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IN THIS ISSUE:

• Delaware's National Assessment of Educational Progress Scores
• Preschool Programs Earn High Rating
• S&P Issues New Reports on the Performance of School Districts in Delaware
• The Education Intelligence Agency Offers Information on Each School District in Delaware
• Frankford Elementary School Named Finalist for Schools of Distinction Award
• New Mid-Atlantic Education Research Laboratory to Help Schools
• Three High School Seniors Earn $15,750 in Seventh Annual Legislative Essay Scholarship Contest
• Comcourse Announces Free GED Program for College-Bound Students
• Music Technology Pioneer Seeks Participants for Education Pilot Program

• Free Student Workbooks for Preview 

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	Source: NAEP - Math & Reading - 2005, Science - 2000, Writing - 2002	Delaware	U.S. (average)*
	Scale Score, Grade 4 Math	240	237
	% of Students at or Above Basic - Grade 4 Math	84	79
	% of Students at or Above Proficient - Grade 4 Math	36	35
	% of Students at or Above Advanced - Grade 4 Math	4	5
	Scale Score, Grade 8 Math	281	278
	% of Students at or Above Basic - Grade 8 Math	72	68
	% of Students at or Above Proficient - Grade 8 Math	30	28
	% of Students at or Above Advanced - Grade 8 Math	5	6
	Scale Score, Grade 4 Reading	226	217
	% of Students at or Above Basic - Grade 4 Reading	73	62
	% of Students at or Above Proficient - Grade 4 Reading	34	30
	% of Students at or Above Advanced - Grade 4 Reading	7	7
	Scale Score, Grade 8 Reading	266	260
	% of Students at or Above Basic - Grade 8 Reading	80	71
	% of Students at or Above Proficient - Grade 8 Reading	30	29
	% of Students at or Above Advanced - Grade 8 Reading	2	3
	Scale Score, Grade 4 Sciencen	N/A	148
	% of Students at or Above Basic - Grade 4 Sciencen	N/A	64
	% of Students at or Above Proficient - Grade 4 Sciencen	N/A	28
	% of Students at or Above Advanced - Grade 4 Sciencen	N/A	3
	Scale Score, Grade 8 Sciencen	N/A	149
	% of Students at or Above Basic - Grade 8 Sciencen	N/A	59
	% of Students at or Above Proficient - Grade 8 Sciencen	N/A	30
	% of Students at or Above Advanced - Grade 8 Sciencen	N/A	4
	Scale Score, Grade 4 Writing	163	153
	% of Students at or Above Basic - Grade 4 Writing	92	85
	% of Students at or Above Proficient - Grade 4 Writing	35	27
	% of Students at or Above Advanced - Grade 4 Writing	3	2
	Scale Score, Grade 8 Writing	159	152
	% of Students at or Above Basic - Grade 8 Writing	90	84
	% of Students at or Above Proficient - Grade 8 Writing	35	30
	% of Students at or Above Advanced - Grade 8 Writing	2	2

	n Accommodations were not permitted for this assessment
	* Includes public schools only
	Note: N/A means not available.
	Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress: Math & Reading data is from 2005, Science data is from 2000, and Writing data is from 2002.

To view this chart online or download it as an Excel spreadsheet:
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/stateprofiles/sresult.asp?mode=full&displaycat=7&s1=10

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"The State of Preschool: 2005 State Preschool Yearbook" was released by the National Institute for Early Education Research based at Rutgers University.  The report ranked all 50 states on access to, resources for and quality of state preschool initiatives.

Only Arkansas met all 10 of NIEER's quality benchmarks, while five state programs achieved nine of the 10: Alabama, Illinois, North Carolina, Tennessee, and New Jersey. Delaware was one of six states that rated an 8, along with Kentucky, Georgia, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Oklahoma.

Twenty-six states ranked lower, most scoring between 3 and 6.  Twelve states had no pre-K programs at all.

NIEER found that only one state, Oklahoma, offered preschool education to virtually all children at age four with over 90 percent enrolled in a state or federal program. Next highest in access was Georgia, where 67 percent of the 4-year-olds attended a public preschool program. Six of seven states serving more than 30 percent of their four-year-olds in state pre-kindergarten were in the South: Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina.

To see the full report, please go to:
http://nieer.org/yearbook/pdf/yearbook.pdf

To receive a free printed copy of the "2005 State Preschool Yearbook," please e-mail your name and address to yearbook@nieer.org.

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Follow the instructions below to view a school district's report.

1. First, find the school district using the search bar located at http://www.schoolmatters.com/
2. Next, once you have reached the School District Overview page, select the blue link that is available within the S&P Observations section, located toward the top of the page. Selecting this link will open the school district report.
3. Individual school reports are also available.

