The Discipline Crisis in Schools Has Serious Consequences

By Beth Conaway, Advisory Board Member, A Better Delaware

Public schools ensure that all students have access to a free education. As a result, they are the cornerstone of America’s future. However, our public schools are facing unprecedented challenges with teacher shortages, academic achievement, and negative school environments. Current school discipline practices play a huge role in these challenges.

Prior to Covid, schools began introducing administrators and teachers to the concept of restorative practices. Restorative practices attempt to strengthen relationships between teachers/students and student/student. Popular examples of restorative processes include affective statements (telling a person how you feel) community-building circles, small impromptu conferencing, and setting classroom agreements or norms. (Panorama Eduction Services). Teachers and administrators are trained that for students impacted by trauma and toxic stress, consequences that are not exclusionary or disciplinary in the traditional manner can be more effective in changing the behavior. Trauma based discipline states that the response or intervention for a misbehaving student needs to focus on the specific student’s needs and base the consequence on an incrementally more punitive rubric or leveled response to behaviors. The idea is to seek out the intervention that will change the behavior, not simply automatically assigning a specific response from a predetermined menu.

However, the idea of consequences and disciplinary actions changed along with the introduction of restorative practices. For example, a school may determine that a student is acting out to get attention, so rather than remove the student” to give them what he/she wants” the principal will keep the child in the classroom with or without additional adult support. In a second scenario, when a student is violent or extremely disruptive, an administrator is often brought into the classroom while the teacher takes the rest of the class out of the room. A third common scenario is that the disruptive student is removed for a short time with the administrator to participate in restorative practices and then is immediately brought back to the classroom.

There are several negative results of these actions when done without consequences:

1. Loss of instructional time for all students leading to poorer achievement.
2. Stress and anxiety for teachers leading to burnout and lack of teacher retention.
3. Lack of instructional support from administrators to teachers as they deal with misbehavior rather than supporting the teachers in their instruction.
4. An increased lack of respect from students to teachers and other students.

Students dealing with trauma and mental health needs are real. However, without disciplinary actions that support teachers and the other students in the classroom, the joy and excitement about teaching and learning will continue to erode. What began as regular instances of students cussing out teachers or acting in deliberate insubordination has escalated to a scenario where teachers are just trying to put out “bigger fires” or prevent them from occurring rather than being able to teach.

As a result, alternative classrooms, environments, and additional mental health supports need to be available to schools to give all students the supportive learning environment essential to their success.

Beth Conaway is a former teacher, who served for 8 years as Principal of the Morris Early Childhood Center and then as Principal of Milton Elementary School for 5 years. She retired after 31 years in the Delaware public school system. She currently teaches graduate courses at the University of the Cumberlands and volunteers in the Indian River School District.

Education Funding in Delaware Is Working

By John Marinucci, Advisory Board Member, A Better Delaware

It has become quite fashionable for education advocates and stakeholders to argue that the system of education funding in Delaware is broken. Critics claim that Delaware’s education funding system is convoluted, complex and should be discarded in favor of some other funding mechanism.  But, before we pass judgement and seek to scrap the system, it’s important to establish a foundational understanding of the Delaware Education Unit Funding structure.

Delaware’s Unit Funding structure is entirely formula driven.  Funds are appropriated to school districts and schools based on the number of students enrolled, with three types of funds being received: State funds, Local funds; and Federal funds.  Prior to Federal Covid Relief funds, the level of Federal support was relatively stable and constant, and made up approximately 8% of the funds received by districts.  This remaining, primary funding sources that make up approximately 92% of education funding are State and Local funds.  State funds provided to school districts are appropriated based on the Units Funding system through three funding divisions – aptly named Division I, Division II, and Division III.

Division I funding represents State funds allocated to school districts to fund teacher, administrator, student support personnel, and administrative support salaries.  A formula in Delaware law establishes the number of students that constitute a single funding unit.  That same law establishes the number of units that trigger the “earning” of various school and district level administrators as well as student support personnel.  The larger the number of students enrolled, the more units “earned”, and the more administrators and support personnel “earned” by the formula.  The Delaware statutes also contain pay scales for the various classes of employees that establish the State contribution to that individuals’ ultimate salary. The scale accounts for the incremental increases a teacher can earn based on years of experience and level of education. An individual’s final salary may also include a local salary supplement determined by the board of the local school district.

