Improved School Profiles Now Available to the Public

Delaware parents, community members, and others now can find important information about public schools and districts easily and quickly thanks to public school profiles recently inaugurated by the Department of Education. The redesigned system presents key performance and other statistics for each school and district, including accountability ratings, teachers' qualifications, and average class sizes in user-friendly print and Web formats, offering the opportunity to compare schools and to dig deeper into technical formulas, definitions and data.

The dashboard was designed by the DOE, with oversight by the LEAD Committee as its third task. Vision 2015 recommended creating such a dashboard as an important step toward increasing transparency and making school information available to the public.

National Education Reformer Praises Delaware’s Progress

Education Trust President Kati Haycock praised Delaware’s progress in closing the achievement gap but cautioned against complacency, in an opinion piece that appeared in The News Journal on Sunday, August 3. In the piece, Haycock notes that Delaware schools recorded the greatest progress of any state in closing the achievement gap for 4th grade reading scores. She points out, however, that out-performing other states is no longer good enough because the rest of the world is out-performing the United States.

While Delaware’s achievement gap seems to be closing in some subjects and grades, Haycock notes that the state spends "$954 less in state and local dollars per student in its highest poverty districts than it does in its most affluent districts.” As recommended by Vision 2015 and mandated in Governor Minner’s Executive Order, the LEAD Committee currently is exploring alternative funding formulas as it puts together its recommendations on how to distribute education dollars equitably to districts and schools.

Haycock’s recommendations for closing the achievement gap echo those of Vision 2015 and include: strong, focused principals; increased parental involvement and accountability; clear focus on learning, rich curriculum for all students; and recruiting and retaining strong teachers.

Read the opinion.

VISION-aries

“No matter how children come to [schools], [successful education leaders] do what they need to do to take those children to where they need to be....They teach a rich curriculum to all children and provide help to kids who are struggling when they need it… They educate all kids -- not just some....They work hard to recruit and retain strong teachers....Their principals are relentless about driving improvement. And they help teachers be leaders in that improvement.”

--Kati Haycock addressing how schools with large numbers of poor and minority students have been successful in raising the achievement of those students. She acknowledges Frankford and East Millsboro elementary schools (Indian River School District) as two such schools in Delaware. (Source: The News Journal, August 3, 2008)

Vision Network Principals Commit to Spending More Time on Instruction

Several Vision Network schools are participating in the national School Administration Management (SAM) project to improve instructional leadership. With support from The Wallace Foundation and Vision Network training and coaching partners, some Vision Network leaders are working through the SAM process to build a collaborative school culture and spend more time on instruction. The New Castle County Vo-Tech School District, for example, has set a goal that all principals will spend at least 50% of their time on instruction in 2008-09.

The SAM project is based on a study conducted in the Jefferson County Public School District in Kentucky in which business management was handled by a staff member other than the principal. After just one year, principals were spending more time on instruction than management, and the rate of student achievement gains doubled.

Research by The Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy, and corroborated by the University of Delaware, indicates that most principals spend only about 30% of their time on activities related to learning, such as observing and modeling instruction and providing feedback to students. It is estimated that 70% of principals’ time is spent on school operations, including bus schedules, cafeteria supervision, and other day-to-day activities.

Studies show that school leaders who spend more time on instruction and build a collaborative culture in their schools yield better student achievement results.

For more information: McREL Balanced Leadership Research

Did You Know?

A common core of standards in English and mathematics now exists for a critical mass of states due to their deliberate, voluntary efforts to align high school standards with the demands of college and careers. This is among the findings reported in the recent study by Achieve, Inc., “Out of Many, One: Toward Rigorous Common Core Standards from the Ground Up.”

The report also asserts that anchoring rigorous state standards in real world demands is the key to closing the achievement gap and preparing students for college and beyond.

Contact

To get the latest information on how to become involved with Vision 2015, please visit our web site: www.vision2015delaware.org or e-mail us at info@vision2015delaware.org.