Source: http://regulations.delaware.gov/register/july2006/final/10%20DE%20Reg%2089%2007-01-06.htm
Timestamp: 2017-12-14 21:01:34
Document Index: 466154534

Matched Legal Cases: ['§1220', '§154', '§122', '§154', '§6301', '§6301', '§6301', '§6301']

10 DE Reg 89 07-01-06
Statutory Authority: 14 Delaware Code, Sections 1220(a) (14 Del.C. §1220(a))
The Secretary of Education seeks the consent of the State Board of Education to amend 14 DE Admin. Code 103 Accountability for Schools, Districts and the State in order to amend sections 3.0, 4.1, 5.0, 6.6, 7.1.1 and 7.1.2. The amendment to 3.0 will enable school districts to choose to either track students back to the school of residence or to make the school that is providing the instruction the accountability school for students in an intradistrict intensive learning center or intradistrict special school or program. The school district is required to notify the Department of Education of its decision by May 15, 2006 and the decision must remain in effect for the second year. The amendment to 4.1 will require schools to use the highest test scores a student receives in the AYP calculation when the student is tested a second time as part of the state mandated summer school program. The amendment to 5.0 allows for the composite score for the State Progress Determination to be a two year average or current year, whichever is higher. The amendment in 6.6 adds the Academic Watch category. The amendments to 7.1.1 and 7.1.2 require that Title I schools provide supplemental services to students in Year 1 of School Improvement and federal school choice and supplemental services in Year 2 of School Improvement. The amendments to 4.1 and 7.1.1 and 7.1.2 are subject to federal approval of amendments made to the State’s Accountability Workbook for the federal ESEA Act.
A statement concerning monitoring of student assignments by the Department of Education has been added to 3.1.
Notice of the proposed regulation was published in the News Journal and the Delaware State News on April 24, 2006, in the form hereto attached as Exhibit “A”. Comments were received from the Governor’s Advisory Council for Exceptional Children and the State Council for Persons with Disabilities. The Councils objected to amendment 3.1 that grants districts the option of counting intradistrict ILC, special school, and special school program students with the “home school” or the receiving ILC, special school or special school program. The Department’s response is as follows. This change was one that was recommended by the statewide No Child Left Behind Stakeholder group. The DOE agreed to submit the recommended change to the U.S. Department of Education and to change the regulations for determining accountability accordingly. For this group of students, the funding does follow the child and goes to the school providing the instruction. Similarly, districts argued that staff providing the instructional services to these children should be included in the accountability process and this change ensures that.
Further, the Department has added a provision to section 3.1 clarifying that the Department will monitor the assignment to ensure students in tuition based programs are appropriately assigned.
The Councils also opposed the proposed amendment to 3.1 as a potential violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and ADA. The Department’s response is as follows. The students in alternative settings as described by section 3.1 are placed in such settings for a pre-determined length of time usually not exceeding 180 school days or one school year. Clearly these placements are transitory ones. Further, the funding for these students remains with the school of residence unlike students in tuition based special schools or programs.
The Secretary finds that it is appropriate to amend 14 DE Admin. Code 103 in order to enable school districts to choose to either track students back to the school of residence or to make the school that is providing the instruction the accountability school for students in an intradistrict intensive learning center or intradistrict special school or program. The amendments will also require that Title I schools provide supplemental services to students in Year 1 of School Improvement and federal school choice and supplemental services in Year 2 of School Improvement.
For the foregoing reasons, the Secretary concludes that it is appropriate to amend 14 DE Admin. Code 103. Therefore, pursuant to 14 Del.C. §154,155 and 156, 14 DE Admin. Code 103 attached hereto as Exhibit “B” is hereby amended. Pursuant to the provision of 14 Del.C. §122(e), 14 DE Admin. Code 103 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.
The text of 14 DE Admin. Code 103 amended hereby shall be in the form attached hereto as Exhibit “B”, and said regulation shall be cited as 14 DE Admin. Code 103 in the Administrative Code of Regulations for the Department of Education.
The actions hereinabove referred to were taken by the Secretary pursuant to 14 Del.C. §154,155 and 156 on June 15, 2006. 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 June 2006.
Approved this 15th day of June 2006
1.1 Accountability: All public schools, including charter schools, reorganized and vocational technical career technical school districts and the state shall be subject to the calculation and reporting of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as prescribed by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), 20 U.S. C.A. §6301 et seq. Additionally, public schools, including charter schools, reorganized and vocational technical career technical school districts shall be subject to the applicable rewards, sanctions and other accountability activities as prescribed in this regulation.
