At the midpoint of the school year, education officials at the state-level down to the school-level are looking at winter test scores. While none of the scores are hitting the proficiency percentage goals set for the spring, officials said improvements are on the right track.
For each district, the Delaware Department of Education is highlighting strengths thus far in implementing Race to the Top programs. The federal grant program is in its first year of implementation and a lot of changes have come to schools in the First State. Putting the program into action in Delaware schools has been a huge undertaking.
Delaware was awarded the first Race to the Top grant in the nation and will use $119 million in federal funds over the next four years to jumpstart education reform. The goal of the competitive, voluntary grants is to make students “Career and College Ready” by closing student achievement gaps by 50 percent and getting proficiency test scores close to 100 percent by 2015. Programs run the gamut from administering core curriculum standards to revising teacher evaluations.
Proficiency is still 10 to 15 percent under spring testing goals in math and reading in different grades ranging from elementary to high school. (View complete midyear tracking report here)
Rebecca Taber, deputy chief of staff for the Delaware Department of Education, said she is optimistic that Delaware schools will hit the end-of-year mark with spring testing.
The midyear report focused on the state as a whole and looked at strengths in each of the districts.
“We’re waiting until the end of the year to look across the districts,” Taber said. At more local levels, DDOE is conducting progress reviews for districts and schools. She said those reviews highlight “on the ground feedback” and will take place in April.
“Now that we have this picture of what we are doing, is it driving the outcomes we hoped for,” she said.
Those outcomes are expected by the end of the school year, once the Spring Delaware Comprehensive Assessment System is administered and the final proficiency scores of the year are recorded.
For the midyear report, Taber said the state wanted to find four strengths for each district, which was easy work. (Read full district-by-district midyear strength report here)
“There was no district where everything was worse than the state average, worse than it was before,” she said. “We have good things going on in every district.”
“I think the report covers the highlights,” said Dr. Dorothy Nave, superintendent of Laurel School District. “It’s looking at what’s really, really, really different this year from previous years.”
Nave said she was excited to share the midyear report with her staff. They celebrated some of the numbers with cookies.
Compared with the rest of the state, African American and students coming from poor backgrounds at Laurel schools improved 13 percentage points between fall and winter reading testing, compared to a five-point rise statewide. Students with disabilities also saw a greater growth in test scores in 9th-10th grade reading and 6th-8th grade math.
“We took a minute and said ‘Let’s celebrate that these children are learning,’” Nave said. “As we met with the teachers after school and told them how great we felt and how proud we were of them, I could see in their faces they were proud as well. And it makes all the hard work worthwhile.”
Both Nave and Mark Holodick, superintendent for Brandywine School District, credit the Professional Learning Communities with bringing staff together to share student data and plans. They give PLCs some of the credit for improved student scores.
A Professional Learning Community is characterized by the collaborative work of educators to continuously seek, share and act on their learning in order to improve their practice for the purpose of improved student outcomes.
“PLCs are up and running and the most appropriate venue and best opportunity to share what’s going on in the classroom,” Holidick said. “It’s important to have the (testing) data and let that drive the decision-making. We are determining how to get that data into the hands of the practitioners, the teachers. “
Nave said she’s been impressed with how teachers are able to collaborate for their students’ benefit. She referred to the PLC meetings as “heartwarming.”
In the midyear strength report, Brandywine saw a greater percentage of students deemed “college ready” by the College Board compared to the state average in both the PSAT and SAT exams, as well as higher enrollment and success rates in AP courses. The district does not seem to have the same struggles as others with Partnership Zone schools assessed as the lowest performing schools in the state.
While Brandywine has no Partnership Zone schools, Holidick said he doesn’t believe his district necessarily has it any easier just because it doesn’t have any of the lowest-performing schools.
“I think it’s very intense anyway,” Holidick said. “Reform and change is challenging for everyone in the organization.
“There are a lot of difficult conversations that need to be had and some looking in the mirror that needs to be done to drive change that leads to improvement.”
Conversations at Brandywine schools include incorporating Learning Focused Strategies into the classroom. LFS is one of Holidick’s proudest accomplishments, so far, he said, as they utilize a new planning framework to focus on learning in the classroom.
And while LFS may be one more new plan in the sea of reform that is Race to the Top, he said it’s important to constantly reassess and adjust.
“When you have an initiative of this magnitude, there will be road bumps,” he said. “Some are expected, some are unexpected. Change is challenging and this reform movement requires change at all levels.”
Some of those road bumps include communication from the top down, supporting staff and staying balanced.
Nave, who has worked in education for nearly 50 years, said she’s never seen such drastic reform in her career.
“These teachers are working very hard and I don’t want them to burn out,” she said. “I think we need to maintain and stay the course. We need to keep supporting teachers and keep reassuring them we are proud of them and proud of the achievements of their students.”