DELAWARE EDUCATION
NEWS
May 2007
Copyright © 2007 Queue, Inc.
Delaware
Ranks 10th in the Nation for Teacher Pay
Achievement
Gap Report for 2006
Understanding
High School Graduation Rates
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Teacher
Pay Is Insufficient To Meet Rising Debt, Housing Costs in Many Areas
Delaware
ranked 10th in the nation for its average teacher salary in 2004-05, according
to the American Federation of Teachers’ (AFT) annual teacher salary survey
released today. Nationally, anemic teacher salary growth continues to lag
behind inflation and precludes many teachers from finding affordable housing
and paying off student loans.
The
average teacher salary in Delaware for the 2004-05 school year was $52,924, up
3.5 percent from the previous year. Delaware was ranked seventh in the nation
for beginning teacher salary, at $35,854, an increase of 3.7 percent from 2004.
The
average teacher salary nationally in 2004-05 was $47,602, a 2.2 percent
increase from the previous year. This falls short of the rate of inflation for
that year, which was 3.4 percent. Between 2003 and 2005, the buying power of
the average teacher salary has decreased by almost $800.
The 2005
salary survey also examines the impact of rising housing costs and student loan
debt payments on teachers in America’s 50 largest cities. The study concludes
that the incomes of mid-career teachers in these cities will limit them to
purchasing lower-priced homes. In cities such as Seattle, Oakland, Los Angeles
and San Francisco, many career teachers will never be able to realize the
middle-class dream of home ownership.
Other
states in the Mid-Atlantic region ranked in the AFT survey as follows: New
Jersey was ranked third in the nation, at $56,635; New York was sixth, at
$55,665; Pennsylvania was ninth, at $53,281; and Maryland was 12th, at $52,330.
Connecticut had the
highest average teacher salary, at $57,760.
The
Delaware State Board of Education released the 2006 achievement gap report
entitled Awareness to Action Revisited:
Tracking the Achievement Gap in Delaware Schools. The report was
compiled by the Research and Development Center at the University of Delaware
and funded by the State Board of Education. It is the fourth in an annual
series of reports which tracks the gap by school and by subgroups over a multi-year
period.
The
report is meant to be informative for both communities and schools. It
shows all Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) tested grades by
school. For each tested grade in a school both reading and mathematics
scores are disaggregated by race, income status, limited English proficiency
and special education categories. The scores are plotted from 2003
through 2006. Each school is also identified by its own demographic
makeup and its status for 2006 under federal guidelines specified by No Child
Left Behind.
In
releasing the report, Jean Allen, State Board President, noted that we are
seeing some real signs of progress at the school level with many of the
elementary schools essentially closing the achievement gap in 3rd grade reading
and middle schools and high schools are showing progress. “We continue to
be concerned about the gaps that persist in mathematics across many of our
schools as well as the large gaps that persist at the high school level
particularly in math. These are areas on which we have to put more
focus.”
Additional findings show that special education students continue to fall
further behind as they move through the grades and charter schools have little
gap information due to the lack of diversity in their student bodies.
To see
full report:
http://www.rdc.udel.edu/awareness_to_action.asp?y=2006
The
State Board of Education, along with the Department of Education, contracted
with the Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University in 2003 to conduct a
multi-year evaluation of Delaware’s charter school program. Dr. Gary
Miron is the Chief of Staff of the Center and is the principal researcher on
this project. Year three of the report has been released.
The
report continues its focus on charter school missions, analyses of student
performance, teacher satisfaction and qualifications and policy issues that are
relevant to charter school oversight, with the addition this year of
comparisons of revenues and expenditures between traditional public schools and
charter schools.
Based on
the findings in year 3, the report concluded that charter school reform is
being implemented successfully in Delaware.
It noted
the progress over time in modifying and improving regulations and oversight.
It further concluded that the area of finances is a difficult one to assess
because of the differences in teacher qualification, types of students served
and charter school autonomy for budgeting funds. It was noted that funds
for capital costs continue to be an issue for charter schools since they have
to rely on operational dollars to provide facilities.
Dr. Miron
stated that in the aggregate, charter schools do not look much different from
the traditional public schools in terms of student makeup. However, when
you begin to look at student makeup school by school, you find substantial
differences. Some charter schools serve primarily minority students and
other serve primarily white students. Most charter schools also serve few
students with disabilities or English language learners. In terms of
student performance on the Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP), the study
concluded that based on the analysis, charter schools performed less well at
grades 3 and 5 than traditional public schools. There was
improvement over time at grade 8 and by grade 10, charter school students
performed above expected levels.
Mrs. Jean
Allen, President of the State Board of Education, noted that the reports have
been helpful in giving an outside look to a new and complex area of school
governance. “We have seen the charter school reform begin to mature and
we have modified our practices as a result. The Board believes that
strict oversight in the initial application stages and first years of charter
school operations is essential.”
Echoing
Mrs. Allen’s remarks, Secretary of Education Valerie A. Woodruff stated “The
charter school movement has been an important public education policy
initiative in Delaware. Taking stock of its strengths and challenges
after a decade of implementation is critical.”
Graduation rates are a fundamental indicator of whether or
not the nation’s public school system is doing what it is intended to do:
enroll, engage, and educate youth to be productive members of society. In
today’s increasingly competitive global economy, graduating high school is a
critical step towards securing a good job and a promising future. Yet
nationally, one-third of our students—about 1.2 million each year—leave high
school without a diploma, and graduation rates for poor and minority students
are even lower. The failure to graduate every child prepared for the 21st
century has serious consequences for both individual students and the rest of
American society. Yet, the unacceptably low graduation rates of America’s youth
have been obscured for far too long by inaccurate data, misleading calculations
and reporting, and flawed accountability systems.
Nationally, and for each state, Understanding High School Graduation Rates illustrates the
discrepancies in graduation rates reported by government and independent
sources, examines why this is important, and describes three core policy areas
that are fundamental to calculating, reporting, and improving accurate
graduation rates:
·
Use of
common, accurate graduation rate calculations
·
Statewide
data system that track individual student data from the time students enter the
educational system until they leave it
Policies that meaningfully holds
high schools accountable for improving student achievement on test scores and
increasing graduation rates so that low-performing students are not
unnecessarily held back or encouraged to leave school without a diploma.
To see
Delaware report:
http://www.all4ed.org/publications/wcwc/Delaware_wc.pdf
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