The Committee of 100 | FYI Archives

"Imagine . . . the best schools in the world for every Delaware student . . . no exceptions . . . no excuses . . . that's Vision 2015" (Vision 2015).

Vision 2015 is a plan for improving education in Delaware, produced by a 28-member Steering Committee, with input from 80 Work Group members, research by the Boston Consulting Group, facilitation from Cambridge Leadership Associates, and $3.55 million from the Rodel Foundation of Delaware and the Broad Foundation in Los Angeles. The goal of Vision 2015 is nothing less than making Delaware's school system the best in the world.

While Vision 2015 recognizes the great strides made in Delaware, such as having one of the nation's highest rates of improvement in elementary reading, Vision 2015 declares that we can, and must, be better. As Secretary of Education Valerie Woodruff notes, "While the fastest-growing occupations of the future will require some post-secondary education, and those requiring a bachelor's degree will increase three times faster than those requiring a high school diploma," only 2 in 10 whites and 1 in 10 Blacks and Hispanics will earn a two- or four-year college degree by their mid-20s." Worse, only 63% of Delaware 9th graders graduate. Vision 2015's research shows that a high-school graduate, over a lifetime, will earn $600,000 more than a dropout, and a college graduate will earn $1.4 million more. A high school graduate will contribute $50,000 more in state and local taxes than a dropout, and a college graduate $120,000 more. A high school graduate saves society $41,000 in Medicaid costs and $25,000 in prison costs; a college graduate saves $71,000 in Medicaid and $34,000 in prison costs.

Vision 2015 recognizes that Delaware students must compete not only nationally, but also, internationally, and its goals reach beyond national to international standards. For example, Delaware is not alone in the U.S. in clinging to the 9-month, 180-day school year. By contrast, in Japan, the school year is 40 days longer then in the U.S. and in South Korea, students spend 588 more educational hours a year than U.S. students. In the next five years, Asia will produce 90% of the world's new scientists.

Vision 2015 is demanding, visionary, and costly. But, as Valerie Woodruff notes, "when we succeed–not if, but when–Delaware will be at the forefront in creating opportunities for our children, prosperity for our society, and hope for us all." As she notes, other states have taken on different parts of the Vision 2015 agenda, but "none has come close to the breadth and depth of our vision." Vision 2015 would put Delaware first.

While Vision 2015 has many specific recommendations, such as requiring 140 additional school hours a year and implementing stronger graduation requirements, the specifics are based upon six "building blocks":

1. Set sights high. Set high academic standards for every child, coupled with high-quality curricula and additional instructional time to give students the best opportunity to meet these standards.

2. Invest in early childhood education. Target more resources to high-need children to build an early foundation for long-term success.

3. Develop and support high-quality teachers. Give teachers the tools, coaching and resources needed to customize instruction for each and every child, and reward teachers for their skills and effectiveness.

4. Empower principals to be great leaders. Empower principals with the knowledge, authority, flexibility, resources, and technology required to focus tightly on student achievement and to get results.

5. Encourage innovation and require accountability. Provide a rich set of school options, instructional methods, and family and community tools to meet the varying needs of all our students. And require accountability for student success from all involved, including parents, community groups, teachers, principals, business leaders, and public officials.

6. Establish a simple and equitable funding system. Establish a school funding formula that is easy to understand and weighted to address the needs of individual students, so that taxpayers can be sure that public funds are well spent and so that all students have the resources they need to reach the same high standards.

One of the first challenges to meeting the goals of Vision 2015 will be financial. Based upon current salaries and expenses, such as labor, food services, and transportation, just extending the school year by 140 hours would cost the State $48.8 million and the districts $19 million. Other challenges will be political, including determining where the power lies. On the one hand, Vision 2015 calls for creating a research-based statewide curricula and ensuring that all schools use this curricula; on the other hand, it calls for giving principals "broader control of decision-making related to people, resources and time." The goal of "developing and supporting high-quality teachers" recommends some current best practices, such as providing teachers preparation and professional development programs and in-classroom coaching and mentoring, but adds new directions, such as providing teachers increased pay and a new career path based on performance, according to clear standards, rather than years of service and degrees.

Vision 2015 recognizes that implementation of its goals will take time. The first priorities will be training and recruiting principals and teachers and creating stronger standards, curricula, assessments, and data systems. In 2007, Vision 2015 will begin the process of selecting and starting "Vision" districts and schools from the school districts interested in joining the Vision 2015 network and adopting the complete set of Vision 2015 recommendations. Vision 2015 expects, as well, to establish the Delaware Public Education Partnership, a coalition of education, government, business, and community organizations, to help mobilize broad public support for transforming Delaware's schools.

Because Vision 2015 aspires for Delaware to have a "world-class system," it anticipates comparing its performance not only against Delaware's past, but also, against the performance of other states and countries. Vision 2015 expects to publish annual measurements. Visions 2015 imagines: