Brader Elementary Needs the our Community's Help to Build Wheelchair Accessible Gardens! Will you join me and make a gift?

Dear Christina and Friends,

Brader Elementary School, as a participant in the healthy school initiatives, has an established gardening program that brings students together to cultivate healthy foods that they can then enjoy.  Brader is a part of a replication project already successful at many elementary schools across Delaware. 

However, Brader Elementary wants to go one-step further.  This wonderful school community wants to expand to include a wheelchair accessible gardens.  I am excited when I see local school leadership and student communities who show their support and connection to our very special students!  The Brader Community values special children!  

Please join me and harvesting funding for this awesome cause!  Our family has already committed our donation.  And you can to! (And if you can't donate, you can help by sharing this message through your blog or social network!)

Let's show Brader that we all value special children and the school's commitment to engaging all kids in all school programs!  Brader's students have already set the example.  As a community of Delawareans, let's commit to the funds to build this garden!  Brader needs $2,500 by February 28, 2013.  Here's how you can help:

Help Brader raise funds to build a handicapped accessible garden!

Donate through:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/brader-elementary-school

We are trying to raise $2500 to add to our vegetable garden area for our special needs students. Donate through February 28th!

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Dear Delaware, Your Governor is a Bully and Local Control is Dead

My very deeply personal statement to Christina constituents.  This is my opinion and only mine.

Dear Christina,

Tonight, I ceded to the political coercion thrust upon our district through the media manipulation and propaganda campaign purported by the Governor of Delaware and his Department of Education to cripple our board's good faith action to rectify what I truly believe was the poor implementation of the PZ teacher selection process.

I voted with my fellow board mates to rescind the April 19th board action to retain and retrain our teachers at their current campuses.  There has never been a more tortured dilemma before me.  I continue to believe that the Department of Education failed to promote collaboration when they chose to freeze our funding without expressing their concerns directly to the board and giving us the opportunity to re-evaluate and initiate corrective action.

The spirit of collaboration is now dead.  There is no "kinder, gentler DOE," as representatives have so publicly proclaimed.  There is no desire to learn and share best practices.  There is only their way or the highway. Christina, for my naiveté, I am deeply sorry.  I will not rest well tonight.  The weight of this failure weighs much too heavily in my heart. While I am committed to continue the reforms that our community has supported, I will forever know that my vote on April 19th was right, appropriate, fair, and in the best interest of our students. 

The vote I cast tonight, Christina, was for you, to walk the path delineated by the Department of Education, if Christina is ever to reclaim the $11 million stolen from our children.  The future is in their hands.  Apparently, it always has been. 

Jack Markell for President, he'll be right at home in Washington D.C.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth

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Open Letter to the Residents of the Christina School District

Dear Christina Constituents,

In a few hours C&E 1st will go on hiatus for three days as I hit the wilderness with my girl scout troop.  Before I go, I want to address an article in today's News Journal, Delaware schools: Christina board violated FOIA, AG's Office rules.

In March, I found myself in a difficult place.  The board had convened a public meeting that in my opinion was not properly noticed in accordance Delaware State law.  The night before the meeting, a fellow board member brought the omission of the Agenda from the posting to my attention.  On the morning of March 6th, I attended the board meeting at Sarah Pyle Academy and shared my concerns.  I presented a copy of the state's code on open meetings and Delaware's Freedom of Information Act to our board president.  He briefly considered the documents and determined that the meeting was "legal."

The meeting was called to order.  After the Pledge of Allegiance, I re-iterated my concerns with the appropriateness of the meeting and informed those in attendance that I would not stay and participate.  I have been committed to transparency since I began my campaign more than a year ago.  I was elected to position on that platform and will not deviate from my core values.  Participation in this meeting would have constituted both a personal moral and ethical violation. 

The meeting was conducted at the president's direction after I departed.

At the regularly scheduled March meeting, our president offered comments regarding the departure of a board member at the previous meeting.  It became apparent to me that the culture that sustains our district is one in which transparency is not clearly understood and that deficit is reflected in all of our actions.  I believed that the only place to turn for an accurate interpretation of the state code was the Office of the Attorney General for a Freedom of Information Act finding.

The FOIA reflected two concerns: 1)The proper posting of the March 6th meeting and 2) The lack of minutes for the on-going Agenda Prep meetings held prior to the regularly scheduled monthly board meetings.  In March, I, along with another board member, co-submitted a FOIA petition on behalf of the voters of the Christina School District to the A.G.  The findings were recently released and can be found on the A.G.'s website at  http://attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/office/opinions/2010/10-IB04.pdf

The Attorney General's Opinion supports the FOIA Petition.  Our Board of Education was found to have incorrectly interpreted the code and as a result, has held questionable meetings.  The A.G. does recognize that the board did not vote or take any other action during the meetings that were the subject of the FOIA. 

For many, the above chain of events will evoke anger.  It did for me, for a number of reasons.  But, I am more concerned for the district's constituents, that they have historically been shut out of process and lost their opportunity to have a voice on policy in times when it has been direly needed.  There are some that support the "old guard," who will be angry that I or any other board member rocked the boat.  They will argue that this was not a matter that should have gone before the A.G. and that I am part of a rogue gang of board members who have a secret agenda.  I know this because in recent weeks those rumors have made their way back to me. 

I assure you that I am neither a "rogue" board member nor do I have a "secret" agenda.  My agenda has been very public from day one:  I seek to create transparency and ensure accountability in our best efforts to provide a world class education for all students.  I will go to the ends of earth -- and the A.G.--  to ensure that I have maintained that effort. 

Had the A.G. found for the district, I believe that I would feel the same satisfaction, in knowing that I had engaged process to ensure that we were following both the letter and the spirit of the law.  This was a necessary step to ensure that our actions support our assertions.  I am a passionate advocate for open government and true democracy and as such I have included the FOIA petition submitted to the Attorney General in tab, labeled Pages, to the right of this post.  It is my hope that you will draw your own conclusions about the appropriateness of these meetings, the filing of the petition, and the A.G. Opinion.