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The Education Intelligence Agency: http://www.eiaonline.com/index.htm, publishes an interesting newsletter and offers tables that list overall state statistics: http://www.eiaonline.com/districts/USA.pdf

Also available is information on each school district in Delaware with enrollment figures, per-pupil spending, labor costs, and "65% solution" status for the 2003–2004 school year (based on U.S. Census Bureau data). The tables also contain the percentage changes in each category since the 2000–2001 school year:  http://www.eiaonline.com/districts/Delaware.pdf

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Forty-eight schools have been named as finalists for the Intel and Scholastic Schools of Distinction Awards. Four are from Washington. The awards honor schools for implementing innovative and replicable programs that support positive educational outcomes.

The schools will compete for $190,000 in grants from the Intel Foundation and additional prizes from sponsoring companies will be presented at an awards ceremony in October.

The 48 finalists were chosen from public and private schools that participated in the application and judging process, which was overseen by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory Center for Classroom Teaching and Learning. Sixteen winners will be selected in each of eight categories—one each for elementary and secondary schools. Winning schools will also compete to be named "Best of the Best."

Frankford Elementary School, Frankford, Del. was named a finalist in:


The winners will be honored at an awards ceremony to be held on October 5, 2006, in Washington, D.C., and will each receive a $10,000 grant. One elementary and one secondary school will be honored with a "Best of the Best" award and will receive an additional $15,000 for a total award of $25,000 each. Schools winning this award must have a comprehensive program addressing technology, involvement of parents and the community, professional development, teamwork and consistently achieve high academic standards. For more information about the Schools of Distinction Awards, visit www.schoolsofdistinction.com.

Frankford Elementary School was also highlighted as a model of excellence at a Philadelphia summit on the No Child Left Behind federal education reform act.

Principal Duncan Smith spoke on a panel at the event, hosted by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Philadelphia schools CEO Paul Vallas. The summit discussed training, rewarding and evaluating teachers, as well as methods to retain and recruit high-quality teachers.

The rural Sussex County school was honored last fall by national education officials for defying stereotypes of what a low-income, racially diverse student body can achieve.

To see complete article please go to:

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Schoolteachers, principals, superintendents, parents and state education agencies in the Mid-Atlantic will be able to quickly take advantage of the latest research in education and find solutions to their questions about learning, thanks to a new partnership of public universities and private businesses funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

The five core partners include Penn State University, led by its College of Education, and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, led by its Graduate School of Education.

The five-year contract of more than $29 million, engages the team to serve as a Regional Education Laboratory for Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. There are 10 such federally funded laboratories in the United States.

The plan calls for a team of "laboratory extension specialists" living throughout the region to gather questions directly from teachers and administrators and relay their priorities and needs to the researchers. State coordinators will also work with state education officials to ensure that schools can implement new curriculum guidelines or standards easily. Lab personnel will coordinate their efforts with the regional comprehensive centers already established by the U.S. Department of Education to assist individual school districts.

An understanding of rural communities and schools is a key component of the Lab's plan. More than 603,000 students, nearly 15 percent of the total in the Mid-Atlantic region, attend rural public schools. In Pennsylvania, the figure comprises 25 percent of all students. Penn State and Rutgers both have experts and experience in serving rural schools, and this project will enhance the impact of their work.

The first of the Lab's two priorities is to provide technical assistance to educators to help them improve student achievement. Lab researchers will review the existing research on a need expressed by schools in the region and give them a summary of findings fairly quickly.

For example, suppose a school district approaches the Lab about their problem developing reading skills, and explains that English is a second language for most of their students and that most students who start the school year there will be gone and replaced by other students before the year is over. Participating faculty members with expertise in relevant areas will quickly review the existing literature and will provide the teachers and principals with reports and training on approaches proven to be effective in other schools with similar problems.

Another priority will be designing and conducting large-scale research studies of learning practices with promise but little or no scientific evidence of success . . .

One example will be the use of authentic assignments in mathematics, science, and reading comprehension at the high school level. More than a decade of work has sought ways to re-engage high school students, and the results in small studies are promising. The Lab's researchers will study teachers and students in Algebra I classes in 50 classrooms in 25 schools to determine whether teachers who develop more rigorous and real-life assignments do, in fact, successfully engage student interest and improve students' learning.

To see the complete article, please go to:

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Three outstanding high school seniors have been selected as Delaware's top winners in the seventh annual Legislative Essay Scholarship Contest.

Marianne Nagengast, a high school senior at Brandywine High School in Wilmington, captured first place and a $7,500 scholarship for her essay on this year's theme: "Benjamin Franklin: A Significant Leader in Founding Our Country." Second place went to Katherine Stewart, currently attending Caravel Academy in Bear. For her runner-up effort, Katherine received a $3,750 scholarship, while Britney Lewis from Caesar Rodney High School in Dover, came in third place and received a $2,250 scholarship. The three seniors also received an additional $750 scholarship from their respective legislative districts.

Excerpts from each essay are as follows:


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Queue, Inc. offers previews of its Delaware test preparation workbooks to public schools.  Queue publishes test prep books in English Language Arts, Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, and Composition for Grades K–high school. 
 
Queue also publishes a wide variety of other workbooks in Literature, Science, History, Government, Health, and ESL.  Samples of student workbooks are available for preview.
 
 
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