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Long-Term Care Symposium April
27 in DSEA office Dover; and May 10 in NCC office
ESP Conference May 1
Human and Civil Rights Banquet May 4
RTI Symposium May 8
Defensive Driving
April 22 and 29
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Delaware
to receive approx. $100 million in RTTT funds over four years
March 29, 2010.... In a surprise move today,
U.S. Sec. of Education Arne Duncan announced that only Delaware and
Tennessee will receive Race to the Top funds during
this first round. (Second round applications are due June 1 for
other states wishing to apply.)
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan phoned DSEA President Donohue
this morning to give her the great news, and to say that Delaware's
presentation, "Blew us away." He noted that Delaware received
the most points for its application and in-person presentation of all of
the states applying for this first round of RTTT funding. Sixteen states
were named finalists from among 40 that applied; only Delaware and
Tennessee will receive funding during this first round.
Thanks to
collaboration, a willingness to find a fair system for using and defining
"student growth," a track record for innovation and closing
the achievement gap, Delaware scored the most points on its Race to
the Top application.
According to the U.S. Dept. of Education web site,
"Delaware will receive approximately $100 million and Tennessee $500
million to implement their comprehensive school reform plans over the
next four years. As with any federal grant program, budgets will be
finalized after discussions between the grantees and the Department, and
the money will be distributed over time as the grantees meet established
benchmarks.
"The U.S. Department of Education will have about $3.4
billion available for the second phase of the Race to the Top
competition." -- for states that did not apply in Phase I, or
did apply and did not receive funding.
For the breaking stories, click
here for the Washington Post.
New
York Times
Education
Week
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• WHEN
DO WE START? •
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When
do we start work on "meeting, confering and collaborating" on
each district's "scope of work?"
We are asking now exactly when the 90-day clock starts
ticking.
That’s right: each district and its local teacher union has 90 days to
meet, confer, collaborate and, where necessary (where your contract buts
up against a proposed change), negotiate what they will do with Race to
the Top Funding to meet Delaware's education goals. The
state’s overall Scope of Work as defined in its application can be found
here.
Each district, again, in partnership with their teacher union and other
education stakeholders, will meet to determine how the State’s Scope of
Work can best be implemented for their students.
In general, here are the four goals/"assurances" defined by
Race to the Top:
"The Race to the Top state competition is designed to reward states
that are leading the way in comprehensive, coherent, statewide education
reform across four key areas:
- Adopting standards and assessments that prepare
students to succeed in college and the workplace;
- Building data systems that measure student growth
and success, and inform teachers and principals how to improve
instruction;
- Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining
effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed
most; and
- Turning around their lowest-performing
schools" (known in RTTT language as Performance Zone schools).
Delaware Secretary of Education Lillian Lowery is slated to
announce the Race to the Top Performance Zone schools this summer. These
will be 3-5 of the state's lowest-performing schools that will be
required to choose a "turnaround" model. Both Sec. of Education
Lilian Lowery and DSEA favor the Transformation Model, whereby the school
would have new leadership (unless the principal was new and had already
begun leading significant change) and be required to implement
both operational and curricular changes.
DSEA's Race to the Top web page
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• YOUR VOICE •
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Annual DSEA Representative
Asembly set for April 16 and 17
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