Ultimately, I am satisfied with and saddened by the outcome.  I admit to being a part of meetings (Agenda Prep) that were not in compliance with the state code.  I bear that responsibility and have taken the necessary action to rectify it, through this FOIA petition.  I continue to be troubled by what appears to be a history of such meetings and I cannot tell you (having only been on this side of the board for 10 months) how many such meetings have occurred in the last thirty years. 

Accidental as it may seem, it's ultimately a sad chain of events.  It is, however, a necessity, as in my opinion, we as both a district and a board are without the ability to change erroneous behavior if we do not acknowledge it.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Scheinberg

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Harvard Scholar Makes a Turnaround on Choice; Ravitch isn't the only one...

ttp://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2010/04/diane_ravitch_isnt_the_only.html
Harvard Scholar Makes a Turnaround on Choice


By Debra Viadero on April 13, 2010 4:09 PM

Diane Ravitch isn't the only education scholar undergoing something of an ideological transformation these days. Harvard academic Paul E. Peterson comes to a similar conversion in his new book, Saving Our Schools, which is being published this month by the Harvard University Press.

Peterson is best known for his advocacy of school choice programs in the 1990s. Now, however, he says he has come to recognize that the school choice movement, which never produced the achievement gains its advocates had hoped for, may never be politically viable. He chalks it up, along with the accountability movement, progressivism, teacher unionization, desegregation, and court-ordered school finance reforms. as just another movement in education that failed to ensure that all children receive a challenging education, regardless of where they live.

"Both Diane and I have an unhappy view of where we are today," Peterson said in an interview here at Education Week yesterday. "But where her dissatisfaction goes back to the last 10 years, mine goes back much farther. ... The reforms of the last 50 to 60 years haven't been able to shake the education system out of its stagnant condition."

So, in his new book, which traces the history of American education from Horace Mann to Bill Bennett and beyond, Peterson is placing his next bet on virtual schooling, which he hopes will eventually customize learning for every child. To illustrate his faith in the medium's potential, he relates the story of the Florida Virtual School, which began in 1997 in Orlando and is now the country's largest state-run online school.

"Virtual schooling is still in its infancy," he said, "but it certainly has transformative capacities that none of these other things have."

As for charter schools, which Peterson has also championed, he expresses a more agnostic view. While the growth of this new breed of public schools has outstripped that of privately funded choice programs, he says, charters still have a long way to go to transform schooling nationwide. "Their promise may be in that they become a vehicle for virtual schools," he said.

You can hear Peterson discuss his new views today at a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution. Eduwonk also features a debate between Peterson and Ravitch, who favors a return to neighborhood schools and a faith in teacher professionalism as a means of improving schooling. The next print edition of Education Week (cover date: April 21) will also feature a back-page Commentary by Peterson.

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Dispirited by DSBA on Disabilities in Delaware

From the Dover Post Regarding HB 328: 
http://www.doverpost.com/news/education/x1664786353/Parents-praise-bill-to-raise-standard-for-services-to-disabled-students
My comments in RED.

Though none spoke at the hearing, the bill is not without opponents.


Susan Francis, executive director of the Delaware School Boards Association, said her membership has expressed concerns over the financial impact of the higher standard, particularly related to possible legal proceedings parents of disabled children may initiate with school districts if they feel their children’s educational needs aren’t being met. 

As the gatekeepers of education, we perpetuate the disparities between special education and general education students. Culturally, we have relegated special needs children and adults to a caste system. While the mass integration of the institutionalized may have marked a bright spot in Geraldo's Rivera's career, it did not, however, end the discrimination. It simply thrust the adults into homelessness and children into schools ill equipped to educate them. After thirty years, many in education continue to fail these children in much the same way school districts are failing children living in the City of Wilmington. The reality is not all that different and frequently overlaps when the child is both urban and disabled.

DSBA is wrong, their logic faulty.  They have not decreed opposition to the "financial impact" that will surely accompany the move to adopt National Standards, including but not limited to replacing curriculum materials in all of our school districts.  What their opposition to HB 328 does signify is that they are unwilling to provide a similar capital outlay for special education students.  What I am left to summise is that disabled children are not worthy of the same "higher standards" as their typical peers. 

By the way, Due Process procedings already exist.  And the very simple Truth is:  If we did it right the first time and valued the disabled as we value those without disabilities, then we wouldn't need due process, would we?

These so-called “due process” proceedings allow parents to challenge school district policies with respect to their children.

"So-called" is right.   Families in need of representation are hard pressed to find it in Delaware. As a result of a limited availability of ed law attorneys in Delaware the number of due process procedings have been artifically suppressed.  Families are limited to one or two who serve (and advocate) for children across the state.  The bulk of ed lawyers are on retainer with school districts and DOE.  

Francis said school boards are concerned that the language of HB 328 would lead to more due process grievances being filed by parents and cost the district money for attorneys’ fees. 

Again, if we were true to IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the intent of an  IEP, Individual Education Plan, we'd have many fewer families seeking legal recourse for the failure of school districts to provide the most basic of services. 

As a new board member in CSD, I have repeatedly expressed my own wish that this district undertake an audit of our own IEP students for FAPE, Free and Appropriate Public Education as defined in IDEA.  In the very least, it's a show of good faith on our part.  This year was particularly timely as Christina undertook the first phase of needs-based funding -- evaluating students for funding level based on services provided in their IEP and not upon the existing catagorical system utilized by DeDOE that USDOE has found to lack in compliance with IDEA.  My requests by my district were ignored.

“Certainly we are supporting an appropriate and strong education for all children, we approve of that concept,” she said. “We oppose parts of the bill as written."

I'd love to see/hear the context for this statement; however, despite being a DSBA member, this is the first I've heard of the organization's opposition to this bill. 

Sponsor Johnson said he thinks districts won’t have to worry about legal action if they do what’s best for disabled students. 

Exactly!  And a new law would certainly give administrations across the state a reason to review IEPs for something more than  a "serviceable chevy" model of education.  

“People might say, ‘We’re afraid of what parents may ask for,’” he said. “I think parents should ask for the moon.” 

Damn Right!  Technically speaking, according to IDEA, if a child's need warrants the moon, the school district is required to provide it regardless of whether it's a service they offer.  But, it's highly unlikely for administrators to suggest a service that they cannot offer as it would force them send funding out of the district.  So parents either embark on a journey that will take them through administrative complaints and due process procedings that can take years, all the while their child fails to thrive (and/or learn) and vital time is wasted; of the parent simply looks at the cost, the lack of available attorneys, the overwhelming frustration associated with knowing the most Due Process cases are found in the district's favor because it's currently legal to apply artificially low standards to special education students, and they give up.

