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I got a mailer and was on my way to throw it in the trash (recycling actually) when I made the mistake to look.
“Sean Barney wants to tax the rich to pay more in Social Security Benefits…. ‘
That is awesome! It caught my attention..”Yay. ‘Bout time someone gets it… Maybe I was too hasty in writing him off… ”
(Because if you don’t know by now, you do live under a rock.. that rock could be one-sided news, I don’t know, but you DO live under a rock.)
All of society’s problems today are caused by less money being in the active economy because it is locked up in the vaults of the 1%…
Everything from schools, highways, hunger, poverty, crime, guns, abortion, religion, climate change, could be solved if we’d just move some of that money from the private economy, into the public one…
And Sean Barney is on the right path…. All our problems come from the huge amounts of money that USED TO BE ACTIVE IN OUR ECONOMY which now, are not there;… money now lying dormant which could be better served if seniors were spending it to better their lives, and everyone else for that matter.
That a former Carper aide, and former Markell aide, now finally “GETS IT” was reassuring and gave me incredible hope for our future…
But Sean is not alone in the field. There are other candidates, one of which is Bryan Townsend.
Whereas Sean Barney is “getting it” now, Bryan Townsend “got it” 4 years ago. To paraphrase someone else’s former campaign: we only send one, let’s send our best.
When we were battling the takeover of Wilmington’s schools, Bryan Townsend was there, at the meeting, not for himself, but to argue for our children.
When there was no hope to stop bad Sokolian policy from being railroaded through the General Assembly, Bryan Townsend was able to add passable amendments that put those policies under review. A review that is right now, turning people’s minds against all the one-sided crap once fed to us about how bad all public schools were.
When there was no hope to stop the horrible Smarter Balanced Assessment from being our measuring device (actually there was and his name was Greg Lavelle but that is a story for another time), Bryan was one of those arguing against it…
When we were deciding to allow marriage to include other than Men/Women, Bryan Townsend weed-killed the General Assembly by moving first to establish a ground floor of logic based on our national beliefs. The weed-seeds of dissension, divisiveness, division, demolition, were never able to take root….
Immediately upon entering the General Assembly, Bryan Townsend exhibited that he’d gained knowledge of how to manipulate the Delaware’s power structure to get progress for real people initiated…
Markell could take lessons from him. But then again, these two’s motives are completely opposite. Markell pushes corporate policy meaning he needs to sneak his diabolical and damaging policies past us We The People, because when We find out what he’s done to us, it makes us angry. His modus operandi has been to say… “oops, fait accompli, sorry you’re too late”. Bryan argues out loud and in public for how his policies better us all and the positive outcomes we can expect to achieve should we all get behind him and they get implemented. He makes things happen by consensus, by convincing the opposition they will be better off; not quick sucker punches in the dark while they sleep.
So there may be nothing wrong with Sean Barney after all. He may make a good Congressperson and carry progressive values into the Senate. But we have seen over four years that there is someone better.
For all others it would be easy to follow a crowd and be lead to cheer-lead behind a enthusiastic leader, which Hillary supposes to be… WE can expect a majority of members in both Democratic majority of Congressional Houses to do that next session. But, what we need is someone who is in advance of the mainstream, who is capable of creating and developing and not afraid of the hard work necessary to not just follow, but lead Congress forward into the unknown… For the unknown is what we face…
We only have one, and should send our best… Although all the candidates may be quality individuals and have many redeeming qualities, we can only pick one… Our best is beyond all doubt, highly visible to all, even those emerging out from under their rocks, our Bryan Townsend….
In my lifetime, covering backwards through Carney, Castle, and Carper, we have never put into the House anyone as qualified from the start as is Bryan Townsend…His track record is astounding. There is no equal comparison in abilities between him or any of the other candidates. Really, No comparison at all. His stature is so far above the rest of the field, this endorsement is an easy one and needs no further discussion.
I stated in a comment that if one took Newark Charter and Wilmington Charter and put them back under Christina’s watch and care, they would have the highest scores in the state….
