NOTES: AFWG MEETING #17

October 18, 2015 10:00 11:30 a.m.

ITEM
Welcome

NOTES
Members present: Heath Chasanov, Kevin Fitzgerald, Bill Doolittle, Joe Jones,
Jay Owens, Deb Stevens, Donna Johnson, Ken Hutchins Penny Schwinn, Ryan
Reyna. Members absent: Dolan Blakey, Shawn Larrimore, Gerri Marshall, Ed
Emmett, Sally Maldonado.
Welcome and
Secretary Godowsky welcomed the group and thanked everyone for their hard
Update on Final
work over the past year to develop recommendations on the Delaware School
Recommendations Success Framework. Secretary Godowsky called the final meeting of the AFWG
to explain the recommendation to use a participation rate multiplier in
accountability calculations in the future.
The Secretary provided his rationale based on a number of factors. First, Secretary
Godowsky discussed the States long history of achievement gaps and the need to
closely monitor the participation rate to highlight any issues around students who
may be excluded. Second, the State is considering options for a transition from the
11th grade Smarter Balanced to the SAT as the accountability test. The
Department is exploring some of the technical issues and will work to address
them. If the State were to move to the SAT in 11th grade, then it is likely there
would be close to 100% participation in high schools.
Third, based on data from 2014-15, if the participation rate multiplier were in use,
the overall effect would be positive for schools. For elementary and middle
schools, 141 out of 149 schools would have seen a positive consequence. For high
schools, 19 out of 37 would have seen a positive consequence, with a number of
the schools below 95% being close to that threshold. The business rules for this
calculation call for rounding, so overall there is no significant consequence for
these schools. Further, there was no change in rankings based on the multiplier if
it were in effect based on the 2014-15 data, no schools were removed from
eligibility for Reward status as a result of this calculation. The current proposal is
not to apply the multiplier until next year (data from 2015-16 school year) and
there will be no new Priority or Focus Schools for at least 3 years.
Members of the AFWG and the public were provided an opportunity to provide
comment (see below).
AFWG
Comments

Bill Doolittle He expressed that the purpose of participation rate requirement

was to ensure that schools were not excluding children from the test and not to
punish schools. He believes using the NAEP standard for participation would be
the best way to address this. He stated that the decision not to take the AFWGs
recommendation was purely political and believes that ESEA reauthorization
would roll this requirement back.
Deb Stevens She was concerned that the State Board wanted to see negative
consequences for schools around participation. She felt that the recommendation
developed by the AFWG was a consequence, but the Board believed it was not
negative enough. She inquired why the actual stakeholders (including the AFWG)
never get to interact with the State Board except for the ability to speak at an SBE
meeting for only 3 minutes. She agreed with Mr. Doolittle that this was a political

decision and not a systemic decision. She expressed concern that the Department
has not shared how it will support schools around the accountability system and
the participation rate consequence. She also highlighted that there is an issue in
confidence with the test and believed the State needed more of a track record with
the Smarter Balanced test before making decisions.
Dr. Fitzgerald He thanked Penny and Ryan and the group for the open
conversations and hard work over the last year. He expressed that while there
were things that he and the group as a whole would have liked to do (such as
factoring in poverty), he felt that the group was able to come up with a better
system to replace AYP. He supported the potential move to the SAT while
acknowledging there are still a lot of unanswered questions (i.e., accommodations
and cut scores). He always viewed this group as a recommending body and sees
no reason to change its initial recommendation.
Ken Hutchins He thanked the group for the time spent together. Reflecting on
what he hears parents say, he thinks there are many remaining questions about the
test and does not believe there is a clear solution for the opt out issue yet. While it
may only be a few schools this year, he questions whether those numbers may
increase in the future now that the scores are public.
Joe Jones He expressed appreciation for re-convening the group and always
encouraging an open process where everyone could speak freely. He expressed
that anyone born and raised in Delaware knows which schools need the resources
without an assessment to drive that change. He agreed with Superintendent
Fitzgerald that he always approached the work as recommendation.
Heath Chasanov He agreed with Superintendent Fitzgerald that he never thought
the recommendations would be taken 100% and also agreed that the group should
not change its recommendation. He is excited about the possibility of the SAT as
the accountability test. He still has concerns about opt out for this year and is
hopeful that the transition to the SAT will solve the high school issue. He noted
that his high school students did not take the test as seriously as the SAT.
Jay Owens He echoed all of the previous comments and is excited about 11th
grade SAT.
Donna Johnson She thanked the AFWG for all of its work. She recognized that
developing a multi-measure accountability system is no small feat and knows that
many states have not been able to do it. The State Board has had 9 presentations
on the DSSF since February 2015 and all comments from the AFWG have been
shared with the Board by her and through the public presentations. The Board
expressed that it did not see the development of a plan as a consequence and so
went back to the original recommendation of the multiplier. She felt that it was
important that the group not overlook the overall work that was accomplished.
Gerri Marshall (electronic) Fellow AFWG members, I am disappointed that I
am unable to attend Tuesdays meeting. The change from our recommendation in
participation rate is greatly concerning. I felt the need to express my concern via
email, as I will not be present to advocate strongly as I am known to do, on
making school accountability about factors in the schools control. I have seen the