The Division I funding structure is intended to reward higher levels of education and greater years of experience, giving districts the incentive to hire employees with the highest level of education and the most experience.

Teachers with more experience and seniority may seek a transfer for personal, or other reasons, and often seek transfers into positions and to schools that they perceive as easier or less stressful.  This leaves a vacant position in what can be considered a more difficult position or school, to be filled by a less senior educator, who, of course, is paid less, based on the scale.  This leads to the conclusion that employees in what are perceived to be less desirable schools or positions are paid less than employees in the more desirable positions or schools, which in fact, is true.  To attract and retain the senior, most experienced employees to the most challenging positions and schools, significant incentives must be made available.

Division II funding is allocated to fund the State’s share of all the “stuff” it takes to run an education system, books, curricula, supplies, electricity, heating fuels, etc.  Division II funding is allocated based on the total units “earned” by a school district, based on the assumption, the more students, the more “stuff” is needed.  Division II funds are not intended to cover all of the other education costs, however. Districts are expected to use Local Funds to supplement State Division II funds.

Division III funding is what is known as “equalization” funding.  Division III recognizes that some neighborhoods have greater property wealth and therefore a greater ability to generate local property taxes, the primary source of local funding, and seeks to balance the inequities inherent with the great variations in local property taxes.  Districts with lower property values receive a greater amount per unit than districts with higher property values.

Local Funds make up the third source of funding.  Local funds are the funds collected by school districts generated through local property taxes and are intended to supplement the State and Federal funds.  Each district establishes a school property tax to be assessed on properties within its district boundaries, which must be approved by a referendum vote of the citizens within the district.  The education system in Delaware is established on the fundamental principle of “Local Control” and referenda driven local property tax authority represents the hallmark of that Local Control.

This funding structure provides budget certainty to school districts.  Districts can estimate the funds to be allocated based on their student enrollment, which enables them to better budget and manage their finances.

There is one shortcoming of the education funding structure. Currently, the State has no regular unit-driven funding for technology.  Imagine a school with no computers, no smartboards, no websites, no on-line testing or on-line curricula.  Libraries with no on-line access to perform research.  It’s impossible to conceive of a life without technology in this day and age, yet the State provides ZERO unit-driven funding to support the technology needs of districts, schools and students.  State technology funding that has been provided has been in fits and starts and woefully insufficient.

A word of caution – State funds have historically constituted the majority of funds available to school districts. However, recently the trend has been to shift the responsibility for education funding in Delaware from the State to the districts’ local property taxing authority.  Specifically, in State Fiscal Year 2007, the ratio of funding of Delaware schools was 64% State Funds, 28% Local Funds and 8% Federal Funds.  Ten years later in Fiscal Year 2017 that ratio was 59% State Funds, 33% Local Funds and 8% Federal Funds.  A full 5% of the total funding for the respective year has shifted from the State to the districts’ local property taxing authority.  This is alarming since State funding is a much more equitable form of education funding than local funds because it doesn’t matter “what side of the tracks” the kids come from, the funds for their education will be the same.  Local property taxes are very much driven by the relative property wealth of the community from which those taxes are assessed and collected.  And despite equalization funding, intended to lessen those inequities, in fact, some remain.

In conclusion, while the State of Delaware’s Unit Funding structure may be old and may not include vital aspects that were not a consideration when it was first conceived, such as technology funding, the State’s Unit funding structure is clearly an inherently more equitable funding source than local property taxes.  Mind you, local property taxes and local financial participation in education funding play an important role in the complete funding structure, after all, communities must have “skin in the game”, but it is short-sighted to dispose of a funding structure simply because it’s “old”.  The Unit Funding structure in Delaware works.  The Unit Funding structure in Delaware is inherently equitable.  While it does lack the requirement of a regular, periodic review to assure it meets the funding needs of the current education necessities and obligations, the Delaware Unit Funding structure is not fundamentally broken.

John is the former Director of Operations for the Milford School District, Director of Finance for the DOE, and Executive Director of the Delaware School Boards Association.

Expanded Training is Key to Protecting Students

By Dennis Godek, Advisory Board Member, A Better Delaware

As the 2023 school year begins, the safety of our children in a changing world is at the forefront of our thoughts. School shootings have become too frequent, and we must be ever vigilant to try to prevent these incidents and be ready to respond quickly and effectively when they occur. Preventing school attacks requires direct action, and sometimes, the courage to challenge the status quo. Many tend to criticize school and other officials when it becomes evident, after an attack, that an attacker displayed signs of disturbing behavior that may have predicted violence. These same critics often decry the “abuse of rights” when officials investigate and take definitive steps to determine a person’s propensity for violence. We cannot have it both ways. Law enforcement, education leaders and social workers, acting in good faith and with the resources they need, must use the utmost discretion in this pursuit, but the safety of all students must override a hesitancy to act.