I now want to test that hypothesis to see how correct that statement was…
Here is the data we used.
Newark Charter has 2140 students.
Charter School of Wilmington has 972 students.
The entire Christina District lists 15,553.
Average Proficiency Scores for Newark Charter in ELA were 95%.. (That means 95% were tested as proficient.)
(Rats! No data) For now will have to fake Wilmington Charters’. Tack in with 99%, they’re smarter than Newark.
Christina District averaged at 39%.
So to figure the cumulative weighted theoretical for all combined, our equation would look something like this…..
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15553 (39) + 2140 (95) + 972 (99) = X/ (15553+2140+972) or X/18635 = Average Score
606567 + 203330 + 96228 = 906125/18635 = 48.62
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48.62 would be Christina School Districts cumulative ELA score if there were no charters to siphon of top students and the district was then tested as a whole…. How does that compare?
It would be statistically tied with 7 other schools for spot 9 ….. (courtesy of Exceptional Delaware)
Those others which would be tied with Christina would be Capital, Colonial, Seaford, Woodbridge, Milford, and Red Clay (hmmm. which would drop lower by losing Wilm Charter.).
None of which give away the bulk of their top students as does Christina….
When people (some think Dave Sokola is an alien; just ask Sigourney Weaver) scoff and say Christina is failing as a district and that these charters are there only because the public schools can’t teach a bag of beans, it would be very appropriate to remind them that 1) beans are inanimate and have no brains, and 2) it is only because Christina has to give up its top students to charters, that it scores average so low in comparison. In other words it is doing as well as both of the other inner city districts (Red Clay and Colonial) as well as the poorer districts down south. It is definitely not failing as a district.
This is like blaming someone for running a slow race after you cut off their leg… Sew the leg back on, and there is NO problem…
This again, is one more piece of daily mounting evidence as to why Delaware needs to remove Charter Schools from the entire state’s education system The whole “education is failing scenario” has been a gross misrepresentation. All they did as to just move smart people around to raise some schools scores, and lower others, that’s all.
“Let’s take those smart one and put them here… and lets leave the impoverished ones right there…”
Then,
“Holy Crayola!!! Look how bad this district is doing!!!… such low scores!!!. We have to take it over (and put our friends in to run each school at $160,000 a pop..)!!!”
Remember this.
As you view the results posted saying how Common Core has improved our teaching over the past year between the first taking and second taking of the tests…. these tests are graded on a curve…
One cannot compare one year’s test to another because the curve is set each new year to show a different result..
In plain language, this means the level of proficiency is NOT set by the number of right answers…. but is set by how your right number of answers compare to everyone else…
I have seen nothing regarding the cut scores setting remaining consistent between 2015 and 2016. Being changed by the committee overseeing them, results in better scores (although we can see they were not set much better)…
This was predicted when we first debated Common Core and the Smarter Balanced. It has now come to pass.
Secondly.
If this overall program were working, we should have seen far greater positive results than what we did. There are political reasons as well as financial reasons for this slow improvement… (If you show too much improvement too fast, no one will invest to gain greater improvement..)
Showing one or two percentages of people doing better is not glowing results. Not after two full years of teaching to the test…
The real result is how these same children will do on the next NAEP, the nation’s report card. Overall in both Delaware and the nation, ever since Common Core was affected, those scores (which since the 80’s had always climbed), have gone down…
If you brag about increased Smarter Scores, yet your real report card score goes down, you are no better than those teachers denigrated as passing people into the next grade who failed to meet the expectation…
In conclusion, all of this is completely meaningless. The scores show us nothing for they are arbitrarily made up. The tests show us nothing because they too are made up. The grading shows us nothing because it is made up… Only the NAEP shows us anything now, because it is a test not curved which has been consistent for years… If it shows improvement then this program is indeed working; if it doesn’t, then we need to pull the plug and return to what once worked so well.
What we DO have (since these tests do not show us anything) is a big waste of money… Make that a huge waste of money…. Money that could have been spent on???