multiplier proposal and feel it is very similar to what we discussed and decided
against. I am very interesting in hearing why our recommendations were
disregarded.
Jeff Klein, former AFWG member (electronic) I, too, will be unable to attend
because today is my last day here at Appoquinimink. I start at the University of
Delaware on Monday. I also want to echo Gerris concern with the move away
from the AFWGs recommendation. I always understood that the purpose of the
AFWG was to provide recommendations to the Secretary and the Secretary was
free to either accept or reject the recommendations. That said, I am very interested
in hearing the rationale for why the multiplier proposal is now being considered.
There was also discussion regarding any supports or funds that would be provided
or available in the event a school had consequences because of the multiplier.
Public Comment

Each member of the public was provided with up to two minutes to provide
comment.
Rep. Williams Rep. Williams reiterated that AFWG has met 17 times and is
made up of representative stakeholders from across the state, most of whom do
not like labeling our schools, especially without supports in place. She believes
the decision to institute a participation rate multiplier is being driven by the
Governor and the State Board. She expressed concern about taking time from the
committee members and then not taking their advice. She expressed support for
minimizing the number of assessments and raised a number of questions about the
potential transition to the SAT, including what is the baseline, how will we
measure growth, who is paying for the test without Race to the Top funds? She
requested that the Department clearly include information in the submission to
USED that the AFWG is not in support this decision and that DESS had not had
the chance to review this change.
Rep. Baumbach Rep. Baumbach encourage the AFWG to reinforce the decision
that they made on October 5th. He does not believe the participation rate issue is
about gaming the system, it is about parent choice. He does not believe the State
should be punishing schools and districts and encouraged everyone to stand
against the multiplier.
Rep. Kowolko Rep. Kowalko expressed concern about the transparency of the
decision on the participation rate multiplier. He believes the decision was made
between the State Board and the Secretary without inclusion of the AFWG or
public. He stated that Delaware is constitutionally exempt from what USED is
saying we have to do.
Mike Matthews, President of Red Clay Educators Association He stated that his
association voted to support opt out and the association does not believe in
punishing schools. He believes this decision represents a test-and-punish schools
philosophy. He wants to see more supports for schools and encouraged everyone
to lobby the legislature to fund high needs schools more. He also expressed that
test-based evaluations are not supported in evidence.

Kevin Ohlandt, Parent He expressed that it is not appropriate for the Department
to punish schools for a parents decision. He does not believe there is any moral
imperative to do this and stated that the Department has not yet provided any
proof that USED is requiring this. He believes the decision is about trying to
prevent opt-out and give billions of dollars to private companies.
Greg Mazzotta He made a statement in support of the Baldridge Program and
encouraged Delaware to become more involved.
Close/Next Steps

A sample of the paper school framework was shared with the group and the
Department asked for feedback.
Penny and Ryan offered their appreciation to the AFWG for their participation
and thoughtfulness throughout the process.
Sec. Godowsky thanked the group for their contributions and comments. He also
recognized that we need more resources and supports for schools and plans for the
Department to continue that discussion in the future.