Email Doug Denison at doug.denison@doverpost.com.

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Genius! N.Y.C. School Built Around Unorthodox Use of Time

Okay, but what's really Genius is the THE SMALL CLASS SIZES! The mantra of teachers nationwide and right here in Delaware.  And this school has found a way of providing the small classes with more support for students and teachers while not exceeding the 180 day work year in teacher contracts nor raising the cost of educating the students who benefit from this program verses the "typical" high school model.

From Education Week:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/03/10/24brooklyn_ep.h29.html?tkn=NM[FDZj%2F%2FXlKQLqb1nWVcd6rdaG9PGXcgZSR&cmp=clp-edweek

Check out the whole article for an education strategy that is built on teacher planning time, student interest, and small class sizes:

Teachers here attribute the collegial atmosphere to the public school’s novel way of differentiating teachers’ roles and staggering their schedules. At Brooklyn Generation, teachers instruct only three classes a day, get two hours of common planning with colleagues each afternoon, and have a highly reduced student load—as few as 14 students per class. Yet the restructured scheduling costs no more to operate than a traditional schedule.

Opened in 2007, Brooklyn Generation now serves about 230 students in grades 9-11, most of whom are black and qualify for federal school-nutrition programs. The school will add a 12th grade next fall and expand to the middle grades over the course of the next few years.

The school’s schedule is both dynamic and flexible. Each morning, one group of educators teaches foundations courses in mathematics and the humanities. In the afternoons, those same teachers take on one studio course—science, the arts, and electives. They are also given daily breaks at the same time as their “instructional team” —colleagues in the same grade and content area—allowing them two hours of common planning time.

Twice a year, these dual-role teachers receive a monthlong reprieve consisting of three weeks of vacation followed by a week of professional development with their instructional teams. A second coterie of educators steps in to teach monthlong “intensives,” focused on aspects of college and career readiness, from internships through the college-entrance process and financial-aid applications.

Class sizes for the foundations and intensive courses are small—around 15 students—and expand to about 25 for studio classes. The staggered schedules mean that students receive 20 additional instructional days, but no teacher actually works longer than the 180 days set in the New York City teachers’ contract.

With the smaller class sizes and more support, the school’s leaders expect teachers to engage each student in the school’s college- and career-bound culture.

Such class sizes, 9th grade math-foundation teacher Dianne Crewe-Shaw says, help her better monitor her students, who tend to have the most challenges with algebra. “The small class size was like heaven,” she said. “With weaker students, I have to dig deeper for activities that will engage them.”

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Sunshine ...

"Sunlight is said to be
the best of disinfectants."

From U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
speaking on open government laws.

Title 14
http://delcode.delaware.gov/title14/index.shtml

Title 29
http://delcode.delaware.gov/title29/c100/index.shtml
State Government

General Regulations for State Agencies
CHAPTER 100. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

§ 10001. Declaration of policy.
It is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner so that our citizens shall have the opportunity to observe the performance of public officials and to monitor the decisions that are made by such officials in formulating and executing public policy; and further, it is vital that citizens have easy access to public records in order that the society remain free and democratic. Toward these ends, and to further the accountability of government to the citizens of this State, this chapter is adopted, and shall be construed.

§ 10004. Open meetings.
Excerpt:
(2) All public bodies shall give public notice of their regular meetings and of their intent to hold an executive session closed to the public, at least 7 days in advance thereof. The notice shall include the agenda, if such has been determined at the time, and the dates, times and places of such meetings, including whether such meeting will be conducted by video-conferencing; however, the agenda shall be subject to change to include additional items including executive sessions or the deletion of items including executive sessions which arise at the time of the public body's meeting.

(3) All public bodies shall give public notice of the type set forth in paragraph (2) of this subsection of any special or rescheduled meeting as soon as reasonably possible, but in any event no later than 24 hours before such meeting. A special or rescheduled meeting shall be defined as one to be held less than 7 days after the scheduling decision is made. The public notice of a special or rescheduled meeting shall include an explanation as to why the notice required by paragraph (1) of this subsection could not be given.

(4) Public notice required by this subsection shall include, but not be limited to, conspicuous posting of said notice at the principal office of the public body holding the meeting, or if no such office exists at the place where meetings of the public body are regularly held, and making a reasonable number of such notices available. In addition, all public bodies in the executive branch of state government that are subject to the provisions of this chapter shall electronically post said notice to the designated State of Delaware website approved by the Secretary of State.

(5) When the agenda is not available as of the time of the initial posting of the public notice it shall be added to the notice at least 6 hours in advance of said meeting, and the reasons for the delay in posting shall be briefly set forth on the agenda.

(f) Each public body shall maintain minutes of all meetings, including executive sessions, conducted pursuant to this section, and shall make such minutes available for public inspection and copying as a public record. Such minutes shall include a record of those members present and a record, by individual members (except where the public body is a town assembly where all citizens are entitled to vote), of each vote taken and action agreed upon. Such minutes or portions thereof, and any public records pertaining to executive sessions conducted pursuant to this section, may be withheld from public disclosure so long as public disclosure would defeat the lawful purpose for the executive session, but no longer. All public bodies in the executive branch of state government that are subject to the provisions of this chapter shall electronically post final approved minutes of open public meetings to the designated State of Delaware website approved by the Secretary of State within 5 working days of final approval of said minutes.

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The State of Education in Delaware -- My Perspective

It's been eight months since I assumed the role of board member to finish the term of another before me.  Four years once seemed liked eons. Now three years seems to be not nearly enough time (though the jury is still out on whether I will run again) to empower the changes to education that both Christina and Delaware need.

Education in Delaware is facing uprecedented challenges to which Christina will not be immune.  National and Global economic failings have left their mark on Delaware.  Though stimulus funds staved off the impact for this current year, the future is a much different monster.  It's time for some honest and frank discussion of what lies in the future.

The State of Delaware is facing a near $50 million education funding deficit, the impact of which boils down to a funding cut of  appoximately $500 per student, your student and mine.  It will come across all districts, all programs, and all schools.  For Christina the much debated 25% rolling decrease in state transportation funding will add an average of $40 to every school tax bill, if a referendum can be successfully run.  The jury is out on whether the match tax portion of the tuition bill will stand -- meaning that districts may not be able to levy that portion of the tuition bill next year as indicated by the Department of Education's budget presentation in Dover.  At the time of this writing, Christina has not entered into discussions with its board as to any intentions of going to referendum.  And most homeowners will tell you, this is not the time to ask the public for more tax money.  Where does that leave us?  Where does that leave Christina?  And where does that leave our children?

I'm staring at the FY 2011 Operating Budget Briefing dispersed to legislators by the Department of Education.  Within the organization structure (who holds what position) the vital role of Associate Secretary of Teaching and Learning is vacant while the positions of Assoc. Sec. of College and Workforce Readiness and Assoc. Sec./Chief Financial Officer are filled.  I see before me an unbalanced scale, weighted heavily against the Department's mission of Teaching and Learning, a Branch without an advocate and a Budget that reflects that lost voice.

I am alarmed by page 10 of the briefing which reflects the Federal Stimulus Funding for Education Stabilization.  In Fiscal year 10, the Technology Block Grant, the Student Success Block Grant, the Academic Excellence, Limited English Proficiency and Division II Allocations were removed from the General Fund and replaced by Stimulus Funds.  Essentially, Delaware abdicated funding these categories, drawing the needed monies from one-time stimulus funds.  Those allocations have not been returned to the General Fund.  What does it mean:

• In 2008, the State funded the associated positions.
• In 2009/10, One-time Stimulus Funds were used to fund these programs for a total of $33,891,000.
• In the 2010/11 Budget, the proposed funding for these programs decreases to $13,121,100. 
• That's MORE THAN $20 MILLION Cut from Education Spending.
• There is no plan to draw additional monies from the State's General Fund to support these programs and teachers.
• If DOE does not fund these needed positions and programs that directly affect our children, and if local districts are unable to find replacement funding, these positions will GO AWAY.

While it's true that the proposed budget we see before us today may look very different come June/July when our legislators ratify it, it's important that we begin the conversation now.  And that conversation must be centered around the desire of stakeholders to inform the legislature that cutting education funding is not an acceptable solution to Delaware's budget dilemma and that we as constituents expect our legislators to generate new sources of revenue for the state, and particularly education.

While the topic will certainly be debated by the Statewide PTA, the Delaware State Education Association, and the Delaware Schools Chiefs Association, locally-elected school boards must engage not just with their constituents but as constituents of those in Dover.  Delaware's School Boards cannot fail to lead today.  We cannot be idle and are obligated by our oath to lead the seach for solutions.

Education is in need of solutions and we must come together to find them!

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LA school board OKs plan to turn over management of 30 schools. In Contrast to recent events in R.I.

In contrast to recent events in Rhode Island, the LA school board voted last night to turn over management of 30 schools to non-profit education groups, including some that are comprised of parents, teachers, and administrators already in place.  Of note, the school board was instrumental in creating a mechanism by which communities could propose plans for the operation of their schools.  And the board resoundingly, with the superintendents recommendation, reaffirmed many of those plans. In a small number of cases, the board chose operaters other than those recommended by administration.

 Here's the latest: from http://www.dailybreeze.com/.  Click on the story to link back.

The Los Angeles school board on Tuesday approved a plan to turn over the operation of 30 campuses to nonprofit educational groups, but most of the groups are led by teachers and administrators already in place.



After a 4 1/2-hour meeting that featured nearly 50 speakers, the board approved most of Superintendent Ramon Cortines' recommendations for 12 of the district's most problematic schools and 18 new ones for the 2010-11 academic year.


The vote represented the first round of Cortines' plan to turn over about a third of the district's schools to nonprofit groups with the goal of boosting student achievement.


The groups were selected from among 85 proposals submitted to the district under the Public School Choice Program adopted last year.


"Today we launch a new era at LAUSD of quality, of leadership and accountability - something that this board had the courage to elevate and make real," said board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, who last year introduced the School Choice Program resolution.


"Today we are no longer the insular institution we once were," she said. "But more important, what today represents is that mediocrity is not OK, and that we place high value first and foremost on quality education for all students."

In most cases, members backed Cortines' recommendations, but at some schools - such as Barack Obama Global Preparatory Academy, Esteban Torres High School and Griffith-Joyner Elementary School - the board selected different operators.


"We need to act now for all our students to succeed," Cortines said at the start of the meeting. "We must ensure our students are successful from pre-K to adult schools."


After several weeks of review, Cortines last week made his recommendations for each of the affected campuses - with the proposed operators including charter school companies; collaborations of parents, teacher and local district administrators; and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.


"This has been a process of inclusion, collaboration, transparency and transformation at all levels - within the staff rooms, community centers and living rooms of everyone involved," Cortines said.


The plan to allow outside groups to govern individual campuses angered some education advocates, including the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles. On Tuesday, about 200 teachers and parents protested outside the board meeting.


But given the board's approval of the process, UTLA helped some groups of teachers and local school administrators submit management proposals, and those groups make up the bulk of Cortines' recommendations.


UTLA President A.J. Duffy said last week he was pleased that Cortines had recommended that the parent/teacher/administrator teams operate more than three-quarters of the schools up for bid. But he called on the school board to reject the superintendent's recommendation that outside operators, such as charter school companies, be given control of some campuses.


"We want the school board members to review all the teacher/parent plans the superintendent did not recommend," Duffy said. "Local communities wrote plans. Parents made their choice. Both of these should be respected."

The board's vote was preceded by dozens of speakers lobbying for their own particular group. Most were supportive of the concept of allowing different groups to operate schools in hopes of bringing new ideas into the district.


"I always hoped this day would come," teacher Roberta Benjamin told board members.


The school choice program "is the first step to breaking down the wall between charter public schools and non-charter public schools," she said.


Former teacher Yvette King-Berg said that no matter which side you were on, "the bar is being set higher" by allowing outside groups to manage certain campuses.


