The Delaware Department of Education has contracted with a private firm to test the drinking water at schools across the state.

 

The State of Delaware is actively working with federal and local partners to ensure all Delaware children and school staff have safe and clean drinking water. With the support of a grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DOE with support from the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) began a sampling initiative in Delaware schools in October 2020 to identify the levels of lead within the drinking water system.

 

The state identified some mistakes in its initial lead sampling, including testing buildings during COVID-19 closures and testing non-consumption sources, and the need to better communicate testing results.

 

Batta Environmental Associates, Inc., a Newark-based environmental consultant, will retest all fixtures that initially tested at 7.5 ppb or higher and all consumption points at schools statewide.

 

“It is critically important that we conduct additional water sampling that provides timely and accurate data regarding the quality of water that our students, staff, and school communities consume.  This is also an important step to help restore confidence for the public. We want our children, their families and our educators and staff to be able to concentrate on learning, assured that their buildings and water are safe,” Secretary of Education Mark Holodick said.

 

Resampling and retesting will start next week and will take about three months to complete. Results will be shared with the respective superintendents and charter leaders as they are received from the lab, and districts/charters will share results and any next steps with their respective communities.  Results and updates also will be posted on de.gov/schoolwater.

 

Currently, all fixtures that tested at or above 7.5 ppb were either turned off or had signage that noted the water was not for consumption, as confirmed by school representatives and state survey teams. Next steps on fixture usage and remediation will be determined based on the retesting results.  The signage will remain on those fixtures until schools receive additional information from the Department of Education or Division of Public Health.

 

Learn more about the state’s school water testing program at de.gov/schoolwater.

 

Media contact: Alison May, alison.may@doe.k12.de.us, 302-735-4006

Statewide assessment results for the 2021-22 school year reinforce the continuing need to provide additional supports and learning time to students in response to COVID-19 school building closures.

For English language arts, 42 percent of students in grades 3-8 scored at or above their grade’s proficiency level. In mathematics, 30 percent of students in grades 3-8 scored at or above their grade’s proficiency level. Although the percentage of students who scored proficient is higher than in 2020-21, making a direct comparison is not appropriate because of lower participation rates in 2020-21 due to COVID-19.

“Providing educational opportunities this summer has been a priority because we know students are continuing to recover from pandemic-related unfinished learning,” Secretary of Education Mark Holodick said. “Recovery doesn’t happen overnight, and our educators are committed to continuing to meet students where they are to provide them the supports and learning time they need to succeed.  Federal Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief funds (ESSER II and ESSER III) will allow for our schools and districts to use targeted interventions and institute system changes that address the needs of all students, especially those kids who need it most.”

For high school statewide assessment, Delaware uses the SAT, administered during the school day, generally in students’ 11^th grade year. In 2022, Delaware moved from a paper and pencil exam to an online assessment (grade 3-8 assessments previously were online). Statewide, 47 percent of students scored proficient or higher in the reading test, 24 percent in math and 38 percent on the essay portion.

In science, Delaware tests in grades 5, 8 and high school biology. The 2021-22 scores show 21 percent of fifth graders, 17 percent of eighth graders and 26 percent of high school biology students scoring proficient or higher.

Social studies is assessed in grades 4, 7 and 11. Statewide for 2021-22, 32 percent of fourth graders, 29 percent of seventh graders and 24 percent of 11^th graders scored at or above the proficient level.

Delaware administers an alternative assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities. The state moved to a new assessment model in 2022. Find more information on this assessment as well as the ACCESS English language proficiency assessment here.

Families received their student reports in the mail last month, providing valuable information on their children’s learning progress. Educators received the results a few weeks after the students tested.

 “These assessment results help everyone from the classroom educator to policymakers better understand student learning and needs, and they will provide important guidance to us as we plan how to best support our students in the new school year,” Holodick said.

Find full results, including demographic and district/charter information, here.

Partnership will provide testing for Delaware children, adolescents

WILMINGTON- Del. – Governor John Carney and the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) announced on Friday that the State of Delaware will partner with Nemours Children’s Health System, the Delaware Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other pediatric care providers in Delaware to make rapid COVID-19 tests available for Delaware children and adolescents statewide. 

