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SPONSOR: Rep. Lynn & Rep. K. Williams & Sen. Townsend

Reps. Jaques, Miro, Matthews, Bennett, Osienski, Heffernan, Baumbach,
Paradee, Keeley, Bolden, Potter, Briggs King, Dukes, Kenton,
Spiegelman, Yearick; Sens. Sokola, Lopez

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
148th GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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HOUSE BILL NO. 55
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AN ACT TO AMEND VOLUME 79, CHAPTER 290 OF THE LAWS OF DELAWARE RELATING TO EDUCATION.
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WHEREAS, the State Board of Education adopted the Common Core Standards in 2010; and
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WHEREAS, House Bill No. 334 provided for the transition of the statewide student assessment system, the
9Delaware Comprehensive Student Assessment (DCAS), to the Smarter Balanced Assessment System (Smarter), by
10specifically, removing references to multiple assessments; and
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WHEREAS, Smarter is the third assessment in five years, and is the first the test fully aligned to the Common
12Core Standards; and
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WHEREAS, the Delaware Department of Education (DOE), after moving from the DSTP to DCAS as the State

14test, committed in June 2012 to using at least two years worth of State testing data to set valid and reliable student growth
15targets that would fairly assess educators in tested grades and subjects, but currently refuses to do the same as the State
16moves from DCAS to Smarter; and
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WHEREAS, Delaware has yet to develop a valid classroom level growth model for use with the Smarter, and

18DOE-contracted vendors have indicated that using a statistical target growth model for schools would not be valid at the
19classroom level; and
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WHEREAS, it is in the best interest of educators, principals, students, and their families to continue using multiple

21years of data from the same test to determine student growth expectations; and
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WHEREAS, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has indicated that it expects Smarter to be statistically

23normed and validated no sooner than after the second administration of the test in Spring 2015-2016; and
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WHEREAS, Delaware encountered problems and delays with the introduction of Smarters system and its

25supports with interim assessments only available for district use starting in January, teacher training for security, the
26administration of the interims, and the hand scoring of extended response items delayed to February, and little to no time
27for interim assessment use before the Summative testing window opened in March; and

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WHEREAS, the U.S. Department of Education USDOE) identified within the Delaware Year One, Year Two,

29and Year Three Race to the Top reports challenges that Delaware had with Common Core implementation including:
30provision of supports for LEAs to implement the Common Core Standards; a delay in producing needed instructional and
31curriculum materials; inconsistent Local Education Association implementation compounded by the lack of a clear metric
32of implementation progress; and a need to further engage parents and key stakeholders in the roll out and implementation of
33Common Core Standards and Smarter; and
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WHEREAS, there is a substantial lack of confidence by the Delaware School Board Association, the Delaware

35Parent-Teacher Association, the Governors Advisory Council for Exceptional Citizens, the Delaware Association of School
36Administrators, and the Delaware State Education Association,

in Smarters scoring, scaling and modeling, and the

37aforementioned stakeholders further believe that the methodologies governing student growth data use have yet to be
38developed and refined and should, therefore, not be used to included student growth data as a significant contributing factor
39in high stakes decision making; and
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WHEREAS, the Delaware State Education Association conducted a scientifically reliable poll administered by

41nationally recognized polling firm to assess support by Math and English Language Arts teachers for the Common Core
42Standards, with the poll results indicating that over 77% of Math and English Language Arts teachers felt the standards
43gave students the critical thinking and problem solving capability to succeed in the 21st century: and
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WHEREAS, that same poll results indicated that Math and Science Teachers did not believe the Common Core

45Ground for Common Core adequately prepared them for Smarter, and cite a continuing need for high quality professional
46development and time to create Common Core aligned lesson and materials; and
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WHEREAS, the Governors Advisory Council for Exceptional Citizens questions if teachers have been given

48adequate training on how students with disabilities can adequately acquaint themselves with this new more rigorous
49assessment and be expected to succeed; and
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WHEREAS, Delaware students need more time to become familiar with Smarter, since only 20% of Delawares

51student population that was eligible for testing participated in a pilot test in only one content area assessment as part of
52Smarter field test; and
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WHEREAS, the Smarter Balanced Consortium ruled that results of this pilot test failed to provide reliable data

54which could be used to establish valid growth goals; and

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WHEREAS, high-stakes decisions involving teacher/principal evaluation based on assessments of the Common

56Core Standards before the standards have been fully and properly implemented and before students have had sufficient

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57opportunity to experience the new test is unwise and not in the best interest of Delaware students, teachers and principals,
58Delaware schools, and the general public; and
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WHEREAS, the USDOE affirmed that DOE, in its ESEA Waiver Renewal Application, may propose a delay for

60an additional year before incorporating student growth scores as part of teacher/principal evaluations for use in making
61personnel decisions, delaying such action until school year 2016-2017; and
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WHEREAS, DOE develops and submits the ESEA Waiver, which sets education policy for the next three years,

63compelling the General Assembly to state its position on whether or not to use the results of the Smarter Balanced
64assessment to make personnel decisions in the 2016-2017 school year;
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NOW, THEREFORE;

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BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:

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Section 1. Amend 365, Chapter 290, Volume 79 of the Laws of Delaware by making deletions as shown by strike

68through and insertions as shown by underline as follows:

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Section 365. The provisions of 14 Del. C. 154 and 155 c.1, and any implementing regulations in 14 DE Admin

70Code that the Delaware Department of Education determines to be inconsistent with the Departments ESEA Flexibility
71Request as approved by the U.S. Department of Education shall not be applicable to Delaware Public Schools and School
72Districts during the flexibility waiver period, and the department is authorized to promulgate interim regulations consistent
73with said application and approval which shall be effective during the flexibility waiver period. However, notwithstanding
74the foregoing, the department shall apply in its ESEA Waiver Renewal Application for a delay of an additional year before
75incorporating student growth scores as part of teacher/principal evaluations for use in making personnel decisions, thereby
76delaying such action until the school year 2016-2017.

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SYNOPSIS

This bill requires that the State Department of Education include in its ESEA Waiver Renewal Application a
request to the U.S. Department of Education an additional year before incorporating the Smarter Balanced Assessment into
its evaluations of teachers and principals for personnel decisions. The first time the Smarter Balanced Assessments could
factor into such evaluations would be the 2016-2017 school year.
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