Something like an 11:1 student teacher ratio in all schools over 50% poverty levels….
So do not be persuaded by appeals that improvement is at hand.. For the data included has some rather darkening and troubling implications… The Science and Social Studies DCAS scores have dropped consistently since Common Core was invented and put into practice…
Our Delaware kids ARE becoming dumber and dumber..Our solitary focus on math and ENGLISH has eclipsed time for civics and science. Everyone knows how to understand and speak English, even if they don’t know what an indecent participle is. But science and social studies are the determiner of an ignorant society or a knowledgeable one.. Delaware is becoming more and more ignorant the more we embrace Common Core… readily seen because those two scores are not arbitrarily set on a curve; they are based on the number of right and wrong answers. More Delawareans are getting the answers wrong consistently every year since Common Core was enacted.
So let’s grade Markell’s administration….
Our English(reading) scores have gone down over his administrations (due to test change).
Our Math scores have gone down over his administration (due to test change).
Our Social Studies scores have gone down over his administration.
Our Science scores have gone down over his administration….
Our NAEP scores have gone down over his administration….
How can that be called a success?
Amazingly, there still continues to be some confusion, as I’m sure back during the Reconstruction Era when white supremacists first insisted that black voters take some type of “smarts” test before entering the voting booth, there was confusion among many Afro Americans at that time who thought having tests of knowledge was indeed a good idea…
History proved who was right; and who were wrong. When you give someone trying to keep your race down, the tools to do so, they will use them and your race will be kept down.
That is why it is hard for many of us in educational circles to understand how any Afro-American can be in favor of using the Smarter Balanced Assessment to grade their child…
Because unlike 1890 when literacy tests were begun, today all have information on what these tests are…
Let me show you a picture of racism in 2016….
This is Delaware’s official ELA target. (Click image to enlarge.)
Whites have to grow from 61.5 to 80.8… a total of 19.3 points….
Asians have to grow from 77.1 to 88.5…..a total of 11.4 points…..
Blacks have to grow from 35.8 to 67.9….a total of 32.1 points…..
Hispanics have to grow from 39.0 to 69.5… a total of 30.5 points…..
Low incomes have to grow from 34.2 to 67.1…. a total of 32.9 points…
Disabilities…. have to grow from 19.3 to 59.6…. a total of 40.3 points…
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Pure racism. Fully endorsed by the KKK…. Hear them now? “YEAH!!!! That’s what we’re talkin’ about…..”
(Don’t blame me; I’m not even the messenger…This is from the DOE website…)
This is Delaware’s target. (Click image to enlarge.)
Whites have to grow from 49.2 to 74.6… a total of 25.4 points….
Asians have to grow from 70.7 to 85.4…..a total of 14.7 points…..
Blacks have to grow from 22.0 to 61.0….a total of 39.0 points…..
Hispanics have to grow from 28.6 to 64.3… a total of 38.7 points…..
Low incomes have to grow from 23.8 to 61.9…. a total of 38.1 points…
Disabilities…. have to grow from 15.0 to 57.5…. a total of 42.5 points.
Can anyone tell me how this is any different than guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar? Whites have to show a 51.6% improvement… Blacks have to show a 177% improvement… Might as well label blacks as disabled: 283%
What is being said here, disguised as an attempt to elevate blacksscores, is that they have to jump through a different hoop than the rest of us… why? Skin color, of course…..
No ifs. No buts. No ands…
There are proven ways to raise the results of our lowest scoring children. Corporate types flat out do not want the right answer proven to be effective over and over and over again.. I have covered it so many times, it is pointless to do it again. But for now, rest assured. This way, shown above?…. Leads us nowhere…..
Except to make the KKK very happy….. 🙂 Can you hear them?
“Hooray, Hooray, Blacks will be second class citizens again.. Whoopee! Toast! Celebrate! Yeah, Greg Lavelle* and all the other supporters of the Smarter Balanced Assessment!!! Hip, Hip, Hooray!”
Here are her educational proposals (in case you did not know).
