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More on plans for “donated” BoA building

Last week Charlie Copeland dropped a hint that there would be 4 schools installed in the building. Now another insider gives up a suggestion of what kinds of schools the Longwood Foundation might pick for the former Bank of America building in Wilmington.

Charter School of Wilmington President Chuck Baldwin has been getting some rounds of well-deserved applause lately for his blog post, in which Chuck describes how he stood up to influential friends and parents who wanted special treatment to get their child into CSW.

But also in Chuck’s post was this:

This building, which will be used for education, will allow for successful models to replicate in Delaware (KIPP, Montessori). Schools will be established in the inner city and provide educational opportunities for thousands of our children. DuPont and Bank of America are committing million of dollars in resources and are truly “putting their money where their mouth is” when it comes to education reform.

The picture is getting a little clearer. I get that we are being subjected to a sophisticated rollout campaign for this program, and we aren’t being told everything all at once.

But am I being too cynical to think that the schools for the new building and their leadership have already been selected?

Who and what is the Shared Learning Collaborative? (Part 2)

Part 2 of a 2 part series – click here for Part 1

The Shared Learning Collaborative (SLC) asserts that its technology will provide personalized learning, providing access to materials that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Let’s dig in and see what they are offering.

Common Core State Standards
If you haven’t heard about the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSS), in a nutshell it is an effort to set common learning goals at each grade level across multiple states. From the CCSS FAQ:

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort to establish a shared set of clear educational standards for English language arts and mathematics that states can voluntarily adopt. [...]

Standards do not tell teachers how to teach, but they do help teachers figure out the knowledge and skills their students should have so that teachers can build the best lessons and environments for their classrooms.

For example, if you move to another state in the middle of the year, your child will find the knowledge they are expected to master in the new school not radically different from their old school – as long as both states are following CCSS.

Delaware has adopted the Common Core State Standards and is in the process of implementing them. Delaware’s transition plan and timeline shows currently we are in Phase II, culminating with Phase IV in 2014.

[...]

Walking back the cat on the BoA building

 

 
First of all, let’s be perfectly clear: Bank Of America did not donate this building to charter schools. They did not donate it to the people of Delaware, or to the children.

They donated it to the Longwood Foundation.

…

“Walking back the cat” is an information analysis technique, which I first heard about in a classic column by William Safire:

Intelligence analysts have a technique to reveal a foreign government’s internal dissension called ”walking back the cat.” They apply what they now know as fact against what their agents said to expect. In that way, walkers-back learn who ”disinformed” or whose mistake may reveal a split in a seemingly monolithic hierarchy.

So keep that in mind, as we go through and compare the quotes found in the news on Day Zero of the announcement. These are the people who participated in the planning, or otherwise had detailed knowledge ahead of the public.
[...]

New rules: school capacity

School capacity must be listed on the official school profiles. Include all flavors of capacity, including building capacity and program capacity. List all programs operating in the building and their enrollment and capacities. Total capacity for each level (elementary, middle, high school) should be rolled up and displayed at the district level.

And while we are setting forth to build dashboards, we need a public dashboard which would replace and surpass the current school profiles site, by providing the additional data and capabilities afforded by the Education Insight infrastructure.

The schools P.S. du Pont built

 

 
The Hagley Museum and Library has released its 2001 film A Separate Place online in a package designed for teachers. Drawing on footage from Hagley, the film documents the schools built by P.S. du Pont for the “colored” students in segregated Delaware.

The film is 53 minutes long, but a shorter version is available for showing in classrooms, and includes a teacher’s guide.

A Separate Place is a documentary film about the ambiguous legacy of segregation and desegregation in African American education. Focusing on the schools built by P.S. du Pont in Delaware, the film is based on compelling interviews with teachers and students whose lives span seventy-five years of African American education.

The film is compelling, featuring many photos of the shacks used for schools in the early part of the century, and then the neat brick schoolhouses built by du Pont. The interviews with former students and teachers in the segregated school system are priceless. The first part of the film describes the system of schoolhouses built by du Pont across Delaware, then the second half focuses on Howard High School and later desegregation efforts.

Also, there is currently a photo exhibit at the Delaware Public Archives, The African-American Educational Journey In Delaware. The Archives also provides three free related e-books.

News Journal confirms referendum funding gap, opens door to broader investigation

The News Journal yesterday verified the observation on this blog last week that:

…in the 2009 Appoquinimink referendum, the state contributed $3 for every $1 from Appo. But for Red Clay’s current referendum, the state is contributing only $1.50 for every dollar from Red Clay.

It was pretty clear from the referendum documents that this was the case. But it is nice to receive independent confirmation from professional journalists.

Raising more questions than answers, the News Journal report also included links to state law here and here, providing formulas for calculating the state share of referendums. State worksheets for the Appo and Red Clay calculations were not provided.

The law prescribes a dizzying series of calculations which are difficult to verify independently. Each step itself requires initial calculations using tax and market information that is not readily available. I worked on it for about an hour last night and didn’t get very far, lacking information required by the formula. At some point I will put up a post laying out the steps in detail, but I can’t devote any more time to it right now.

The formulas are based on assessed value of property in the district. So even if the formulas are followed, the result can be manipulated significantly by the assessment values, and indications are that this is in fact the case.

[,,,]

Flag on the field, players transfer to new schools

It’s only a matter of time before somebody tries to start a football charter school:

With Red Lion working way back to DIAA, dozens of athletes depart

The dramatic reversal in priorities resulted in about 40 athletes leaving Red Lion at the end of the first semester on Jan. 27, athletic director Ken Howard said. It’s unclear where most of those athletes are now enrolled, adding intrigue to a long-running saga.

Who and what is the Shared Learning Collaborative? (Part 1)

Part 1 of a 2-part series

Okay, here we go with another education reform organization, one which Delaware had a hand in creating, and which will be a player in Delaware schools soon: the Shared Learning Collaborative (SLC). Some of its participants are already on the scene here in Delaware. The partners are names you have probably heard before: Wireless Generation, Double Line Partners, McKinsey & Company, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and more.

The technical notes on the SLC web site are sketchy, so I’ll have to make some educated guesses. But basically: the vendors and consultants who built the new school data systems in Texas and Delaware have gotten together and are now going to give that system away for free, and make a tremendous amount of money doing it.

[...]

An Abbott ruling for Delaware

If we are looking for ways to add stronger programming to disadvantaged schools in Wilmington or elsewhere, an Abbott ruling for Delaware might be a useful goal for advocates.

In 1985, the Education Law Center sued to address state funding disparities for New Jersey’s most disadvantaged school districts (Abbott vs. Burke). The suit was successful, and created a number of Abbott districts in New Jersey:

Abbott districts are school districts in New Jersey that are provided remedies to ensure that their students receive public education in accordance with New Jersey’s state constitution. They were created in 1985 as a result of the first ruling of Abbott v. Burke, a case filed by the Education Law Center. The ruling asserted that public primary and secondary education in poor communities throughout the state was unconstitutionally substandard.[1] There are currently thirty-one Abbott districts in New Jersey.

Prior to 2011, the State of NJ did not release the total amount spent per pupil on schooling. Since the Abbott original ruling in 1985, New Jersey increased spending such that Abbott disctrict students received 22% more per pupil (at $20,859) vs. non-Abbott districts (at $17,051) in 2011.

The basis of the suit was the provision in the New Jersey Constitution stating:

…the Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years.

Delaware’s constitution has the same provision. [...]

State portion of school referendums

Follow-up: News Journal confirms referendum funding gap, opens door to broader investigation

Update 2: Joanne and I have made peace. Joanne is awesome! I am going to move to Appo just so I can vote for her!!

*****

Update: Well look at this – I poked the state, and Appo screamed… I didn’t think there was that kind of relationship, but now I’m not so sure:

Joanne Christian, on February 13, 2012 at 8:33 pm said:

Well Mike O.–you are officially now a tool. The referendums described had NOTHING to do with any school programs–it is all bricks and mortar. And Appo is not going to referendum this year so far, because our growth has slowed down w/ the economy and we can take a breather in building. But go ahead, spread away your lack of knowledge in how all of this works and create an air of conspiracy models, and nefarious sub-plots in funding and further mislead the public in public education. Best to stick w/ what you know in getting your blog beyond Basic Enquirer edition.

 
I have my first hate mail! I’ve arrived!!
 
 
*****

While we’ve all been focusing on suburban and city parents in this Red Clay referendum, maybe we’ve taken our eye off the elephant in the room: the state contribution.

It turns out that in the 2009 Appoquinimink referendum, the state contributed $3 for every $1 from Appo. But for Red Clay’s current referendum, the state is contributing only $1.50 for every dollar from Red Clay.

Am I missing something that would explain the difference?

Perhaps if the state were to match Red Clay at the same rate as Appo, Red Clay could build the new suburban school AND afford to fund new programs in the city. Or something else that would be a step forward for both city and suburbs.

I was looking at the 2009 referendum in Appoquinimink. Really impressive stuff. You should go download the presentation, and make sure you go to the end and see the awesome architectural concept drawings, mostly for later phases, but still. And check out the aquatic center!

This was the “no tax increase” referendum, which was passed without actually raising taxes – mainly because of growth, and retirement of past debt. Oh, and also because the state provided three dollars for every one dollar Appoquinimink residents provided.

So then of course I looked at next month’s Red Clay referendum, and it turns out the state is only providing $1.50 for every dollar from Red Clay. Keep in mind Appo has an overall 21% rate of low-income students vs. 44% for Red Clay.

	State	Local	Total	State match per local dollar
Appo 2009	$48,486,900.00	$16,162,200.00	$64,649,100.00	$3.00
Red Clay 2012	$70,594,100.00	$47,062,800.00	$117,656,900.00	$1.50

So let me get this straight: Appo gets 3:1 state funding with NO tax increase, while Red Clay gets 3:2 state funding AND a tax increase. What were they was DDOE and the General Assembly thinking?