four years by $160K, and rounding up because that’s a minimum, gives you $4 million. And Jack and Mark say this is a $5 million plan. Maybe, just maybe, the school leader won’t be paid entirely out of state funds, and maybe an existing administrator lands in that role … However, at the start, it looks like this gambit is more about fattening the paychecks of six data-driven doctors of school administration than it is about educating the kids in those schools.
2. All teachers at the six schools must reapply for jobs there. While the MOU indicates there will be pay increases for those chosen, the reapplication process, and the likelihood that there will be new job descriptions and perhaps new job titles makes it all sound a bit like what my friends at the News Journal are about to go through. If Jack and Mark are now taking school management lessons from the captains of Gannett’s sinking journalistic ship, I feel sorry for the poor kids (and parents) who will suffer at their hands.
Good points, mediawatch. In reference to number one, though, I will say this. Average principals get paid $120k per year. So that’s already funded. The additional $40k would come from the $6 million funds.
I smell a rat all around on this one.
Mike, if you’re right (and I hope you are), then it’s only $1 million out of the $5 million pot that goes for premium pay for the new school leader.
However, what are we to think of that premium — about one-third more than the typical principal now earns — going to a school leader who does not necessarily have a track record doing what Jack and Mark say needs to be done?
Like you, I smell a rat … and it starts with the key premise of the project, autonomy.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that, under this MOU, your autonomy ends the moment you disagree with Jack and Mark.
um—yeah BOSTON also embarked on a HUGE recruiting effort to train new teachers and send them to school and it cost WAY more than 6 million—also Boston has a history of tackling social issues in a progressive manner with community and academic input. its other social issues We don’t do that in DE. unless it has a corporate stamp of approval so stop comparing apples and blue hens and saying they are the same Gov Markell.
To confirm the comment of kavips regarding Massachusetts School Reform Act of 1993. I helped negotiate it. It had hundreds of millions of dollars for poor school districts sustained over 10 years to settle a long-running state Supreme Court suit. The program announced last week for six DE schools pales in comparison. That’s the short of it.