 Education
Rigorous standards, high expectations and a commitment to excellence.
A recent report on Education titled "Delivering the Best for Delaware's Children" outlines our state's major financial commitment to education. Key elements of Delaware's plan for maintaining and enhancing the quality of education include:
Developing a Statewide School Technology System
Thanks to $30 million invested in education by our state's 21st Century Fund, Delaware became first in the nation to establish a telecommunications infrastructure for the current and future needs of its pupils by wiring every public school classroom with voice and data, video and fiber optic connections. The data lines now in place in more than 6,400 Delaware classrooms provide access to the state's wide area network, as well as, the global resources of the internet.
Supporting the Technology
With private sector help, Delaware provides the staff training and software required to use technology as a teaching tool. State, federal and private funds totaling more than $70 million have paid for educational technology since February 1996. Moreover, the project was completed under budget and ahead of schedule.
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National Recognition:
The efforts of the Delaware Center for Educational Technology received a Computer World Smithsonian Award for the Classroom Networking Project.
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Providing the Best Classroom Materials for Our Students
A special $10 million appropriation, spread over two years, was allocated for the purchase of new textbooks in core academic subjects. In addition, resources for classroom materials have increased nearly 26 percent over the past six years.
Funding for Classroom Technology
A $13 million appropriation over three years, plus $7 million of matching funds from state school districts, ensures that there is at least one computer online in every Delaware classroom.
Technology Literacy Challenge Grants
Delaware is beginning its third year of the Technology Literacy Challenge Grants, a federal program to help encourage schools to become "high technology schools" by 2001. High technology schools are schools that are "data-driven," use technology for student and staff learning, have dynamic school library media centers, and use technology for professional development at all levels. This year, these 10 Delaware school districts will receive more than $200,000 each to continue their progress in technology: Brandywine, Cape Henlopen, Capital, Christina, Colonial, Indian River, Laurel, Milford, Seaford and Smyrna.
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Public Schools in Delaware
Delaware students must meet world-class standards if they are to be competitive and successful in a global economy. To prepare children for their future, our schools must support rigorous standards. Each and every teacher must set high expectations. Our students should commit themselves to the achievement of excellence.
Any system that hopes to accomplish such ambitious goals must have a yardstick to measure progress. For the past several years, Delaware educators have been developing this measuring stick, named the Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP). Legislation requiring that the DSTP serve as a primary indicator in a statewide accountability system passed into law in Delaware in 1997. For students, this means that they must demonstrate a certain level of proficiency in order to receive a high school diploma.
In the spring of 1998, the State Department of Education, partnering with Harcourt Brace Educational Measurement, began administering the DSTP to learn how well students throughout the state are doing relative to Delaware's rigorous content standards. Students were tested in Reading, Writing, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.
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