A. Remold the entire American system for human resources development…scaling up the whole new human resources system nationwide over the next four years, using the (renamed) apprenticeship ideas as the entering wedge.
B. Create a seamless web of opportunities, to develop one’s skills that literally extends from cradle to grave.
C. It needs to be a system driven by client needs, (Clients?) guided by client’s clear standards and regulated on the basis of outcomes that providers produce for their clients.
D. Proposed Methods To Accomplish These Goals.
1) scaling up the whole new human resources system nationwide over the next four years, using the (renamed) apprenticeship ideas as the entering wedge.
2) combine initiatives on dislocated workers, a rebuilt employment service and a new system of labor market boards to offer the Clinton administration’s employment security program.
3) concentrate on the overwhelming problems of our inner cities, combining elements of the first and second packages into a special program to greatly raise the work-related skills of the people trapped in the core of our great cities.
4) advance the elementary and secondary reform agenda.
E. Clear national standards of performance in general education and public schools are expected to bring all but the most severely handicapped up to that standard. Students get a certificate when they meet this standard, allowing them to go on to the next stage of their education.
F. We have a national system of education in which curriculum, pedagogy, examinations, and teacher education and licensure systems are all linked to the national standards.
G. We have a system that rewards students who only meet the national standard, with further education and good jobs, providing them a strong incentive to work hard in school.
H. Our public school systems are reorganized to free up school professionals to make the key decisions. Most of the federal, state, district and union rules and regulations that now restrict school professionals’ ability to make these decisions, are swept away.
I. There is a real — aggressive — program of public choice in our schools, rather than the flaccid version that is widespread now.
J. All students are guaranteed that they will have a fair shot at reaching the standards: that is, that whether they make it or not depends only on the effort they are willing to make, and nothing else.
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Ok… here is my comment… Words can be used or misused. If these ideas sound great to you, understand that all the measured results hinge on Item J above.
The current Smarter Balanced and PAARC through leaks made by students and teachers everywhere have been conclusively shown to be unfair to minorities, disabled, English language learners, the impoverished, or people who deeply believe in religion. All are put to a disadvantage compared to those who receive excessive stimulation from the cradle to kindergarten at home… To the difference of entering kindergarten with a 10,000 word vocabulary advantage…
The biggest problem with Common Core, Race To The Top, the lowered NEAP scores, the drop in Smarter Balanced Scores over the previous DCAS, the pinning of teachers performance to the test, and school closures, etc.,…. is that the test is flawed… It is designed NOT to be fair, but the exact opposite… IT IS DESIGNED TO BE VERY UNFAIR AND SEPARATE THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF VERY EARLY ON……(“By 2nd grade we will know who and who is not, going to college” –Arne Duncun.)
If you are black; you will be 2nd class no matter how hard you work (no more black brain surgeons); if you are Hispanic and have parents who speak Spanish, no matter how hard you work, you will be 2nd class (no more conservative Hispanic immigrants running for Republican President); if you are disabled, sorry, automatically 2nd class; if you are gay or transgender, again sorry, you will be fixed to remain in the 2nd class; if you hail from fundamentalist religions, forget it, you will persecuted and designated 2nd class. Bottom line: if you think differently from how an executive thinks, your test guesses will not be correct, and you will never be given the opportunity to try your hand at making a decent living. Because: “We” have already decided what you can or cannot be…
Now rereading that last paragraph, I know it could possibly sound to those who’ve not read previous in-depth test critiques,…. perhaps, a little overblown? Or stretching the fear envelope a little?
My simple answer is for you to take the test… (click the blue colored link), find your child’s grade level and take the test yourself… (the answers are also there so you can check your results; if you disagree with the answers (you will), you can also see the reasoning (or lack of it) as to why they chose their answer…
If you don’t come away from that experience thinking this test is nothing but arbitrary in its questions and responses, then you too have great executive potential in this upcoming brave new world created in alignment with corporate values done without any input from teachers, parents, students, or school districts….