The Delaware education system has made improvements in “safety from attack” for all students. Security policies have been reviewed and amended, many schools now have either school resource officers, armed constables, or both, and schools are required to have plans for action in the event of an attack.

Law enforcement in Delaware have been trained to the national standard of tactical response to active assailant incidents for almost 10 years. Law Enforcement and Fire/EMS, statewide, have been training together, again to national standards, for the integrated response to active attacks. That integrated training incorporates the provision of trauma care to victims in as short a time as possible both during, and immediately after, an attack. Along with specific medical treatment, this response has saved many lives after an attack. These training efforts, and the commitment of the agencies involved, are part of an effort to ensure that the horror of an attack like that which occurred in Uvalde, Texas, will not occur in Delaware.

Lessons learned from reviews of attacks across the country are constantly utilized to update response policies. Regardless of the number of victims, the location of the incident, or the number or armament of the offenders, these are complex incidents which require coordinated and precise response by public safety agencies, augmented by pre-planned actions by school officials. The Delaware Emergency Management Agency oversees the Delaware Comprehensive School Safety Program (CSSP) which is responsible for enhancing school security in all public and charter schools through maintenance and development of comprehensive safety and preparedness plans. The CSSP ensures that mandatory drills and exercises are conducted in all schools on an annual basis and works with school administrators on annual updates to school emergency plans. Any new school construction must include specific target hardening. Secure vestibules, hardened glass and windows in certain areas, improved door security, and panic buttons in office areas are some of the requirements.

While difficult for everyone involved, it must be emphasized that parents and family of students are not to respond to the school when learning of an attack. Law enforcement MUST protect the scene from the introduction of more potential victims, the escape of suspects, and provide for the free movement of emergency vehicles. Technology can be utilized to notify parents and family of a reunification location which is away from the scene and will facilitate the most efficient means of reuniting family and students.

The level of accountability for compliance with drills, exercises, plans, and physical plant improvements, must remain high and require vigilance by overseers and diligence by stakeholders. The law enforcement, fire and EMS community of Delaware is committed to do whatever it takes to protect our students.

“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what is required.” – Winston Churchill

Dennis Godek previously served as a New Castle County Police Officer and as Assistant Chief of Career Services at the Christiana Fire Company. He currently serves as Chair of the New Castle County Fire and Ambulance Advisory Board, which is the liaison between county government and the Fire/EMS service in New Castle County. Godek is a founding member of the Delaware Statewide Active Assailant Committee, which includes Law Enforcement and Fire/EMS agencies from across the state. Dennis Godek is a member of the Advisory Board of A Better Delaware. 

The Discipline Crisis in Schools Has Serious Consequences

By Beth Conaway, Advisory Board Member, A Better Delaware

Public schools ensure that all students have access to a free education. As a result, they are the cornerstone of America’s future. However, our public schools are facing unprecedented challenges with teacher shortages, academic achievement, and negative school environments. Current school discipline practices play a huge role in these challenges.

Prior to Covid, schools began introducing administrators and teachers to the concept of restorative practices. Restorative practices attempt to strengthen relationships between teachers/students and student/student. Popular examples of restorative processes include affective statements (telling a person how you feel) community-building circles, small impromptu conferencing, and setting classroom agreements or norms. (Panorama Eduction Services). Teachers and administrators are trained that for students impacted by trauma and toxic stress, consequences that are not exclusionary or disciplinary in the traditional manner can be more effective in changing the behavior. Trauma based discipline states that the response or intervention for a misbehaving student needs to focus on the specific student’s needs and base the consequence on an incrementally more punitive rubric or leveled response to behaviors. The idea is to seek out the intervention that will change the behavior, not simply automatically assigning a specific response from a predetermined menu.

However, the idea of consequences and disciplinary actions changed along with the introduction of restorative practices. For example, a school may determine that a student is acting out to get attention, so rather than remove the student” to give them what he/she wants” the principal will keep the child in the classroom with or without additional adult support. In a second scenario, when a student is violent or extremely disruptive, an administrator is often brought into the classroom while the teacher takes the rest of the class out of the room. A third common scenario is that the disruptive student is removed for a short time with the administrator to participate in restorative practices and then is immediately brought back to the classroom.