7 DE Reg. 57 (7/1/03)
2.1 Adequate Yearly Progress shall be determined by the Department of Education for all public schools, including charter schools, reorganized and vocational technical career technical school districts and the State on an annual basis. In order for a public school, including a charter school, reorganized or career technical school district or the State to meet AYP, the aggregate student population and each subgroup of students as identified in ESEA, must meet or exceed the target for percent proficient using a confidence interval to be determined by the Department of Education in the state assessments of reading and language arts and mathematics; 95% of the students as an aggregate and within each subgroup must participate in the state assessments of reading and language arts and mathematics, and the respective entity must meet the requirements of the Other Academic Indicator(s) as defined in 2.6. In calculating the percent proficient each year, the state will average the most recent two years of percent proficient (including the current year’s percent proficient) and compare the results to the current year percent proficient. The highest percent proficient score will be used to determine the school, district or State AYP status.
2.8 Intermediate Target: There shall be seven intermediate targets with the first intermediate target occurring in the 2004-2005 school year. The second intermediate target shall occur in 2006-2007; the third in 2008-2009; the fourth in 2009-2010; the fifth in 2010-2011, the sixth in 2011-2012 and the seventh in 2012-2013. By the end of the school year 2013-2014, all students in all subgroups shall be proficient in reading and language arts and mathematics. The intermediate targets shall be calculated using the procedures as prescribed by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), 20 U.S.C.A. §6301 et seq.
2.9 Starting Point: A single statewide starting point shall be calculated for reading and language arts and a single statewide starting point shall be calculated for mathematics using the procedures as prescribed by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), 20 U.S.C.A. §6301 et seq.
2.11.5 Under Improvement: A school or district shall be deemed Under Improvement if AYP is not met two consecutive years in the same content area of reading and English language arts or mathematics for percent proficient or for participation rate, or if a school or district in the aggregate does not meet the requirements of the Other Academic Indicator(s) as defined in 2.6.
3.0 Accountability School and/or and Accountability District
For AYP purposes, the school or district to which a student's performance is assigned for a full academic year shall be the Accountability School or District. No student shall have his/her performance assigned to more than one Accountability School/District School or Accountability District in a given school year.
3.1 For a student enrolled in an intradistrict intensive learning center or intradistrict special school or program, intradistrict special school, or intradistrict special school program operating within one or more existing school facilities, the school of residence shall be considered the Accountability School for the student the district has the option of tracking the assessment scores of the students back to the school of residence or to the school or program that is providing the instruction. The school or program shall be the Accountability School. The district shall communicate its decision regarding this option to the State Department of Education by May 15, 2006. The option that the district decides for accountability purposes for one year must remain the same for the second year. [Further provided, the State Department of Education will monitor the assignment of students to ensure students are appropriately assigned.] For a student enrolled in interdistrict special schools or programs that have an agreement to serve students from multiple school districts, the special school that provides the instructional program shall be considered the Accountability School for that student. For district accountability purposes, the district of residence shall be the district to which these special school students are included for accountability.
3.2 For a student enrolled in an alternative program pursuant to 14 Del.C. Ch.16 or the Delaware Adolescent Program, the Accountability School or District shall be the school/district that assigned such student to the program or the school district school or district of residence. The time the students were enrolled in the alternative or transitional program shall be credited to the Accountability School or District.
3.3 For a student who participates in a choice program the Accountability School/District School or District shall be the school or district to which the student has choiced.
3.4 For accountability purposes, a school shall be considered a new school if: less than sixty percent of the students would have been enrolled in the same school together without the creation of the new school; or it is the first year of operation of a charter school; or two or more grade levels have been added to the school or to a charter school’s charter.
3.5 If a school is determined not to be a new school, the school shall receive the accountability rating and related consequences of the school in which the majority of students would attend in that year.
4.2 A student who tests with non-aggreable non aggregable conditions as defined in the Department of Education's Guidelines for the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities and Students with Limited English Proficiency shall have his/her earned performance level included in the calculation of AYP.
4.3 For accountability purposes a student who tests but does not meet attemptedness rules as defined in the Department of Education's scoring specifications or otherwise receives an invalid score shall be deemed as not meeting proficiency.