Boils down to this: it’s the test, stupid… It’s all about the test…It is only about the test… Change the test and some of these ideas are not bad… Keep the test and they will doom the next generation of Americans to the complacency of just being adequate at best, or chaos at worst…
In the meantime, I’d recommend all educationally concerned parents to vote for someone other than Hillary. Not for any personal reasons or for support to other candidates. Just that her ideas for education are bad for the nation’s future.. That’s all. If you reading this have any pull with her, get her to change her views, will you?
Vergara Ruling Overturned by State Appeals Court….
A California appeals court, reversing a trial court’s ruling in the landmark Vergara case, has found that California’s job-protection laws for teachers do not in fact violate the state constitution’s equal protection guarantee.
The appeals court ruled April 14 that the plaintiffs in the Vergara case had failed to prove sufficiently that the state’s teacher-employment laws, including tenure and termination provisions, “inevitably cause a certain group of students to receive an education inferior to the education received by other students.”
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Exactly what those of us who read the transcripts all said… We called it a kangeroo court because it decided it decision based on shots called down to it, and not on the evidence put before the court. There was no way the evidence pointed to that decision.
This is good news. In the national test-case for unions, Unions have been declared legal and can stand stronger now……
A similar case to Vergara was just filed in Minnesotaand this decision may put a knife in it early up there.
If you didn’t first see the legal expert’s video go here and then come back….
It is not a warning, but just a reality check as to what “could” happen you you as a parent if you allow your child to take the Smarter Balanced Assessment…
Moving forward now, here is what that new legislation should address.
Whereas behavioral, class attendance, class performance and traditional forms of data like grades have been collected, now there is greater interest in collecting metadata which is information about how a child is interacting with the program, interacting with the software, data which is highly marketable and a lot of companies are scrambling to obtain that data. They are looking at it to assess school products, to assess teachers’ teaching methods, and to assess a child’s future in order to open and close doors long before a child reaches the hallway those doors are on.
The question hereto unasked, unsolved and unanswered, is how are we going to structure that access to data… so it is fair to children, to parents, to teachers, to schools….
The worst-case-scenario is abuse of these to harm children.. instances where they are improperly tracked and improperly labeled and improperly sent down wrong pathways they shouldn’t be sent.
All because of bad data practices….
Before going forward, we need to have “good” data practices implemented and have teeth in the law so even bad people will want to do good…
Necessary to this is a blanket protection on ALL data acquired on a child… All data is unavailable to anyone outside those directly involved. The scope of protection…. has to be very broad….
Next step is to establish very clear use restrictions…. as in what can this data be used for?… Make it open and shut… “Can this data be used by Skippy Peanut Butter?” “Let us check the clear use restrictions.” “No, it does not allow transference of data to Skippy Peanut Butter”…. Open and shut.
Then we need to add a flexible option, so educated parents can choose to “opt in” on having other sources of information disseminated about their child… It becomes the parent’s choice whether their child’s data can be used and to whom those additional users may be.
And finally to all of these there should be added some type of repercussions, which are strong enough to make violating any of these tenants, financially risky.
Currently there is none. Nada. The only restriction is in FERPA The Federal government can withhold money from a school district if there is a violation of FERPA. In the 41 years of FERPA, that has never happened. If a school district violates your child’s privacy, if the State violates your child’s privacy, if a vendor violates your child’s privacy, as a parent, you have no private right of action.
In this environment, your child’s data once acquired, is available to all. John Carney can even acquire a list of marginal students and call their parents to get their votes. Everything is wide open.
As a society we often venture into new territory first, learning as we go. The first cars didn’t have brakes because you just previously told the horse to slow down; the thought did not cross their inventor’s minds until racing down the road. When we went into Iraq, we didn’t have a plan on how to govern once we took over. Dick Cheney didn’t think of it. We’d just take it and suck out their oil.
Today, we don’t let just anyone drive. They have to demonstrate they know how. Likewise today we don’t let anyone set up and operation room and extract live organs. They have to prove they are capable in knowledge and ability.
