ADOPTED

New Business Item #2

Presented to the
2014 DSEA RA Delegates
Shirin Skovronski would like to petition the Delaware State Education Association (DSEA) to support the
following actions in 2014:
Create a task force from April to December, 2014 that will:
1) investigate the number of incidents of violence in schools in 2011- 2014 where a student committed a
physically violent act against any person in that school, and make a record of these incidents and the results
of that behavior.
2) make a plan for meeting with legislators about the increased number of students committing violent acts
against someone in a school (student or adult), while still being allowed to stay in school after committing
such acts.
3) meet with school boards to request their code of conducts/ student manuals require alternative placement
which includes mental health counseling for any student who commits a physically violent act against any
person in a school.
4) Have the task force report results at the end of May, October, and December about what they have
accomplished.

Rationale:
Recently, there has been an increase in acts of violence in schools, and students are being allowed to
remain in the schools after physically attacking another person in that school, whether it is a student or an
adult in the building. Such an atmosphere is not safe for our students, nor is it conducive to learning. The
safety of the many has to be protected. We need to find solutions to reducing these aggressive acts in our
schools.

ADOPTED
New Business Item #3
Submitted by Mike Matthews
Seconded by Jackie Kook
To the DSEA Representative Assembly
Resolution on Parental Opt-Out of High-Stakes Testing
WHEREAS, our nation's future well-being relies on a high-quality public education system that prepares
all students for college, careers, citizenship and lifelong learning, and strengthens the nation's social and
economic well-being; and
WHEREAS, our nation's school systems have been spending growing amounts of time, money and
energy on high-stakes standardized testing, in which student performance on standardized tests is used to
make major decisions affecting individual students, educators and schools; and
WHEREAS, the over-reliance on high-stakes standardized testing in state and federal accountability
systems is undermining educational quality and equity in U.S. public schools by hampering educators'
efforts to focus on the broad range of learning experiences that promote the innovation, creativity,
problem solving, collaboration, communication, critical thinking and deep subject-matter knowledge that
will allow students to thrive in a democracy and an increasingly global society and economy; and
WHEREAS, it is widely recognized that standardized testing is an inadequate and often unreliable
measure of both student learning and educator effectiveness; and
WHEREAS, the over-emphasis on standardized testing has caused considerable collateral damage in too
many schools, including narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, reducing love of learning, pushing
students out of school, driving excellent teachers out of the profession, and undermining school climate;
and
WHEREAS, high-stakes standardized testing has negative effects for students from all backgrounds, and
especially for low-income students, English language learners, children of color, and those with
disabilities; and
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has, on multiple occasions, reaffirmed a parents
fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their child (Pierce vs. Society of Sisters)
and that parents have the powerto control the education of their own (Meyer vs. Nebraska); and
WHEREAS, parents of students in our educational system should have the right to opt their children out
of onerous free from consequence or threats from the local education agency or the state Department of
Education.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Delaware State Education Association:

1) Supports parents rights to opt-out their children from time-consuming standardized tests; and

2) Support a teachers right to inform parents of their right to opt their children out of standardized
testing free from disciplinary action;
3) Supports policies whereby schools and teachers impacted by students opting out will not be
penalized in the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) ratings and teacher evaluations; and
4) Will lobby at the State level to support legislation codifying parents rights to opt their children
out of standardized testing; and
Approved and adopted the 15th day of March, 2014. I, the undersigned, hereby certify that the
Representative Assembly of the Delaware State Education Association duly adopted the foregoing
resolution.

__________________________________________________________________
Frederika Jenner, President,
Delaware State Education Association

ADOPTED
NEW BUSINESS ITEM #4
PRESENTED TO THE
2014 DSEA RA DELEGATES
BY THE DSEA EXECUTIVE BOARD
WHEREAS IT HAS BEEN DEMONSTRATED THAT:
1. The Delaware Performance Appraisal System II-Revised (DPAS II-R) includes a fifth
component Student Improvement which provides as follows: Measuring Student Improvement:
Students collectively demonstrate appropriate levels of Student Growth as benchmarked against
standards to be set by the Secretary based on input from stakeholder groups 14 Del. Admin. C
106A-5.1.5;
2. Excessive use of high stakes testing causes stress and anxiety in students, families, and educators;
3. Evaluation systems based on specific aspects of teacher actions, such as planning, instructing, and
conducting other professional duties, have been shown in research as stand-alone indicators of
educator success and predictors of student achievement; and,
4. Educators desire fair evaluations with constructive, meaningful feedback from trained evaluators
in conjunction with multiple methods of evaluating student learning:

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE DELAWARE STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION SUPPORTS:
1. Leading an initiative to research and identify efficient methods of evaluating educational
professionals based on the expectations of the positions held, as opposed to a standardized
approach, with a built-in review and revision policy;
2. Working with groups of educational professionals to research and craft legitimate, proven methods
of evaluating student growth in the various educationally-related fields with an end goal of
reducing the instructional time lost to multiple high-stakes tests given to students;
3. A moratorium on Component V as tied to evaluations of all educational professionals in the State
of Delaware until such time as a fair, valid, and reliable method of evaluating student growth in
each of the educationally-related fields can be determined by the experts in these fields; and,
4. DSEA President Frederika Jenner sending a letter (attached) to the members of the Delaware
House and Senate Education Committees on Monday, March 31, 2014 calling for said
moratorium.

ADOPTED
NEW BUSINESS ITEM #5
PRESENTED TO THE
2014 DSEA RA DELEGATES
DSEA will advocate to the Delaware Legislature and the Department of Education to fund the placement
of a full-time paraprofessional in each kindergarten class that has 10 or more students without replacing
any other existing teacher or paraprofessional unit(s).

ADOPTED
NEW BUSINESS ITEM 6
PRESENTED TO THE
2014 DSEA RA DELEGATES
DSEA will express NO confidence in the current implementation of the Common Core State Standards
(CCSS). DSEA will petition the Legislature, Secretary of Education, and the Governor to postpone
implementation of the CCSS until such time that teachers in all districts can develop effective lessons, and
receive appropriate, rigorous resources, and tests. Furthermore, the implementation of the Smarter
Balanced test battery will not be used in Component V ratings.