August 13, 2009

Markell Signs Education Reforms Bills Into Law

Governor says measures will ‘help deliver the kind of change our system needs’ to better prepare students to ‘succeed in an increasingly competitive economy’

WILMINGTON – Surrounded by leading education advocates, Gov. Jack Markell signed three major education reforms into law Thursday.

The initiatives represent the Markell-Denn administration’s education reform agenda for this year’s legislative session.

“For our state to have the future we all want it to have, we need to make our strong education system even stronger,” Markell said.  “We have the ability to make our state’s education system one of the best in the world, but that kind of progress demands that we think differently about how we measure and achieve success. It demands that we do more with the limited resources we have and encourage innovation. These reforms will help deliver the kind of change our system needs to prepare students to become active citizens and succeed in an increasingly competitive economy.”

The reforms, which were co-sponsored by a large bipartisan group of lawmakers, will:

• Eliminate the Delaware Student Testing Program and replace it with a testing program that measures student progress over the course of a school year (Senate Bill 68).

“I think the sky’s really the limit for using this as a tool to help our students do better. We’re going to have a comprehensive assessment system that will give teachers quick results – typically the next day,” said Senate Education Committee Chairman David Sokola, D-Newark North, who drafted the law instituting the new test. “That means teachers and schools will have meaningful data in hand enabling them to both provide on-the-spot help to students as well as to look at areas where a curriculum might need work.”

• Reward high-performing schools with additional funding. The pilot program to offer incentives to schools closing the achievement gap will be launched using money from the federal economic recovery package (Senate Bill 151).

"Governor Markell's reform agenda gets all the big things right and is willing to listen to make sure the small things get done right, too,” said Representative Terry Schooley, chair of the House Education Committee. “It takes seriously problems like the achievement gap that have plagued our state for too long," Schooley said. "Education is the straightest path out of child poverty, which the KIDS Count data shows is a major hurdle to the next generation's success."

• Provide local schools and districts with substantially more discretion to make financial and other decisions that make sense for the kids they serve, while simultaneously holding them more accountable for spending their funds responsibly. Districts will be required to post their check registers on their Web sites by Sept. 1 and update them quarterly. (House Bill 119).

“House Bill 119 frees districts in many ways to use their resources to improve student achievement,” said Diane Donohue, president of the Delaware State Education Association. “By requiring full transparency of district finances, there will surely be more public involvement in schools, which can have benefits we can’t even imagine.”

The bills were drafted after Lt. Gov. Matt Denn and Secretary of Education Lillian Lowery hosted a dozen “Back to School” briefings across the state to get public input, and drew hundreds of participants in person and online.

“Senator Sokola and Representative Schooley are to be applauded for their hard work in shepherding these bills through the legislative process,” Denn said.  “The statewide Back-to-School briefings that Dr. Lowery and I held earlier this year brought concerned parents and educators to the table.  These bills are the culmination of their input.”

The briefings started a statewide dialogue on education reform centered on four main topics:

• Rewarding teachers who volunteer to serve in at-risk schools

• Replacing the DSTP with a better system for measuring performance

• Cutting cumbersome regulations and allowing more decision-making discretion

• Giving schools more funding discretion, but also holding them accountable

“Today is an exciting day for education in the State of Delaware,” Lowery said. “I am appreciative of Senator Sokola and Representative Schooley for spearheading this important legislation through the General Assembly.  These three bills will collectively provide the gateway to improved efficiencies and operational management in our districts and schools.  The flexibility and incentives made possible through this legislation will have a beneficial impact on our educational system.  I am happy to stand with the Governor and Lt. Governor today as they sign these bills into law, and I am particularly excited about the future that lies ahead as we make Delaware’s schools the best in the nation.”