One year ago, Delaware and Tennessee became the first two states awarded money from the federal government's Race to the Top fund. The First State received $100 million to implement the plan it submitted in the competition for education reform dollars. Today, Vice President Joe Biden joined U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Governor Jack Markell at Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington to tout what's been done so far in delivering on the state's Race to the Top promises.
"Delaware's set the bar high for the rest of the nation," said the Vice President.
"This state, through Race to the Top, through the Governor's and others' leadership, has the eyes of the country on [it]. This state is going to take education to an entirely different level," said Secretary Duncan. "You are helping lead the country where we need to go."
Vice President Joe Biden at Howard High School of Technology
Biden marks Race to the Top's first anniversary in Delaware
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At the end of February, the state had spent $4.5 million of its Race to the Top dollars with another 10.9 million committed for use.
Markell says those initial expenditures are already bearing fruit as the first year of Race to the Top in Delaware wraps up . "If you look at the specific things that we said we were going to do, we're implementing all of them," said Markell "And I think that's the best way to measure if we've reached [our goals].
Among the areas Markell says Delaware has delivered are the adoption of common core standards, development of the Partnership Zone reform model to target low achieving schools, the launch of an online assessment system to give teachers timely access to student testing data throughout the year from the new Delaware Comprehensive Testing System (DCAS), and a data coaching initiative to help teachers understand that information and use it in the classroom.
Duncan and Biden also hailed the state’s teachers and their union, the Delaware State Education Association, for their continued willingness to engage in the Race to the Top process.
“You know what these [teachers] did? They said here in Delaware we’ll take a chance,” noted Biden. “We’ll give up some of our power. We’ll take a chance. We know we’ve got to change what we do, so we’ll try it out.”
Markell says that continued attitude of cooperation and collaboration has fueled progress in year one.
“One of the things I like very much about our Race to the Top plan is that in many of the changes, the recommendations came directly from teachers,” said Markell.
Markell cited the teachers' role in developing the data coaching initiative, along with a professional development program and regular 90 minute collaborative planning sessions to share best practices and coordinate lesson plans.
Gov. Jack Markell at Howard High School of Technology
Gov. Markell outlines where Delaware has reached its first-year Race to the Top goals.
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In front of hundreds of students at Howard High, Vice President Biden and Governor Markell made the case that Race to the Top is on track. Howard High is one of the schools considered an early example of Race to the Top at work. It was one of first four schools to enter the Partnership Zone Program and had its transformation plan approved by the state. As part of that plan, Howard has already brought in a new principal. The plan for Howard also includes incentives to attract highly qualified teachers and hiring a on-site parent coordinator to improve outreach and support to parents.
The Vice President implored Howard students to take advantage of what's being done to improve their school.
"This is a team effort," said Biden. "We all know what you can do if you're given the chance. There's no reason Howard can't produce the best scientists, the best mathematicians, the best high school graduates in the entire system."