Therefore we really shouldn’t allow the Smarter Balanced to go forward until we fix these problems it leaves in its wake. Should we?
Here is the approach which should be taken. WE need a figurehead bill put up that WHEREAS’s all the facts listed above, to preface a bill advocating the immediate eradication of the Smarter Balanced for security reasons, as our one test in Delaware. This won’t pass nor is it intended to.. It’s purpose is to create a lightning rod for all educational wonks on both sides to focus their attention upon. Despite a probable prognosis for failure, the full-press floor fight for its passage should be passionate, since that is what drives public scrutiny and shapes public opinion.
Then invisibly, under the radar, 4 new bills need to be quietly slipped through, addressing the plugging of each of the 4 holes illuminated above… Bill 1) We need state blanket protection of all data. Bill 2) We need to determine exactly who, what, where that data will be allowed to go. Bill 3) We need to allow parents the right to “opt in” into allowing further data to be disseminated. And finally Bill 4) we need some type of gigantic bankruptcy-causing-punitive-damage and jail for anyone violating a child’s privacy without the express permission of his parents.
By then (if our crystal ball is correct) the Smarter Balanced will most likely have been replaced with another test (unless it scores a magnificent save this year) and the above protections will be in place long before any new test (if any at all), materializes…
Big items in the ESSA:
States will no longer have to do teacher evaluation through student outcomes, as they did under NCLB waivers. The NCLB law’s “highly qualified teacher” requirement is officially a thing of the past….
States are required to adopt “challenging” academic standards. That could be the Common Core State Standards, but doesn’t have to be. The U.S. Secretary of Education is expressly prohibited from forcing or even encouraging states to pick a particular set of standards (including the common core)…
States can create their own testing opt-out laws, and states decide what should happen in schools that miss targets….
Up to seven states can apply to try out local tests for a limited time, with the permission of the U.S. Department of Education….
Districts will work with teachers and school staff to come up with an evidence-based turnaround plan.States will monitor the turnaround effort.If schools continue to founder, after no more than four years the state will be required to step in with its own plan. A state could take over the school if it wanted, or fire the principal, or turn the school into a charter.
Only 1 percent of students overall can be given alternative tests. (That’s about 10 percent of students in special education.)
Districts that get more than $30,000 have to spend at least 20 percent of their funding on at least one activity that helps students become well-rounded, and another 20 percent on at least one activity that helps students be safe and healthy.
The current Title I funding formula remains intact, but there are some changes to the Title II formula (which funds teacher quality) that will be a boon to rural states.
A pilot program will let 50 districts try out a weighted student-funding formula, combining state, local, and federal funds to better serve low-income students and those with special needs.
States have to figure in participation rates on state tests. (Schools with less than 95 percent participation are supposed to have that included, somehow.) But participation rate is a stand-alone factor, not a separate indicator on its own.
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Recommended new State Actions to deal with the new law.
A. General Assembly: create bill prohibiting linking teacher accountability with test scores in the state of Delaware.
B. General Assembly: remove Delaware from the Smarter Balanced Assessment and come up with State test designed by real educators.
C. General Assembly: pass bill that says all those applying for OPT OUT before March 1st, will not be counted in the participation rate of test takers. They will be a separate class removed from the formula in figuring participation rates. Participation rates will be figured based on those students who did not opt out before the deadline.
D.
The entire nation was set on the course of Common Core … Delaware raced to be first… Filling out applications to “Race To The Top” it was accepted first and there Common Core had an extra year of implementation. Therefore seeing how Delaware is functioning is good for showing how the rest of the nation shall fare when it too reaches that level Delaware now is …
Fact is, in very many areas, solely because of Common Core, Delaware is less better than it was before “Race To The Top” became a priority. We as the first state, are now fighting for survival in a race to the bottom because of our state’s enthusiasm to embrace an untried, untested, and unproven strategy to implement better learning processes….
This can be seen no better than our failure to improve ELL in Hispanics here in Delaware…
Again charts show this better than do words…..
