DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Office of the Secretary

FINAL

Regulatory Implementing Order

104 Education Profiles for Schools, Districts, and the State

I. Summary of the Evidence and Information Submitted

The Secretary of Education seeks the consent of the State Board of the State Board of Education to amend 14 DE Admin. Code 104 Education Profiles for Schools, Districts, and the State to clarify that the print format of the school, district, and state profiles may vary from the web version because the print format is intended to summarize the detail contained on the website. The proposed regulation was revised to allow citizens to request the full printed version of the profile from a school, district or the state.

Notice of the proposed regulation was published in the News Journal and the Delaware State News on Wednesday, April 2, 2008, in the form hereto attached as Exhibit "A". Comments were received from the Governor's Advisory Council for Exceptional Citizens and State Council for Persons with Disabilities concerning the shortened print format and the ability for parents and citizens to compare schools and districts, and to promote accountability. The Department has made changes to the regulation to allow parents and citizens to request the full version of the education profile from the school, district, or the state. The Department is attempting to reduce the costs to the State related to the printing of the full profile, and still intends to provide meaningful data on the shortened version to allow comparisons and to promote accountability. The Department believes this change addresses the concerns of the Councils.

II. Findings of Facts

The Secretary finds that it is appropriate to amend 14 DE Admin. Code 104 Education Profiles for School, Districts, and the State in order to clarify that the print format of the school, district, and state profiles may vary from the web version because the print format is intended to summarize the detail contained on the website.

III. Decision to Amend the Regulation

For the foregoing reasons, the Secretary concludes that it is appropriate to amend 14 DE Admin. Code 104 Education Profiles for Schools, Districts, and the State. Therefore, pursuant to 14 Del.C. §122, 14 DE Admin. Code 104 Education Profiles for Schools, Districts, and the State attached hereto as Exhibit "B" is hereby amended. Pursuant to the provision of 14 Del.C. §122(e), 14 DE Admin. Code 104 Education Profiles for Schools, Districts, and the State hereby amended shall be in effect for a period of five years from the effective date of this order as set forth in Section V. below.

IV. Text and Citation

The text of 14 DE Admin. Code 104 Education Profiles for Schools, Districts, and the State amended hereby shall be in the form attached hereto as Exhibit "B", and said regulation shall be cited as 14 DE Admin. Code 104 Education Profiles for Schools, Districts, and the State in the Administrative Code of Regulations for the Department of Education.

V. Effective Date of Order

The actions hereinabove referred to were taken by the Secretary pursuant to 14 Del.C. §122 on May 15, 2008. The effective date of this Order shall be ten (10) days from the date this Order is published in the Delaware Register of Regulations.

IT IS SO ORDERED the 15th day of May 2008.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Valerie A. Woodruff, Secretary of Education

Approved this 15th day of May 2008

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

104 Education Profiles for Schools, Districts, and the State

All public schools, including charter schools, reorganized or vocational‑technical school districts and the State shall issue Delaware Public Education Profiles on the state of Delaware’s public school system as required by 14 Del.C. §124A. The profiles shall be provided in a web format as well as an abbreviated print format pursuant to 2.0 of this regulation. The profiles shall be referred to as school, district, and state Profiles respectively. Each website profile shall contain, but need not be limited to, the following information, aggregated at the appropriate level (school, district or state), unless otherwise noted:

1.1 Information on student achievement at each performance level on the state reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies academic assessments. Such information shall be disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, disability status, migrant status, English proficiency, and status as economically disadvantaged except that such disaggregation shall not be required in a case in which the number of students in a category is less than fifteen (15).

1.2 The most recent 2 year trend in student achievement in each of the five content areas as assessed by the DSTP, and for each grade level the assessments are administered;

1.3 The percentage of students not tested in reading/language arts and mathematics disaggregated by the student subgroups as defined in 1.9, except that such disaggregation shall not be required in a case in which the number of students in a category is less than fifteen (15).

1.4 Information that provides a comparison between the actual achievement levels of each student subgroup meeting proficiency and those that have not met proficiency, as defined in 14 DE Admin. Code 103 and the state’s annual measurable objectives for each such group of students in the reading and language arts and mathematics academic assessments;

1.5 Aggregate information of the percent proficient on the combined scores of the science and social studies academic assessments for elementary and middle schools, used as the other indicator to determine Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) of students in achieving the state academic standards disaggregated by student subgroups. Such disaggregation shall not be required in a case in which the number of students is less than fifteen (15).

1.6 For secondary schools only, graduation rate is defined as the number of students enrolled in the school in the ninth grade and who graduate with a diploma four years later, excluding students who earn a GED certificate, divided by the same number plus those who have dropped out during the same four year period, disaggregated by student subgroups. Such disaggregation shall not be required in a case in which the number of students is less than fifteen (15).

1.7 Information on the performance of the school, district, or state regarding making adequate yearly progress, including the number and names of each school identified as Under School Improvement.

1.8 Information regarding the professional qualifications of teachers in the school, district and state, the percentage of such teachers teaching with emergency or provisional credentials, and the percentage of classes in the state not taught by highly qualified teachers, in the aggregate and disaggregated by high‑poverty compared to low poverty schools which means schools in the top quartile of poverty and the bottom quartile of poverty in the State;

1.9 Information pertaining to the AYP status and accountability ratings;

1.10 Information pertaining to school safety and discipline and student attendance;

1.11 Information pertaining to school district administrator to student ratios, school teacher to student ratios and other staffing ratios;

1.12 Information pertaining to pupil and staff demographics;

1.13 Information pertaining to school district revenues, expenditures, tax rates and wealth (district profile only);

1.14 Information pertaining to school curricular offerings (school profile only);

1.15 Information pertaining to parent and community involvement in the school and school district;

1.16 Examples of exemplary programs, successful teaching, school climate or disciplinary strategies and other developments (only in school profile); and

1.17 Other items from time to time that may be required by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The profiles will be published, subject to an annual appropriation in the annual state budget act, at the expense of the state. School and districts specific data shall be submitted, in the format requested, to the Department in the time frame delineated in the Data Acquisition Calendar. The State shall have the profiles available on the Department of Education website no later than August 15, 2003 and on or before August 1 of each subsequent year.

The State shall have the profiles available on the Department of Education website on or before August 1st of each year. In addition, subject to an annual appropriation in the annual state budget act, the [school and district] profiles shall be published in a print format as determined by the Department that does not exceed four pages. The print format is intended to summarize the detail contained on the website. [Notwithstanding the above, the school or district shall provide the full printed copy of the education profile to a citizen upon request.]