Think tank official questions legitimacy of recent school awards

An education expert from a state think tank believes 16 of 17 schools that were recently honored by the state and nationally do not necessarily deserve their recognition.

Last month, two schools earned national recognition, and 15 received state recognition for metrics like exceptional student growth, closing the achievement gap, and excellence in serving special populations.

Specifically, awards were given for exceptional student performance and growth on the state’s English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics assessment for grades three through eight; academic growth; closing the achievement gap between student groups on the grades three through eight assessment and the SAT taken in 11th grade; or excellence in serving special populations where multiple language learners showed exceptional growth toward meeting proficiency on the state’s English proficiency test.

Three of those schools were recognized for a continued pattern of excellence.

RELATED: Two DE schools receive national praise, while 15 others get state recognition

Tanya Hettler, director of the Center for Education Policy at the Caesar Rodney Institute, questions the legitimacy of the awards.

“I do not know on what basis the Delaware Secretary of Education picks these schools, but it is not based on their actual performance in ‘Closing the Gap’ or EL proficiency,” Hettler said. “However, both schools are better overall than the average Delaware school.”

Despite Hettler’s skepticism, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education flatly defended the agency’s awards and data.

“The award categories are based on federal designations,” said Alison May, public information officer for the Delaware Department of Education. “The data used for identification was 2024 state assessment results in compliance with the federal rules. The results announced are accurate.”

National recognitions

Rehoboth Elementary School was recognized as a National ESEA Distinguished School for Excellence in Serving Special Populations and for the growth and progress towards English language proficiency that the multilanguage learners made during the 2023-2024 school year.

“In Rehoboth Elementary, there are only eight African American students, 17 Hispanic students, five multi-racial students, and too few of every other race than white to be reported,” Hettler cited. “Of the eight African American students, only three are proficient in ELA, and none are proficient in math. Of the 17 Hispanic students, eight are proficient in ELA, and six are proficient in math. Of the five multi-racial students, none are proficient in ELA and two are proficient in math.”

These numbers are calculated from the Delaware Report Card data by using the percent proficient in each category and the total number of students in each category to determine the number of students in each category who are proficient.

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Lake Forest South Elementary School, in the Lake Forest School District, is recognized as a National ESEA Distinguished School for Closing the Achievement Gap between student groups and for the academic progress that the students made during the 2023-2024 school year on standardized achievement tests.

“Their overall scores were better than the average for the state with 53% proficiency in ELA and 53% proficiency in math,” Hettler said. 

When looking at English Learner (EL) students, she said, there are only eight of them and only one is proficient in ELA and none are proficient in math.

The state average for ELA proficiency is 40.9%, and 30.7% in math. 

State recognitions

1. Exceptional student performance

Hettler said she believes North Smyrna Elementary School deserved the award and praised the school’s excellence.

The school scores higher than the average school, with 53% proficiency in ELA and 56% in math, and the improvement from last year was 43% to 53%  in ELA and 45% to 56% in math, which Hettler says are both significant. 

But Frederick Douglass Elementary School, although having overall scores higher than the state average with 53% proficiency in ELA  and 46% in math, actually had a drop in ELA scores from last year by one percentage point.

And while math scores increased, they did so by only two percentage points.

Seaford Central Elementary School was the third school in this category, but ELA remained the same from last year, and the math scores declined from 45% to 37%.

1. Closing the achievement gap

Hodgson VoTech, one of the two schools in this category, has subpar overall scores of 32% proficiency in ELA and just 7% proficiency in math, Hettler pointed out. 

1. Serving special populations

There were seven schools with this state recognition, and while some might be legitimate, the data is not available on the state report card database. 

“The change in scores for different populations (i.e. ELs) is not available on the Report Card,” Hettler said. “You can either see the change in ELA for all students from 2023 to 2024 or the scores for ELs for one year.”

Thoughts on the awards

“When I first read the DOE report on the schools receiving national and state awards, I thought that we might be able to look at what these schools are doing successfully and copy that in other districts,” Hettler said. “However, I am very sad to report that, after looking up the assessment scores on the DE DOE Report Card for each of the 17 schools that received these awards, I found that in all cases but one – North Smyrna Elementary – these awards are not actually based on good performance in their various categories.”

Neither of the two schools that received the NESEA awards showed improvement in the categories for which they were chosen, she said. 

“Only one of the three schools chosen by Secretary Holodick as showing ‘exceptional student performance’ showed improvement on the percentage of students proficient in either ELA or math,” Hettler said. “The two schools that were awarded for ‘closing the achievement gap’ between races did not have enough data on minority students to be indicated on the Report Card.”

Many of the schools that received the above awards did show overall performance higher than the average for the state, Hettler acknowledged, but all except North Smyrna did not show improvement in the particular area indicated by the name of the award it received. 

“It would have made much more sense and been more honest to simply acknowledge those schools that have above-average scores,” she said. “Delaware’s DOE should recognize schools in the actual areas in which they are improving. This would be a far better way to honor teachers, administrators and schools which are helping to improve the lives of their students rather than assigning awards to those who do not deserve them.”

School recognition programs: What you should know

• Awards given annually for student growth, closing achievement gaps, and serving special populations
• Schools can receive both state and national recognition
• Recognition based on standardized test scores and other metrics
• Awards often used in school marketing and funding requests
• No monetary prize, but recognition can influence resource allocation

Multiple school districts whose school performance was questioned by Hettler and a few Delaware legislators on both sides of the aisle declined – except Sen. Eric Buckson, R-Dover –  didn’t respond to multiple interview or comment requests.

“The interpretation of data in the educational space has always been a problem because it does not always portray what is actually going on in the classroom,” Buckson said. “I would argue that the same holds true when you collect data that inaccurately criticizes the educational system solely on test scores.”

Buckson said he applauded the Caesar Rodney Institute’s effort to be a watchdog of Delaware’s public education, while at the same time being very supportive of Delaware public school teachers and their effort to improve outcomes on a day to day basis. 

“I think the focus should be on clean data that accurately portrays outcomes and not data that misconstrues results,” he said. “In the end, we all want what’s best for our students.”