ECS
2012 State of the State Address
Education-Related Proposals
Delaware


Education Commission of the States • 700 Broadway, Suite 810 • Denver, CO 80203-3442 • 303.299.3600 • fax 303.296.8332 • www.ecs.org

The following summary includes education-related proposals from the 2012 state of the state address. To assure that this information reaches you in a timely manner, minimal attention has been paid to style (capitalization, punctuation) or format.

Governor Jack Markell's State of the State Address

PROPOSALS

Curriculum - Foreign Language
-- Press ahead with the World Language Expansion Initiative.
+ Create partial immersion programs in twenty schools (in the next 5 years), where students will spend half the school day learning in another language.

P-3 Early Grades - Ensuring Quality, Facility Evaluation, Teacher Evaluation (Early Learning Challenge winner)
-- Properly train professionals who care for young children.
-- Ensure that early childcare facilities where our children spend their days will have the best teaching and learning tools.
-- Continually monitor the successes and challenges of centers to ensure continual improvement.
-- Raise the percentage of high-need children in quality-rated programs from 20 percent to nearly 80 percent over the next four years.
-- Introduce a new kindergarten assessment to let us know where our kids stand when they start school.

Teacher Quality - Evaluations
-- Implement without additional delay the Performance Appraisal System, with its focus on student progress.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Curriculum - Foreign Language; High School -Graduation Requirements
-- Completion of a world language is a graduation requirement.

Finance - Federal
-- Won nationwide Race to the Top Grant.
-- Won nationwide Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge.

Standards
-- Established high standards.

Assessments, Accountability
-- Put in place an improved assessment system so parents and teachers can track student progress and identify quickly when students risk falling behind.

Teacher Quality
-- Provide support to teachers with resources that help them raise student achievement.

http://news.delaware.gov/2012/01/19/state-of-the-state-2012-transcript-delawares-time-to-lead/