The Delaware Department of Education announced last week it has hired a Virginia consultant to study the state’s public education funding system. As today’s wisecracker would say: Good luck with that. How the money trickles down to the classroom is complex, and it follows a funding system established in the 1940s. The state’s population then was 286,000, compared to today’s …
Ed. officials field community’s Learning Collaborative questions
A Wilmington Learning Collaborative official said Tuesday that the boards of the three participating districts may not approve the operating agreement until September. Jon Sheehan, chief of policy and senior advisor to Gov. John Carney, made the comment while describing how the state expects the project to unfold as it tries to create a new agency to oversee city students …
State education test scores dismal, described as ‘crisis’
Delaware’s 2022 test scores were released Tuesday, and they aren’t pretty. Just 30% of Delaware students in grades three to eight met grade level math requirements, while 42% earned a proficient score in English language arts. These scores come from the state-administered Smarter Balanced Assessment, an end-of-the-year summative test that measures the abilities of students in grades three through eight …
Here’s how $600M in COVID education money was spent
First State Educate, a local education advocacy group, held a webinar Tuesday to outline where COVID-19 relief money went. Relief funds were spent on learning loss, educational technology, building and mental health. “As we come through, and hopefully out of the COVID-19 pandemic learning loss and recovery, not just academic, but social emotional recovery is a grave concern of mine,” …
Webinar to focus on where COVID education money went
First State Educate will host a school funding webinar Tuesday to discuss where the hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID-19 education relief funds went. The federal government allocated $122 billion amongst the states in K-12 pandemic funds, and First State Educate wants the community to know where the money is going. Delaware received a total of $637,239,246 across three …
Wilmington Learning Collaborative: Executive director by fall
Wilmington Learning Collaborative organizers say they hope to have an executive director in place by early fall. That was one of the new details about their operating draft agreement that came out Tuesday in a community meeting at Warner Elementary School in Wilmington. It was the second meeting since the collaborative published its draft agreement outlining the roles and responsibilities …
Del. child care worker registry open; $1,000 bonuses going out
Delaware child care workers can now enroll in a registry that will allow them to receive their $1,000 direct relief payment from the state, the Department of Education announced Friday. Payments are available to all child care professionals who are at least 18 years of age, work in licensed Delaware child care programs, interact directly with children for at least …
Child care bonuses set at $1,000; registry to open soon
The Department of Education is finalizing a registry that will allow child care workers in Delaware to apply for the direct financial relief they were promised six months ago. They may not get as much as initially expected. By estimating the number of providers who would qualify for assistance, Gov. John Carney and the Delaware Department of Education in Nov. …
Child care workers still waiting for promised $1,500 state bonuses
Three months after Delaware’s child care workers were promised direct financial relief in the form of $1,500 individual payments, they haven’t received a cent. Those workers may not receive any money until as late as June because the state is constructing a new registry to track who’s working in child care centers throughout the state. That registry will also be …
Christina School District asks for moratorium on new, expanding charter schools
Christina School District’s Board of Education has called for a statewide temporary moratorium on new charter schools and the expansion of existing charter schools. The board hopes that the pause will stabilize relationships between schools and districts that serve students in Wilmington while they work together on developing Gov. John Carney’s proposed Wilmington Learning Collaborative and implementing proposals from the …