4.4 A student participating in alternate assessments shall have her/his earned performance level included in the AYP calculation consistent with the regulations as prescribed by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) 20 U.S. C.A. §6301 et seq. or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
4.5 Schools with more than one tested grade shall receive a single accountability rating.
4.6 Student performance in a tested grade shall be apportioned in equal weights to each grade in a standards cluster, except that Kindergarten shall be weighted at 10% and grade 10 shall be weighted at 100%. Beginning with the school year 2005-2006 students in grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 will count 100%. Students in grade 3 will continue to be weighted to each grade in the K to 3 standards cluster.
4.7 For AYP purposes the reading and language arts percent proficient shall be based on a combination of the reading and writing DSTP assessments. The reading percent proficient scores shall be weighted to count 90% and the writing percent proficient scores shall be weighted to count 10%.
4.8 For AYP purposes, the mathematics percent proficient shall be based on 100% of the DSTP mathematics assessment.
Each school and district shall receive a State Progress Determination of Above Target, Meets Target or Below Target. The State Progress shall be determined by improvement in the composite score of the reading, mathematics, science and social studies DSTP assessments combined. The composite score range shall be from 25 to 125 and is determined by the following formula: Composite Score = 25 (reading score x reading weight) + (math score x math weight) + (science score x science weight) + (social studies score x social studies weight) where: Reading score = (5 x % of students in level 5 in reading) + (4 x % of students in level 4 in reading) + (3 x % of students in level 3 in reading) + (2 x % of students in level 2 in reading) + (1 x % of students in level 1 in reading); Math score = (5 x % of students in level 5 in math) + (4 x % of students in level 4 in math) + (3 x % of students in level 3 in math) + (2 x % of students in level 2 in math) + (1 x % of students in level 1 in math)]; Science score = (5 x % of students in level 5 in science) + (4 x % of students in level 4 in science) + (3 x % of students in level 3 in science) + (2 x % of students in level 2 in science) + (1 x % of students in level 1 in science); Social Studies = (5 x % of students in level 5 in social studies) + (4 x % of students in level 4 in social studies) + (3 x % of students in level 3 in social studies) + (2 x % of students in level 2 in social studies) + (1 x % of students in level 1 in social studies). Each of the subject areas shall be weighted equally at 25%. A two year average of the composite score shall be used if it is higher than the current year’s composite score.
5.1 Above Target shall mean that the school or district has a minimum composite score of 75.00 for the current year; or the school or district has demonstrated a growth of 6.00 or more points when comparing last year’s composite score to the current year’s composite score provided the composite score is 45.00 or more.
5.2 Meets Target shall mean that the school or district with a composite score of 61.00 or less than 75.00 in the current year, shall demonstrate a growth of 1.00 or more points when comparing last year’s composite score to the current year’s composite score. For a school or district with a composite score of 45.00 but less than 61.00 in the current year, the school or district shall demonstrate a growth of 2.00 or more points when comparing last year’s composite score to the current year’s composite score.
5.3 Below Target shall mean that the school or district has a composite score of less than 45.00; or the school or district does not meet the criteria of 5.2.
Schools and districts shall receive one of five levels of performance classification annually which shall be based on a combination of AYP determinations and State Progress determinations.
6.1 Superior: A school or district's performance is deemed excellent. Schools or districts in this category shall have met AYP while the school or district is not Under Improvement and is a combination of Above Target for AYP and Above Target for State Progress or Above Target for AYP and Meets Target for State Progress or Meets Target for AYP and Above Target for State Progress.
6.2 Commendable: A school or district's performance is deemed above average. Schools or districts in this category shall have met AYP while the school or district is not Under Improvement. Combinations of Above Target for AYP and Below Target for State Progress or Meets Target for AYP and Meets Target for State Progress shall be rated as Commendable. A school or district with a combination of Meets Target for AYP and Below Target for State Progress shall be determined Commendable for no more than one year; if this same combination exists for the school or district in the following year, the school or district shall be rated Academic Review.
6.3 Academic Review: A school or district’s performance is deemed acceptable. Schools or districts in this category are not Under Improvement. Combinations of: Below Target for AYP and Above Target for State Progress; or Below Target for AYP and Meets Target for State Progress shall be rated as Academic Review for no more than one year; if the same combination exists for the school or district in the following year, the school or district shall be rated Academic Progress unless the provisions of 6.5 or 6.6 are met. A school or district with a combination of Below Target for AYP and Below Target for State Progress shall be rated as Academic Review unless the provisions of 6.5 and 6.6 are met.