Former U.S. Rep. Esteban E. Torres, whose name graces an East Los Angeles high school, said the principal goal of the Public School Choice program is to develop the kind of schools "the community wants."


Although there was disagreement among some groups over the operators of particular schools, board member Steven Zimmer said he was impressed with all the proposals that were submitted.


"This is not about politics," he said. "It's not about pressure. It's not about power. It's not about land. It's not about facilities. It's about our children and our families and this could be about hope. Because there was hope in the living rooms and classrooms and community rooms where these plans were being written."

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Delaware Waits.

We do a lot of waiting here. 
For snow removal. 
For schools to reopen. 
For the Gov. to forgive snow days. 
For the State Sec. of Education  to announce the schools that will pilot the Mass Insight Turnaround Zone. 

The News Journal initially pegged last week for the big "announcement," but those who've been around a while know that DOE is more strategic than that, or rather their waters are too muddy for the transparency tax payers deserve.  If they had played the transparency card with Race to the Top, chances are some school boards would not have signed on.  And so, I can't help but hypothesize as to why our turnaround schools have yet to be named.  Perhaps, they are busy lining up their lead partners, partners, DOE employee Dan Cruce earlier speculated, that must be local due to Delawareans' deep trust issues.  (Any wonder why we have trust issues?)

Or perhaps, they are busy aligning to Mass Insight's latest Turnaround Strategy -- Internal Lead Partners.

Or waiting for M.I. to release any of the following reports:

Leveraging Title 1 School Improvement Grants (scheduled for release in February 2010)
Provides recommendations to states on the most effective process to allocate the Title 1 School Improvement grants under the new federal guidelines.
Best practice state policy (scheduled for release in March 2010)
Offers advice on how policy can be created to encourage optimal conditions for school turnaround, drawing on promising practices from existing and forthcoming state legislation.
Building a District Turnaround Office (scheduled for release in May 2010)
Provides guidance on creating a District Turnaround Office, an organizational structure designed specifically to manage turnaround efforts within the district.
Building a State Turnaround Office (scheduled for release in April 2010):
Describes the structure and functions of the State Turnaround Office, an office of the State Education Agency responsible for all turnaround efforts within the state.

It's all conjecture, but in lieu of transparency and hard facts, conjecture is all we have.

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Could Mayoral Control be the future of our City Schools?

(okay, that question may land me in hot water, but it's no secret that there are many in Wilmington who believe that their schools should be run locally, not by the Red Clay, Colonial, or the Christina School Districts.  Therefore, I believe, it deserves to be asked.)

Rochester, NY
Rochester, NY, Mayor Bob Duffy wants control of his cities schools, joining a growing cohort of urban leaders vying for education reform through mayoral control.  In Duffy's view, public safety, economic development and public education would all be better served under a consolidated government.  Though he appears to be gaining the support of both the NY Legislature and Governor Patterson,  the move is not without controversy and opponents, including the education union and some school board members who are mounting a fight.  (The School Board would cease to exist if the state's third largest district falls under Duffy's control.)

According to the http://www.democratandchronicle.com/, Duffy says, "This is about aligning systems that are critically important for the future health of our city and our children," He envisions a district that would integrate social service and nonprofit organizations to provide a comprehensive "kids zone."

By law, the city of Rochester pays $119 million to the school district annually. Savings would come through combining departments, while educational quality would improve in part through a more comprehensive social service net, Duffy said.

Mayoral Control
Arne Duncun has gone so far as to say, he would consider his time as education secretary a "failure" if more mayors didn't take over control of their city schools by the end of his tenure. 

Rochester isn't alone. as reported by Dakarai Aarons efforts "are under way in Detroit and Milwaukee to institute mayoral control, spurred by frustration over sometimes glacial academic progress.

"Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (who is running to replace Doyle) have been unsuccessful so far in their attempts to get the state legislature to pass a mayoral control bill, most recently in a special session two weeks ago. Barrett is still pushing forward, and the state senate's education committee is holding a hearing on the issue Jan. 5.

"In Detroit, Emergency Financial Manager Robert C. Bobb recently asked for academic control of the schools. He and others have expressed support for Mayor Dave Bing having a say in how the schools are run. The Michigan House will take up the issue in a series of hearings starting Jan. 14."

In October, reporter Lesli A. Maxwell produced an examination of Mayoral Control as education reform for the Wallace Foundation's, Leading for Learning Report.  Maxwell cites 18 cities who have explored the change in education leadership.  There are the heavy-hitters -- New York City, Washington D.C. and Chicago -- as well as efforts in smaller cities like Harrisburg, PA; Yonkers, NY; Providence, R.I.; Trenton, NJ; and Hartford, Conn.

Even our neighbor, Philadelphia, developed a model of control in 2001when the school district reverted to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Currently, the Mayor appoints two members of the School Reform Commission and the Governor appoints three others. 

What mayoral control does present is a direct line of accountibility for school performance to one person, the mayor.  If voters don't like the direction of their public education, they have the ability to change leadership every four years.  When Mayor Bloomberg ran last fall in NYC, his education record was a central issue in the election.

"No mayor has exercised such unlimited power over the public schools as Mr. Bloomberg," Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at NYU, former assistant secretary of education and frequent critic of Bloomberg, has written.

In the eyes of some critics, this is simply going too far. "We still think there are reasons to keep mayoral control," United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said in her introduction to the union's report on school governance. But she continued,"The experience of the last seven years points strongly to a need for a governance system that is more democratic, more accountable and more transparent."

In New Mexico,

The push for mayoral control reflects rising frustration and desperation over poor student achievement, crumbling buildings, bureaucratic wrangling among school officials and revolving-door superintendents.



The districts have standardized their curriculums, ended "social promotion" of kids who fall too far behind, opened new schools to give students more choice and brought in millions of dollars in corporate donations.


But education specialists continue to debate whether kids really get a better education under such arrangements, whether any academic gains will be permanent, and how much credit mayors should get for the successes.

Kenneth Wong, a Brown University education professor, examined test scores of the 100 largest school districts from 1999 to 2003. He found that students in mayor-controlled school systems often perform better than those in other urban systems. Test scores in mayor-run districts are rising "significantly," he says.


However, Wong says in his study that "there is still a long way to go before (mayor-controlled) districts achieve acceptable levels of achievement."