There are several negative results of these actions when done without consequences.

1. Loss of instructional time for all students leading to poorer achievement.
2. Stress and anxiety for teachers leading to burnout and lack of teacher retention.
3. Lack of instructional support from administrators to teachers as they deal with misbehavior rather than supporting the teachers in their instruction.
4. An increased lack of respect from students to teachers and other students.

Students dealing with trauma and mental health needs are real. However, without disciplinary actions that support teachers and the other students in the classroom, the joy and excitement about teaching and learning will continue to erode. What began as regular instances of students cussing out teachers or acting in deliberate insubordination has escalated to a scenario where teachers are just trying to put out “bigger fires” or prevent them from occurring rather than being able to teach.

As a result, alternative classrooms, environments, and additional mental health supports need to be available to schools to give all students the supportive learning environment essential to their success.

Beth Conaway is a former teacher, who served for 8 years as Principal of the Morris Early Childhood Center and then as Principal of Milton Elementary School for 5 years. She retired aft4r 31 years in the Delaware public school system. She currently teaches graduate courses at the University of the Cumberlands and volunteers in the Indian River School District.

Parents Deserve a Choice About Where Their Child Attends School

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

The government doesn’t tell you where to get your car fixed or where to buy your groceries, but they do tell you where you have to send your child to school. 

Just for a moment, let’s suppose the government did tell you where to get your groceries, and they assigned you to a grocery store that, when you came to shop, only had 8% of what you wanted to buy in stock. You would probably say “I want to go over there and buy food in the store that has what my kids and I want to eat.” The government will tell you, “You are assigned to the store with the 8% rating, but if you ask a certain other store’s permission and they let you come, then we will let you.” But, of course, the better stores all have a waiting list, so you are stuck getting less than you want and need.

Like that result? Of course not. But that is what is happening to your children. If your child is assigned to Bancroft School, according to the Delaware Department of Education, only 6% can read at grade level, and only 3% are at grade level in math.  Those results are equally unacceptable. The only option to try to get your child in a better school is to ask another public school if your child can transfer in. And the better performing schools mostly have waiting lists.

Historically, the answers from the government to “fix” education are to spend more money, hire more paraprofessionals or reduce class size. None of these appears to be the issue. If you look at where the highest expenditures per student are, more money is spent in the poorest performing schools. Again, according to the Department of Education, Warner School spends a little over $30,000 per student, as compared to the average of approximately $17,000, statewide. Warner also has a teacher- student ratio of 12-1. Yet the test scores for Warner show less than 5% of students are performing at grade level in both math and English. Clearly, the same old answers are not working.

Just like when they choose where to go grocery shopping, parents should be able to choose the best school for their child – public, private, or parochial (that is, a school with a religious affiliation). The government denies them that option right now. Unless you have the financial resources to escape these poor performing schools, you are stuck with less than what you want for your kids and what they deserve.

Because of a law passed many decades ago, Delaware taxpayer funds cannot be used to send a child to a private or parochial school. However, there is an alternative. A Better Delaware supports a program, modeled after one in Pennsylvania, that will provide businesses and individuals with a tax credit for a percentage of the amount they donate to an education scholarship fund run by a not-for-profit organization. Those donated monies can then be used by children who live in poverty or are assigned to attend poor performing schools to pay tuition at the private or parochial school of their choice. Pennsylvania has a limit of $125 million in tax credits each year. The concept is so popular, there is a waiting list to donate. We support introducing legislation to adopt that plan in Delaware. Imagine how many Delaware students those scholarships would help to get a better education.

The ability to read, make calculations and communicate effectively, with a sound vocabulary and good grammar skills, is critical to personal growth and future academic and economic success. Imagine the transformation of the futures of the children who could access these scholarships. All of Delaware would benefit, because businesses looking to locate here could have more confidence in our state’s workforce, and the skills available here. 

Some elected officials in Delaware don’t support school choice – they want to give districts or teachers more money. The Department of Education’s own website proves that does not work. You now know that doesn’t work. 

Parents need to stand up and demand a better education for their children, so that they can enjoy the economic prosperity that will come with it. School choice is the answer. Our children deserve better. So, when those elected officials ask for your vote, you tell them, “This year, I am voting for my kids. Give me a choice so they have a chance.” 

