Thank you Sarah Petrowich of Delaware Public Media for sharing why our legislation to help single-digit proficiency schools has stalled in the Senate, even after passing unanimously in the House. It seems like once again leadership in Delaware is afraid to give families choices and transparency.
What would this bill do
House Bill 192 was introduced in June 2023 with the intention of requiring schools where students have a single-digit proficiency in English language arts or math to work with the Department of Education (DOE) to immediately to raise proficiency rates.
The bill’s sponsor State Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford South) explained underperforming schools would be required to develop not only a long-term plan, but a short-term plan to address the shortfalls.
“We can’t forget about those families as they’re working — going through that school right now and just say, ‘well, we’re going to look down the road and see what systematic things we can change,’ and forget about that kid that is there right now and forget to help them,” Shupe said.
Under the bill, a school leader must present the short-term and long-term plan to raise state assessment performances for school board approval and provide annual updates on information about and implementation of the plan.
This bill also requires DOE to submit an annual report that contains information on schools with single-digit proficiency and schools with an overall student body achievement proficiency level of less than 20% but greater than single-digit proficiency in English language arts or math
Why has the bill not been heard in the Senate
Despite Senate President Pro Tempore David Sokola (D-Newark) being one of the bill’s co-sponsors, he has made it clear he is no longer interested in supporting the bill if it has the underlying intention of setting up a school voucher system in Delaware.
Shupe said he is working on a separate bill to try and establish a school voucher system in Delaware, but he believes HB 192 is its own entity and can be supported independently.
“In my perspective, these are separate bills, and there’s no reason why a single-digit school shouldn’t have an improvement plan. By ignoring this, the Senate Democrats are basically saying that they’re fine with single-digit proficiency schools where over 90% of the kids are not learning at grade-level,” Shupe said.
He also recognized some schools already have an improvement system in place — such as those that are identified for “comprehensive support and improvement” or “targeted support and improvement” by DOE — in which case, the bill would not apply to them.
In preliminary research for the bill, Senior Legislative Attorney Cara Wilson found at least 11 schools statewide that have single-digit proficiency in English language arts or math that do not have some type of improvement plan already in place.
“The Senate can always vote for this requirement for these single-digit schools to have local plans, and then when the second bill comes across their desk, they can vote no,” Shupe said. “It sounds like, to me, that they’re afraid that after this bill goes through with improvement plans, that families might ask for more choices and more accountability, and I don’t understand why that would be a negative thing for our families and for our students here in Delaware