One can see from the above grade 4 score-chart, gains have been made nationally on the NAEP since 2005 to 2015, a rather impressive achievement, and something which would be celebrated if it were not completely overshadowed by the current focus on achievement gaps.
Same with the national Grade 8 scores on the NAEP. All segments trend upward over ten years, an amazing feat worthy of celebration. Meaning we are doing a much better job in taking children who have never heard English and do not have it reinforced at home, and giving them the ability to survive in our English speaking country.
But instead of celebrating this good thing, we beat up ourselves over a self-imposed restriction called “the achievement gap”…
So we are complaining and trying to develop a process which makes children who don’t know English and don’t have it reinforced at home, catch up and surpass those who grew up learning English and always have it reinforced everywhere they go…
It is pretty silly really, isn’t it? Shouldn’t we concentrate on the big picture and improve the reading rates for all Hispanics and ignore the fact that the achievement gap will always be there and possibly grow larger due to natural selection? The only way to REALLY improve the Hispanic achievement gap is to pull them out of their families and put them in English speaking ones of higher incomes… Something that will never happen.
It should also be acknowledged here, that before we were worried about testing, Hispanic scores rose much higher than after we began to worry about them. This should be no surprised to anyone who’s followed what goes on in education lately because of the testing requirements placed on teachers and students.
Because WE are focusing only on closing achievement gaps, we are teaching only the test to our Hispanic students. All they learn is how to take the tests. This readily explains the slumps from 2013 to 2015 in the charts above. This slump comes about because of pressure top-downward. Teachers are told they have to get scores up on their Hispanic children. And the only way to do that is to teach them how to fill in the bubbles of the test, how to accurately guess the right answers, and when and when not just skip a question. Strategy outranks knowledge of language….
And make no mistake! All children are suffering from this strategy that Common Core forces on every single school required to be evaluated by these tests. It is just that with students who learn one language at school and another at home, the differences are wider and more pronounced. One can immediately see the impact without other issues clouding the picture.
And so if you are astute, (I’m very lucky, most of MY readers are) you are probably putting two and two together and saying to yourself that 1) if the national average score has risen for all Hispanics over the past ten years, that 2) if Common Core and its tests negatively impact the learning process for all students, that if 3) Delaware has a year more of Common Core under its belt than other states, then probably Delaware is near the NAEP’s bottom rank of all states when one compares the gains or losses Hispanics have faced during the Markell administration’s second term. If you are astute, that is what you should be thinking right now…..
Delaware, 2nd to last of all 50 states in gains made by Hispanic 8th graders ….. Thanks, Jack Markell and Mark Murphy.
WE went the wrong direction in Race To The Top and corporate reform… Today it is very obvious that the test has got to go. We already have great overall accountability in the NAEP… These calls from lobby shills saying we need to keep the Smarter Balanced to make schools accountable, are exactly who and what is ruining education for all of 130,000 + of Delaware’s children in public schools.
Nothing wrong with accountability.. it worked very well until we started focusing on the Smarter Balanced Assessments. Again, don’t take my word. Just look at the charts.
If you are looking for blatant racism anywhere in this country, you need look no further than our Charter School organization….
Pictures speak 1000s of words.
Although the Charter Schools are spinning the data shows they are close to Public Schools in their suspension rates, look at the categories…..
We’ve all heard that more Blacks are suspended than whites. But did you know that more blacks are suspended in Charter Schools than are in public?… Ok, so is that is possibly due to zero tolerance?
But fewer whites are suspended in Charters than are suspended in public schools… And even FEWER Hispanics are suspended in Charters than in our public school system….
How can that be? Double standards?
Prejudice is alive and well in our charter schools. Which is why, pro-charter by any Afro-American legislator, is becoming a political no-no, a contradiction in terms… You cannot be supportive of your race and vote pro-charter which ADDS to the amount of prejudice in this world and HURTS the public schools which is the most effective tool today we have to combat that…
ANY SUPPORT for charter schools by any Afro American, hits the youth of their race twice in the head with a baseball bat.
kavips 