6.4 Academic Progress: A school or district’s performance is deemed as needing improvement. Schools or districts in this category shall not be Under Improvement as defined in 2.11.5.
6.5 Academic Progress Under Improvement: A school or district's performance is deemed as needing improvement. Schools or districts in this category shall have met AYP for one year while the school or district is Under Improvement. If a school or district was classified as Academic Watch the prior year, all accountability sanctions from that prior year remain in effect.
6.6 Academic Watch: A school or district’s performance is deemed as unsatisfactory. Schools or districts in this category shall not be Under Improvement as defined in 2.11.5.
6.67 Academic Watch-Under Watch Under Improvement: A school or district’s performance is deemed as unsatisfactory. Schools or districts in this category shall not have met AYP for two or more consecutive years in the same content area as described in 2.11.5 and shall be Under Improvement.
7.0 Schools and Districts that are classified as Under Improvement
7.1.1 Under Improvement Year 1, Aa school shall review and modify its current School Improvement Plan outlining additional specific school improvement activities to be implemented beginning in this same year. A school designated as Title I shall implement federal ESEA Choice provide supplemental services to students according to the federal ESEA requirements. The school shall follow the district Federal ESEA Choice Program. Schools not designated as Title I shall give priority, as appropriate, within their extra time services to students in those subgroups that have not met the target for percent proficient in the reading/language arts [and or] mathematics assessments.
7.1.2 Under Improvement Year 2, Aa school shall continue to review and modify the School Improvement Plan as needed. A school designated as Title I shall continue to offer federal ESEA Choice. In addition a Title I school shall provide supplemental services according to the federal ESEA requirements. Schools not designated as Title I shall give priority, as appropriate, within their extra time services to students in those subgroups that have not met the target for percent proficient in the reading and language arts and/or [and or] mathematics assessments.
7.1.3 Under Improvement Year 3. Aa school shall continue with the activities as per 7.1.2. In addition, all schools shall be subject to corrective action as outlined by federal ESEA requirements.
7.1.4 Under Improvement Year 4, Aa school shall continue with the activities as per 7.1.3. In addition, the school shall develop a plan for restructuring as outlined by federal ESEA requirements and submit such plan to the Secretary of Education. The Secretary of Education shall investigate the reasons for the continued deficiency of the school’s performance and shall consult with the State Board of Education prior to making comment.
7.1.5 Under Improvement Year 5, Aa school shall continue with the activities as per 7.1.2. In addition, the school shall implement the restructuring plan as outlined by federal ESEA requirements.
7.2.1 Under Improvement Year 1, Aa district shall develop and implement a District Improvement Plan.
7.2.2 Under Improvement Year 2, Aa district shall evaluate and modify the District Improvement Plan and shall incorporate such plan into the Consolidated Application.
7.2.3 Under Improvement Year 3, Aa district shall continue with the activities outlined in 7.2.2. In addition the district shall develop a corrective action plan as outlined by Federal ESEA requirements and submit such plan to the Secretary of Education. The Secretary of Education shall investigate the reasons for the continued deficiency of the district’s performance and shall consult with the State Board of Education prior to making comment.
7.2.4 Under Improvement Year 4, Aa district shall continue with the activities as outlined in 7.2.3. In addition the district and the Department of Education shall evaluate the corrective action plan and make appropriate modifications as needed.
A school or district may review school or district level data, including academic assessment data upon which the proposed classification is based. The school or district shall present statistical evidence or other substantive reasons why the classification should be changed before the final classification will be determined.
8.1 The school or district must file a written notice of review with the Secretary no later than 15 calendar days after receiving preliminary notification of its proposed classification. The request for review shall state with specificity the grounds for the review, and shall be signed by the principal or lead authority of the school, or the signature of the Superintendent of the district. This request for review shall include all supporting evidence and documentation and shall be clear and concise.
8.2 Upon receipt of a written notice of review, the Department of Education shall conduct a review of the evidence or other substantive reasons presented by the school or district.
8.3 The Department of Education shall make a final determination within 30 calendar days from the written notice of review on the proposed classification of the school or district based on the evidence or other substantive reasons presented by the school or district.
10 DE Reg. 89 (07/01/06) (Final)