Delaware has received more than 77,500 Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 point-of-care antigen cards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The state expects to receive a total of 290,000 tests, which can diagnose COVID-19 infection in as little as 15 minutes. The tests are largely being distributed to outpatient clinical settings providing care to children and adolescents, especially those currently in child care and in-person learning environments. 

“Testing for COVID-19 is the best way to track the spread of this virus in our state and monitor for potential outbreaks,” said Governor Carney. “This partnership with pediatricians in Delaware, who provide health care for families statewide, will make testing even more accessible for Delawareans where and when they need it. Our goals are consistent. We want to get more children learning in classrooms, and more Delawareans back on the job. But we can only do that if we do it safely. Wear a mask in public settings. Don’t gather socially with anyone outside your household, and wash your hands frequently. This will be a difficult winter. Do your part to protect Delaware’s progress against COVID-19.”

DPH and the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) have worked closely with schools and districts statewide to offer multiple testing options to meet the needs of students, teachers and staff, including:

1. More than 60 school district testing sites since late August to assist with school reopening. 
2. Contracting with Mako Medical to work directly with school districts for testing options.
3. Community testing sites through commercial pharmacies, State Service Centers and public health clinics.
4. Routine at-home testing kits for teachers and staff.

 

DPH recommends teachers, staff and students get tested at least once per month as part of the state’s efforts to identify and decrease the spread of COVID-19 in our schools and community. Delaware has added rapid point-of-care antigen tests to support its overall testing strategy and increase access to testing for K-12 students.

“We feel it is important to place these tests in medical settings where providers have the knowledge and experience to properly interpret the results,” said Dr. Karyl Rattay, Director of the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH). “These tests offer yet another tool to help us quickly identify individuals who are at risk of carrying the virus that causes COVID-19, and immediately initiate critical contact tracing and case investigation efforts in order to reduce additional spread in the community.”

In partnership with Delaware Center for Health Innovation, the Delaware Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Medical Society of Delaware, DPH is working with licensed independent health care practitioners providing care to children and adolescents in childcare and K-12 populations to coordinate requests for testing supplies.

In addition, DPH has partnered with Nemours to distribute the rapid antigen tests to participating providers of Delaware Children’s Health Network (DCHN), a physician-led clinically integrated network of providers and health care systems focused on kids. DPH has already distributed 3,000 antigen tests through DCHN, which will offer central distribution to its providers.

“We appreciate the partnership with the Division of Public Health and the recognition that primary care medical homes need to have point of care COVID testing options to appropriately diagnose patients and do our part to reduce community spread,” said Jamie Clarke, Executive Director, Delaware Children’s Health Network and Chief Value Officer, Nemours Children’s Health System.

The federal government also has shipped more than 23,000 of the 290,000 rapid tests directly to congregate care settings such as Delaware nursing homes and assisted living facilities. 

The State of Delaware has a variety of testing options available for Delawareans:

1. Nasal Swab Tests (front-of-the-nostril swab) – Available at select Walgreens and Public Health Clinic permanent testing sites. Additional health care provider testing sites may offer deep nasal swab testing.
2. Curative Tests (saliva-based oral swab) – Available at pop-up school and community testing locations and select State Service Center permanent testing sites. 
3. At-home tests (saliva collection) – Available for Delawareans residents, especially for teachers, staff and students of Delaware schools, Delawareans over the age of 60, those in high-risk groups, and anyone who has been in a large gathering or had any higher risk contact, such as interacting with others without a face covering or appropriate social distancing. 

View calendar of pop-up testing locations for students and families.

View calendar of current pop-up, permanent and other available testing locations.

Anyone with a question about COVID-19, whether related to medical or social service needs, should call Delaware 2-1-1. Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing can text their ZIP code to 898-211. Hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 

Download COVID Alert DE in the App Store or Google Play. 

Report a business for COVID-19 non-compliance using this form.

DPH will continue to update the public as more information becomes available. For the latest on Delaware’s response, go to de.gov/coronavirus.

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The Delaware Department of Education on Thursday released the 2019 statewide student assessment results.

 

Statewide, 53 percent of students in grades 3 to 8 scored at the proficient level or higher this year in the Smarter English language arts (ELA) assessment, compared to 54 percent in 2018. For mathematics, 44 percent of students in grades 3 to 8 scored at the proficient level or higher, no change from the 2018 results. At the high school level, students took the SAT with the results relatively unchanged.

 

Because Delaware transitioned this year to new science and social studies assessments, state officials will spend the fall setting cut scores to determine which scores are proficient on the new tests. Results will be released this winter. Results for the state’s alternate assessment, administered to those students with significant cognitive disabilities, were released today as well. Those results also were relatively unchanged.

 

Educators already received their students’ scores — Smarter results, for example, are available to teachers three weeks after their students complete the test. Families will receive score reports with their children’s results via U.S. mail beginning next week. Family guides and other resources also are available online.

 

For more information on state assessment results, visit the Delaware Report Card site and see the 2019 assessment presentation.

 

Smarter Assessment (ELA/mathematics)

 

Nationwide, states administering the Smarter assessment have seen similar trends to Delaware – slow growth at the state level with larger gains at some school levels.

Delaware did see slight gains in some subgroups statewide between 2018 and 2019, with English learners and students with disabilities averages increasing by one percentage point each in ELA and one percentage point in math for both students with disabilities and Hispanic students.

Secretary of Education Susan Bunting thanked students and educators for their hard work. She also committed to continue to provide supports from the state.

“We must focus our time and resources on promoting early diagnosis and intervention, using a range of assessments throughout the year and training educators on how to use the data available to them to effect change in curriculum and instruction,” she said. “We also must provide technical assistance and other support to our schools and districts  as they select local curricula so all children have access to high quality materials and assessments.”

Bunting also pointed to bright spots across the state, such as in Seaford School District, which has seen steady growth in both ELA and mathematics scores since 2015, the first year the state administered the Smarter assessment. For ELA, 56 percent of students scored at the proficient level or higher, above the state average and up 2 percentage points from last year. In 2015, only 38 percent of Seaford students were proficient. Math scores also are continuing to climb: This year 48 percent of students scored at proficient or higher, above the state average and 2 percentage points higher than in 2018. It is a 20-point gain from 2015.

 

Seaford’s Frederick Douglass Elementary particularly has shown strong growth. For ELA, 42 percent of students were proficient in 2015. The number has consistently improved since then, reaching 67 percent of students this year. In 2015, only 7 percent of the school’s English learners were proficient in ELA; 60 percent were this year. Other subgroups also showed strong ELA growth: the percent proficient went from 39 percent to 64 percent for low-income students, and 7 percent to 47 percent for students with disabilities.

 

Douglass’ math scores also have increased steadily, moving from 35 percent to 69 percent for all students between 2015 and 2019. English learner scores went from 7 percent to 70 percent proficient, students with disabilities went from 14 percent to 41 percent, low-income went from 30 percent to 66 percent, and Hispanic students went from 37 to 76 percent.

 

“When asked to explain our success we are able to point to simple addition,” Seaford Superintendent David Perrington said. “The district has worked hard at bringing together a number of dynamics that are essential for student achievement.  These include a supportive school board, a vision-driven district office staff, a strong building leadership, a committed teaching staff, an engaged student body, and a caring school community.

“At the beginning of the school year we discussed the concept ‘Push Don’t Pity.’  This model is grounded in the belief of high expectations for all students,” he said. “It requires us as educators to accept the responsibility of each student’s learning experience and each student to believe they have the capacity to succeed.  When added successfully together we have a sum of increasing student achievement.”

Lake Forest also saw some strong gains, particularly among subgroups in mathematics in several of its elementary schools. Lake Forest East, for example, saw gains between 2018 and 2019 of 39 percentage points for Hispanic students, 39 percentage points for English learners, 20 percentage points for low-income students and 14 percentage points for African American students. The gain was 12 percentage points for all students.

 

At Lake Forest North, the 2018 to 2019 scores show gains of 23 percentage points for low-income students, 17 percentage points for English learners, 8 percentage points for African American students, 7 percentage points for Hispanic students and 4 percentage points for all students.

 

“The Lake Forest School District attributes our success to using the standards to refine curriculum and lesson plans, analyzing formative and summative data during professional learning communities and staff development days and providing time for teacher collaboration throughout the year,” Superintendent Brenda Wynder said. “We are proud of our teachers’ willingness to strive for student achievement and continuous improvement in our data. It has taken our entire ‘village’ to achieve this success.”

Bunting also spotlighted several other schools that have shown strong growth for subgroups and students overall.

• Caesar Rodney School District’s Allen Frear Elementary saw ELA proficiency for all students go from 69 percent to 83 percent between 2015 and 2019 with African American student proficiency improving from 46 percent to 72 percent. Math proficiency for all students moved from 60 percent to 72 percent with African American proficiency up from 34 percent to 57 percent in the same time period.
• Christina School District’s Etta Wilson Elementary also has seen consistent growth for multiple subgroups and students overall in both ELA and math. For ELA, all student proficiency this year is 72 percent, up from 49 percent in 2015. English learner proficiency improved from 13 percent to 66 percent, low-income from 35 percent to 61 percent, students with disabilities from 17 percent to 39 percent and Hispanic students from 34 percent to 67 in the same period. In math, 73 percent of students scored at the proficient level or higher this year, compared to 52 percent in 2015. These subgroups also saw growth throughout the years: African American (40 percent to 59 percent), English learner (19 percent to 63 percent), low-income (35 percent to 63 percent), students with disabilities (19 percent to 43 percent) and Hispanic (40 percent to 69 percent).
• Indian River School District’s Georgetown Middle School also has seen consistent success improving the scores of its students in ELA and math. For ELA, 64 percent of students overall passed the test in 2019, compared to 49 percent in 2015. Improvement among African American (40 percent to 60 percent), low-income (41 percent to 59 percent) and Hispanic students (44 percent to 62 percent) were included in the gains. For math, the growth from 2015 to 2019 overall was 34 percent to 55 percent with increases almost every year overall and among subgroups with an 11-percentage point gain just this year for English learner students. The overall growth for EL was 6 percent proficient in 2015 to 19 percent in 2019. Low-income students grew from 28 percent in 2015 to 50 percent this year with Hispanic student proficiency up to 52 percent in 2019, compared to 33 percent in 2015.

 

SAT

 

Delaware’s high school federal accountability test is the SAT, typically taken in 11^th grade. Statewide 48 percent of students scored at the proficient level or higher in 2019 on the evidence-based reading and writing (ERW) portion, down 2 percentage points from 2018. In math, 28 percent of students did so, the same percentage as in 2018. For the essay portion of the exam, 42 percent of students scored at proficient or higher, down from 44 percent in 2018.

 

For math, Indian River School District saw gains. Indian River High School had 35 percent of students scoring at the proficient level or higher in 2019, up from 29 percent in 2018 and 32 percent in 2017. Sussex Central High School had 22 percent in 2019, up from 19 percent in 2018 and 21 percent in 2017.  Colonial School District’s William Penn High School also has seen steady growth: 15 percent in 2019, up from 13 percent in 2018 and 10 percent in 2017.

 

Alternate assessment

 

This is the second year of administration for Delaware’s alternate assessment. The percentage of students scoring proficient is down in all three subject areas (ELA, math and science) from last year’s initial administration. The 2019 state average for ELA was 28 percent proficient, down from 32 percent in 2018; math was 15 percent in 2019, down from 17 percent in 2018; and science was 17 percent in 2019, down from 19 percent in 2018.

 

Media Contact: Alison May, alison.may@doe.k12.de.us, 302-735-4006

The Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) and Delaware State Police will conduct a quarterly test of the Salem/Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Stations Alert and Notification system on Tuesday, July 9, 2019.  The sirens will sound at around 7:30 p.m.

The 37 sirens located within ten miles of the Salem/Hope Creek (New Jersey) plants will be activated for three to five minutes.  The siren tests will be followed by a test message of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on local radio stations.

Sirens that will be tested are the same sirens used to alert the public in the event of an actual emergency at either the Salem or Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Stations.  In such an emergency, the public would be alerted by the sirens to tune radios to one of the local EAS stations for important emergency instructions.