Delaware school boards by contrast are slow moving machines that levy power among seven unpaid individuals with rotating elections of one or two seats per year.  It takes a minimum of five years to replace a board in Delaware and often longer. 

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not trying to advocate my way out of a seat on the CSD BOE.  School Boards provide local accountibility representative of all parts of a district.  Candidates must reside in defined geographic nominating districts and are elected by all voters who choose to hit the polls on election day.  They are both accountible and accessible in ways that a mayor may not be.

In an April article for Edweek.com, former executive director for the New York Commission on School Governence, Joseph P. Viteritti found that:

Mayoral Control produces a mixed bag of results.  Mayoral control of public schools, now found in more than a dozen localities across the nation, has become part of the landscape of American urban education, even as the idea has played out differently from city to city.

Boston and Chicago are prototypes. In Boston, where the governance change was carried out in 1992, the mayor has worked closely with school professionals to implement new programs. In Chicago, where it was enacted in 1995, the mayor, at least initially, worked around school people. Detroit is a case study of mayoral control undone: The plan there went down in a 2005 referendum after six rocky years characterized by racial, partisan, and regional antagonism. The District of Columbia is a recent convert (2007); Los Angeles came close, but never quite got there. And talk about a move to mayoral control has been heard in such diverse places as Albuquerque, N.M.; Dallas; Memphis, Tenn.; Milwaukee; Minneapolis; Newark, N.J.; Rochester, N.Y.; and Seattle.

Veteritti further writes:

In New York City, our Commission on School Governance recommended that responsibility for the analysis and dissemination of performance data be turned over to the Independent Budget Office, which does not report to the mayor or rely on him for funding. Putting city hall in control of the schools increases the risk of politicizing education and the assessment of school performance. If a city is seriously considering mayoral control, education presumably is already a high political priority, so achievement data can be an irresistible temptation around election time.

So, returning to my question of mayoral control and the role it could play in the City of Wilmington:  The Jury is out on whether it works, though it is a favored model U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncun.  However, even in Duncun's home town, Chicago, longitudinal data seems to indicate that his own changes to education failed to spurr sustainable progress. 

I certainly don't have the answer.  But, it's a question worth asking ... and especially in light of regulation changes coming from DOE that could open the door for the elimination of local control in schools failing to make AYP.  You can check out those changes in detail at http://transparentchristina.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/delaware-regulation-changes-and-their-potential-impact/ thanks to a fellow blogger who's made that information easily accessible.

Time will tell.

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Education is a marathon, not a SPRINT

Education is a marathon, not the sprint that proponents of Race to the Top would have you think.

Christina voted to sign the MOU last night with two dissenting votes.  While I sincerely hope that the RttT grant will lead our children to great success, my vote reflected a greater concern:

We are mortgaging the futures of our students.  At the end of the four year grant program, Federal Guidelines require districts to not only continue funding programs created under RttT, but to assume the state's share of that funding as well.  

As two board members admitted last night, Christina's financial infrastructure is fragile and failing: 

Thanks to WDEL 1150 AM for posting their video of the debate at http://www.wdel.com/video/?v=race2top.wmv  Pertinent Text Below:

"From a fiscal responsibility and looking at the district and the changes that we need to do; I look at what status quo is currently.  No current operating referendum.  We're looking at the budget and fewer and fewer dollars next year to sustain even what we are currently doing and yet still failing miserably and debating whether we have five, six, ten, or twenty schools on aparticular list, we know where the hell we stand."

And

"We are not in a good place now and I think this points us to a better place.  The four years and done spend down doesn't have me that worried ... four years is a long, long time ... our current model will completely collapse in less than four years financially anyway.  So as as John Maynard Keynes says, 'It doesn't pay to look too far into the future because in the long term we are all dead.'"

As the parent of a young child in our district with another getting there, it is prerequisite that I have my eye on this district's long-term financial picture.  If we are headed to "financial collapse" within the next four years, how are we to plan to support more expenses when those four years are over?  And in four years, my children and our many elementary age children now and to come will not be dead.  They will; however, be struggling to attain a world class education in a system that is likely to be completely broken.

It is with that concern and my refusal to subscribe to short sidedness, that I cast my no vote last night.  I believe that it is better to build a realistic strategic plan, to enact true and proven best practices, not unfounded ones, and engage in thoughtful financial planning.  Instead, it is my opinion, that our board chose to engage in an open-ended and ill-defined BINDING agreement. 

Finally, it is not a character failing to "vote your conscience" when the futures of 17,000 children weigh upon you.  Rather, I believe it is your obligation. 

A vote against an unproven reform and for sounder financial decisions cannot be equated to a vote for the failure of that reform.  I pray it works. It is now all we have.

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Adapted Physical Education for students reviewed through a new lens.

The following article caught my attention this morning for more than one reason.  Yes, it's uplifting.  Yes, it's about special education students.  Yes, it reveals the ingenuity of the human mind when creativity is allowed to flow forth in education, in physical education. 

But, it also spoke to concerns that I heard voiced by Christina's own REACH parents at a recent meeting.  I have submitted the questions about Adapted Physical Education raised by those in attendance and awaiting a response from our own CSD administration.

In the interim, I'd like to share excerpts from today's Edweek.org article, GAO Probes Access of Students With Disabilities to Sports by Lisa Fine.  Click the headline for the whole article.  It's definitely worth reading!

"Last year, Maryland passed a landmark law, the Fitness and Athletics Equity for Students with Disabilities Act, that requires district boards of education to develop policies to include students with disabilities in their physical education classes and athletic activities. The law requires that students be provided reasonable accommodations to participate, have the chance to try out for school teams, and have access to alternative opportunities such as Special Olympics-type teams or events that include students with and without disabilities. It is the only state law of its kind in the nation..."

"The high-profile case of a high school track-and-field athlete who uses a wheelchair and sued in 2006 for the right to race on the same track as her teammates helped inspire the law, proponents say.



Tatyana McFadden, who is a Paralympics medalist and world-record holder, won a lawsuit against the Howard County, Md., district to be able to compete on the same track, at the same time, as her teammates. She had been required to race alone on a separate track, she says, out of concern that her wheelchair would pose safety concerns.

