The Delaware Department of Education has launched an anonymous online survey called “TELL Delaware,” using Race to the Top money.

Educators have until February 15th to take the survey with the results being finalized in March. The state is seeking a 50-percent response rate at each school to get the best data.

I entreat all educators. This is important. This is the opportunity to get your statements out there. I believe 50% is an gross underestimate. I would encourage every teacher to strive for a 100% compliance among your peers. Yes, teachers, you may have to ride your fellow teachers. Every teacher should make it a personal goal, that every teacher they know, turns in their online survey…..

Why?

Across this nation education is racing forward. Giant sums of private investment are becoming available to help education. This has never happened on this scale in your lifetimes. The problem is that those who best know their children, up to now, have been shut out.

Research has finally caught up. It is now apparent that national testing measures nothing more than whether or not a person passed a test. The knowledge normally and previously required to score well on such tests, are missing… We are training nothing more than how to pass a test.

Teachers teach because it is their love. Each of you has not only an opportunity to express your beliefs, but an obligation….

You need to be a part of how Delaware education goes forward…. You NEED to be a part….

Here is how you should approach it. Remember 100% response rate!

Read the online survey questions.
Think about it for a while.
Isolate your top idea on how to better get through to your kids.
Do the survey and send.

I do want to caution you that the less wordy you are on your survey, the less heart your pour into the sidelines, and bylines, the better your survey will be.

Surveys are data collectors. There may be hundreds of ideas, many of them the same. The survey will isolate the top three… There is a good chance that out of all the Delaware teachers taking the survey (remember the 100% return rate) those concerns rising to the top, will be the best one. After all, if teachers the state-over have many of the same concerns, then addressing those concerns can only help children. Correct?

Now just in case this is a ploy or trick, I would recommend that notification be sent to the DSEA so we have two counts of the number of surveys sent. If the Department were to say their pool was 1100 and the DSEA had 4400 who acknowledged filling out the survey, we would instantly know cherry picking of the results was taking place to skew the results.

I caution the Department of Education. The idea of this survey is to find a way where teaching and corporate funding can co-exist in a way that helps education… In a way that improves learning. If you fudge your figures and the children continue to show no improvement, then money is wasted for no good…

The point is to find a way where teachers and investment can focus their resources on their children, and not quibble back and forth in stalemate. We need to focus on the children.

I have my own theories but they don’t belong here. 8,000 Teachers across this state have an average of 8 years of teaching. That is an average 64,000 years of experience…. Hmmm if we went back in time, it would be 62,000 BC, about the time mankind went down to one woman and built back up to what it is now…. All that teaching experience is now being tapped to combine with corporate money and invested in our schools.

If you care about teaching even the slightest, this is an opportunity not to be missed…. It is the chance of a lifetime to make a real difference…. If Delaware succeeds, then every child across America will one day get the full benefit.