Jane Bady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.

Parents Have Rights and Responsibilities in Their Child’s Education

By Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

Parents have the fundamental right and responsibility for the care, custody, and control of their children. So embedded in this concept in our society, that there are laws that impose liability on parents for failing to care for, or control, their child. Importantly, this includes a parent’s right to make decisions regarding educational issues.

The recent report on student assessment, which shows many students in Delaware performing at less than 50% of grade level competency, underscores the need to help our children do better educationally. A cooperative relationship between the schools and parents, built on transparency, is essential to provide quality education for the children of Delaware.

Parents, guardians, and the public should have access to all important and relevant information regarding our public schools. House Bill 326 proposed by State Representative Charlie Postles, who previously served as President of the Milford School Board, that would require that such information be made available through a school website portal. The portal would include public access to:

1) A syllabus for each instructional course.

2) Access to, and a description of, instructional materials, textbooks, and digital resources that educators plan to utilize in each instructional course.

3) The school’s policy on how information is communicated to parents, guardians, and the public about violent incidents occurring at the school.

4) What health care services are offered at the school and how parental and guardian notification and consent are handled regarding these services.

All schools would be required to have a procedure for parents to withdraw their child from any specific instruction the parent objects to their child receiving. The school would have to make reasonable arrangements to provide alternative educational activities to the child. School personnel would be prevented from imposing a penalty upon a child who is withdrawn from instruction to which the parents object. Parents would be provided access to all written and electronic recordings concerning the parent’s child that are controlled by a district or anyone authorized to provide services to students.

Finally, a process for filing, reviewing, and appealing a complaint made by a parent, which is essential, is provided for. It is the parent’s right and responsibility to develop and embrace those family values of faith, work ethic, responsibility, and discipline that will prepare their child for success in school as well as in life. What a child is told in school and how they are taught should not be kept from those most responsible for their child – the parents.

We at A Better Delaware support the concepts represented in this legislation and encourage the General Assembly to address the issue of parents’ access to information about their child’s academic and social experience at school.

Jane Bady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court

Are your children getting the education you’re paying for?

By: Dr. Tanya Hettler

Delaware’s terrible scores on the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have been big news since its release last fall. Delaware ranked 47th in the country with the 4th worst overall test scores when averaging math and reading for both 4th and 8th graders.

Fourth and eighth grade are both important years in school. It is generally accepted that students learn to read from kindergarten to third grade. From third grade on, students read to learn. And if students cannot read by 8^th grade, they will not make it through high school.

The 2022 NAEP scores reflect a sharp drop from the 2019 scores (the last uninterrupted school year before COVID-19 closures and remote learning). In fact, Delaware had the largest decline in the country in test scores over the COVID-19 period. And these decreases were just an acceleration of a negative trend that began in 2013.

The declines are not due to a lack of school funding. In fact, Delaware boasts the 10th highest per-pupil spending in the country.

In the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data from 2020, Delaware ranked 13th in the nation in education spending increases from 2002-2020. The Delaware per-pupil spending increased 29% from $13,387 to $17,235 (inflation-adjusted).

A Closer Look into Delaware’s Education Spending

Table 1 below is a closer look at Delaware’s education spending increases over the 18 years from 2002-2020. Student enrollment only increased by 11%. Yet, every area of spending increased at a significantly higher rate except for teacher salaries.

Table 1:  Delaware’s Educational Spending Increases from 2002-2020 (inflation-adjusted).

Even more shocking is that when we look at education expenses in 2002, we find that Delaware already spent significantly more on education than most other states.

As is evident from this data, Delaware is in the top 10 for education spending in the country. Yet our students continue to perform at the bottom compared to all other states. This is unacceptable! We are failing our students. It is time for a comprehensive upgrade of Delaware’s education system to improve our students’ success.

The generous funds our schools receive from Delaware taxpayers need to be reallocated from excessive administration spending toward teachers’ salaries, with a special focus on starting salaries and hiring new teachers. Across the country, there are twice as many non-educators in schools than educators, and this ratio may be even worse in Delaware. Reallocating funds to teachers will allow for better teacher-to-student ratios and enable schools to hire and retain good teachers. Improved educational outcomes will follow.

Dr. Tanya Hettler is the Director of the Center of Education Excellence at the Caesar Rodney Institute and the author of “Nary the Right Whale: Help Save Nary and His Friends.”