“They would have everyone else run, and then they would stop the meet and have me run by myself, a person in a wheelchair going around alone,” says Ms. McFadden, now a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who is majoring in dietetics and takes part in the university’s adapted-sports program. “Having it like that hurt a little bit. People feel sorry for you when they see you like that. People didn’t see how athletic I was.”


U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., says Ms. McFadden’s case made him aware of the need for schools to have guidance on how to offer students with disabilities access to sports..."

"School staff members often lack training and experience in how to adapt physical education classes for students with disabilities—and the quality of services is reduced as a result, says Timothy Davis, an assistant professor of physical education at the State University of New York at Cortland and the chairman of the Adapted Physical Education National Standards, a project established by a professional group to create standards and a certification program for the profession.


Only 13 states suggest additional training for physical educators to teach adapted physical education, according to Mr. Davis. Most states do not require any additional certification.


Teachers in an undergraduate program for physical education are often required to take one three-credit course in adapted physical education in the last year of the program, he notes. “By the time they get interested in adapted physical education, they are done and they are out student-teaching,” Mr. Davis says. “Then because they have had the one course, they get a job in a district teaching adapted physical education..."


"Because of a lack of training, physical education teachers often feel uncomfortable attending individualized-education-program, or IEP, meetings for students with disabilities—and the absence of those educators troubles him.




“Even if we are not invited to the meeting, we have to knock on the door. It’s your student, in your class,” Mr. Davis says. “If the physical education teacher is not at the meeting, somebody else makes the idea for placement. Somebody else is writing the goals and objectives for physical education. We need to be there; we need the representation.”


Sometimes an attitude shift can make a big difference, he says, in how to teach sports to students with disabilities"


“You focus on ability and not disability,” Mr. Davis says. “Focus on what a kid can do, and you can make it work. If you say, ‘He can’t run, he can’t throw,’ I cringe. Tell me what he can do, and now we can start teaching.”


For students with disabilities, too often being in physical education class or sports has meant being left on the sidelines. Such a student might serve as a “coach” or “scorekeeper,” or receive physical therapy instead of physical education, says David Martinez, who was named the 2009 National Adapted Physical Education Teacher of the Year by the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation.




Mr. Martinez, an adapted physical education specialist in Cherokee County, Ga., says adapted physical educators must think constantly of how to make an activity work for a child, or come up with a piece of equipment or technology that could assist the student.


He researched and built a Frisbee-throwing machine, for instance, that is switch-operated for some of his students. It lets them throw a disc 30 to 40 feet with accuracy.


Talking with students about what they think would be ways to make a sport work for them also can be helpful, Mr. Martinez says...


Noting the reluctance of many students with disabilities to join in sports, he suggests what he says are creative ways to include those students in the athletic culture of high school. The Cherokee County district, for example, created a varsity-letter program for students in Special Olympics. If students complete two seasons of a Special Olympic sport, they can wear a varsity letter in that sport for the school.


“It lets them enjoy a part of high school culture,” Mr. Martinez says. “It lets parents celebrate along with their children. It lets nondisabled peers say, ‘Wow, that’s neat, what did you letter in? What position do you play?’ It creates a true appreciation for individual differences.”

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On Zero Tolerance and National Controversy

1) I do not and cannot speak for the Board. This blog reflects my personal views on the issues that continue to prevent all CSD children from attaining a world-class education.

2) I was elected to this unpaid position by constituents who wanted Accountability, Transparency, a return to Best Practices, and Bold Leadership in a time when many feel that public education is failing our children. I pledged my support to all of the students of the Christina School District and I will fulfill that promise.

3) Our district has been thrust into the national spotlight by a disciplinary action taken in accordance to the district Code of Conduct, a document owned fully by the Board of Education.

I support my district administration in their diligence to adhere to the prescribed policy; however, I share the belief that Zero Tolerance policies do not consistently work. In fact, our district's utilization of Zero Tolerance policies was among the catalysts for my campaign in the first place. I am passionate in my efforts to resolve those policies that are simply flawed.

Zero Tolerance became the cry of the day following the Columbine Massacre. Though I was not a part of the board at that time (and am only three months into my term,) I am guided in my knowledge that many such policies were implemented across the nation to ensure the safety of ALL students. It is without doubt that the goal of the our district has always been to maintain the safety for our students and staff.

It is and always has been my promise that I will endeavour to change those policies that are not rooted in reason and to create a mechanism for common sense when needed.

Tonight, I re-affirm that promise to you.

The locations list below represent just a handful of the hundreds of emails and phone calls I have received today:

Atlanta, GA
Wilton, CT
Lilburn, GA
Santa Clara, CA
Bayonet Pt., Fl
Duvall, WA
Glen Ellyn, IL
Fort Worth, TX
Stockton, CA
Columbia, MO
Bayville, NJ
Jackson, MI
Port Richey, FL
Conway, AK
Spokane, WA
Newark, DE
Woodbridge, NJ
Los Angeles, CA
Eolia, MO
Spencer, IA
Van Hornsville, NY
Fairfield, CT
Fort Collins, CO
Presque Isle, WI
Withee, WI
Westfield, MA
Pittsburgh, PA
Winfield, KS
Springfield, MO
Cranston, RI
Aurora, CO
Lakewood, CO
Mooresboro, NC
Watertown, WI

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What's a 48 Hour Meeting?

Time to teach the Board Member:

Would you please share with me your experiences of a "48 Hour Meeting?" You can do so anonymously using the comment link at the bottom of this post.

Your time and effort is always appreciated,
Elizabeth Scheinberg

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What does the Race to the Top grant program mean for teachers?

From Teacher Magazine at http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2009/09/02/rtt_explained.html?tkn=YNTF9IX1JRMrm4etRAgFOPrwpkMiLw8HmXZS

Published: September 2, 2009

What Teachers Need to Know About Race to the Top

As states continue the scramble for education dollars this year, teachers may hear frequent references to a federal grant program called “Race to the Top.” What exactly does it mean for classroom educators?

The Race to the Top Fund, part of the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package, is a $4.35 billion competitive grant program for states, administered by the U.S. Department of Education. It is designed to encourage states to make coordinated, large-scale education improvement efforts across a number of policy areas that the Education Department sees as key.

