The Delaware Department of Education on Wednesday approved Race to the Top plans submitted by all 19 public school districts in the state.
Over the past year, the districts have been working on how they would use $18.4 million in federal grant money to meet goals set by state and federal education officials for school reform.
State Education Secretary Lillian M. Lowery said all 19 districts rose to the challenge and came up with innovative plans that addressed issues in their own districts while adhering to the overall goals of improving student and teacher performance and focusing on improving underperforming schools.
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Race to the Top. Another awful idea from the Federal government that ultimately will not work. Everyone is so excited to get their hands on that Federal money, that they will include themselves in another doomed Federal Education program. It isn't fair to tie teacher pay and evaluation to student performance in public schools. Take a teacher from West Side Intermediate whose students come from homes that value education and the kids come to school prepared to learn with many life experiences. Then you have the teachers at East Salisbury who teach mostly kids who may have never seen a book until they get to school, their homes don't value education, and their only life experiences are from the block they live on in Salisbury. The performance of these students are most likely predetermined by their circumstances outside of school, of which the teacher has no control. Clearly the teacher from Westside will have students perform much better than those from East Salisbury, even if the teacher at East is a better teacher. Thus, they will receive better pay and evaluations under Race to the Top. I won't even get started on kids who need meds, but the parents refuse to put them on the needed medication so they can focus in schools.
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