The Criteria
According to draft plans outlined by the department in July, there are 19 proposed criteria that states’ will be judged on when submitting reform plans for Race to the Top money. Central among them is the state’s use of student-achievement data for evaluating teachers and principals. Under the guidelines, if a state bars the use of student-achievement data in teacher-evaluation decisions—as California and New York currently do—the state would automatically be disqualified from the grant process.

On the whole, the list of criteria revolves around the four central reform areas: States must adopt internationally benchmarked standards; improve the recruitment, retention, and rewarding of educators; improve data collection; and turn around the lowest-performing schools.
Under the proposed guidelines, the Education Department would give extra weight to grant proposals that focus on science, technology, engineering, and math, known as the STEM subjects.
States with alternative-certification routes for teachers and principals, and merit-pay plans for educators, would also be given preference.

States would also be judged on whether they have statewide backing for their reform plan, including from teachers’ unions. A letter of endorsement from the state union would be considered evidence of such support.

Under the current schedule, proposed guidelines for the program would be finalized in October, and applications from states would be due in December. Awards would be made to successful states in March 2010, with a second wave of grants scheduled for the following September.

Defining Teacher Quality
As is clear from the criteria for approval, teachers in states that ultimately receive Race to the Top grants could see significant changes in their practic, ranging from curriculum reforms to new ways of using student data to plan instruction. But the biggest changes for teachers are expected to come from the program’s emphasis on revamping teacher-quality systems (via recruiting, retention, and compensation strategies) by integrating them, at least in part, with student-achievement data.

“Successful state proposals will plan to strengthen the entire ‘talent chain’—recruitment, preparation and credentialing, placement, induction, professional development, evaluation, advancement, and retention,” wrote Joanne Weiss, the Education Department’s director of Race to the Top, in a recent Education Week Commentary. “In particular, we want schools and districts to know which teachers are effective (as measured in significant measure by how their students are improving academically), and to ensure that local decision makers use this information to inform key decisions. …”

As Education Week Staff Writer Stephen Sawchuk reported in his analysis of the proposed guidelines, states “must commit to using their teacher-effectiveness data for everything from evaluating teachers to determining the type of professional development they get to making decisions about granting tenure and pursuing dismissals.”

Those reforms, however, have encountered opposition from teachers' unions, which have traditionally been leary of linking teacher evaluation to student-achievement data. The unions harbor particular concerns about the technical quality of the student tests that would be used to judge their members’ performance. They have also expressed concern about the validity of the value-added methodologies—systems that seek to determine the extent to which individual teachers are contributing to students’ academic performance. Both the National Educators Association and the American Federation of Teachers, as well as many state unions, have submitted comments on the Race to the Top guidelines to the Education Department.

How well the unions succeed in changing the Education Department’s position will be determined when the final guidelines are released in October.

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A Thoughtful Solution for Social Promotion by Steve Peha

Thank You, Steve, for you thorough response!

Cleary the practice of social promotion causes many problems. Whether it’s an officially sanctioned process, or one that teachers have merely become accustomed to, social promotion undermines student achievement and teacher morale.

But now let’s look at the situation from where a principal or superintendent might sit. What would happen if we instantly combined high expectations and more rigorous curriculum with accurate grading in low-achieving schools? Over 3-5 year’s time we’d see over-crowded elementary schools and near-empty high schools. Logistically, this is a non-starter. Hence, the culture of social promotion has a practical, albeit pernicious, aspect.

Now, logistical reasons are no excuse for such a heinous practice. But this conundrum does bring to mind a very serious and important issue: we can’t structure out way out of reform. Testing, standards, charters, vouchers, and merit pay are all structural reforms. But school, being the slippery beast that it is, defies restructuring.

Our only hope is to teach our way out.

But we can be even more thoughtful than that. If we acknowledge that literacy is the foundation of academic success, and if we acknowledge the brain window for language learning, and if we acknowledge the traditions of elementary school teaching and the natural separation of instructional styles that seems to occur after 3rd grade, we can make simple plans for solid interventions early enough in kids’ lives that strategies like social promotion would be unnecessary.

There are two key places to intervene in a young student’s learning life: at the beginning of 1st grade and at the end of 3rd. It is perfectly reasonable to get kids extra help in the first half of first grade if they are not yet reading and writing independently. And it is perfectly reasonable to retain less successful 3rd graders for an additional year if they have not yet become confident chapter book readers and conventional writers of multi-paragraph essays.

At the same time, we can do several things that make intervention and retention much less likely. First of all, we could concentrate professional development in literacy at the primary grades. Bringing teachers of young children up to speed with the latest and best methods like Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop would improve outcomes tremendously. Second, we can move our most successful teachers to first and third grade. And finally, we can employ the use of high quality early interventions like Reading Recovery for kids who are struggling out of the gate.

The root cause of social promotion is not poor kids, it’s poor teaching. Until we recognize the connection here and actually do something about it, schools with many under-performing children have no logistically sound approach but to pass kids along year after year. This reality does not excuse what is surely a detestable behavior but seeing it for what it is and why it exists should heighten for all of us the importance of making sure our teaching – especially in literacy at the early grades – needs a serious overhaul.

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Getting Ahead in Red Clay

Red Clay has a new approach to summer school -- preteaching at-risk students. Will it work?

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906280323

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Louisiana's New High School Diploma Plan goes to Gov.

La. High School Diploma Plan Goes to Jindal
By The Associated Press via Education Week

Baton Rouge, La.
Louisiana will have a new diploma for public school students, who will face less-stringent requirements for English and math, if Gov. Bobby Jindal approves an education bill approved by the full Legislature.

read the rest of the story here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/06/23/283680lxgrdiplomachanges_ap.html

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Social Promotion permeates Philadelphia Schools

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/48695437.html?page=1&c=y

Sources tell me it's alive and well in Delaware, too.

What do you think?

More News from PA:

Administration Shelves Pa. Graduation Exam Plan
By The Associated Press via Education Week

Harrisburg, Pa.
The Rendell administration Monday temporarily shelved plans to develop graduation competency exams for Pennsylvania high school students in hopes of making peace with legislative critics who felt the administration was moving too fast.

Read the article here:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/06/22/283357pgraduationexams_ap.html

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