WHEREAS, Delaware has the opportunity to collaborate with other states and enhance the current assessment system focusing on student learning and achievement, timely results, effective use of resources, and measurement of improvement for students, schools, districts and the State; and

WHEREAS, parents are critical partners in student success and need clear, easily understood information about their child’s current achievement, areas for improvement, and rate of academic growth compared to the State and national averages; and

WHEREAS, Delaware has an assessment system that has been approved through the U. S. Department of Education’s Peer Review as effectively meeting the requirement of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to measure students’ learning; and

WHEREAS, Delaware wants to expand beyond the NCLB requirements to help schools and districts in using assessments to development instructional strategies and supports for individual students; and

WHEREAS, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), commonly known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is currently going through the process of reauthorization and is scheduled to be reauthorized this fall for the following five (5) years; and

WHEREAS, Delaware is one (1) of only five (5) states approved by the U. S. Department of Education to participate in an accountability system pilot based on a growth model and the results of the first year of that pilot will be available by September, 2007; and

WHEREAS, the Vision 2015 collaboration is conducting a study of cost effectiveness for public education with a report due December 1, 2007; and

WHEREAS, as requested by the Controller General and Budget Director, the Department of Education has worked with Delaware’s current testing system vendor to develop an extension of the current contract to December 31, 2010; and

WHEREAS, the Delaware Department of Education is providing leadership in the establishment of a national effort through the Council of Chief State School Officers, the National Governors’ Association and other major education partners to construct voluntary national standards and collaborative, cross-statement assessment systems; and

WHEREAS, Delaware is involved with the New England Compact (Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island) to learn from their interstate collaborative of standards and assessments; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Education is working with Achieve, Inc. and the Council of Chief State School Officers to participate in an international benchmarking study of the State’s content standards; and

WHEREAS, the General Assembly directed the Department of Education to craft a comprehensive, statewide recommended curriculum and to hold districts accountable for alignment to this curriculum; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Education has developed such a statewide recommended curriculum with grade level expectations, guidance on classroom-based assessments and model units of instruction with the final rollout to be completed by September, 2007; and

WHEREAS, the General Assembly established an Assessment Task Force through HJR 4 with Senate Amendment 2 and that Assessment Task Force worked diligently to study, deliberate and make recommendations concerning Delaware’s Student Testing program; and

WHEREAS, in May, 2006, the Assessment Task Force submitted a report to the General Assembly for their consideration.

NOW, THEREFORE:

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the 144^th General Assembly of the State of Delaware, the Senate concurring therein, that a Task Force be created for the purposes of developing and approving the Request(s) for Proposals for the next Delaware student assessment system for reading, mathematics, writing, science and social studies, such task Force consisting of the following members:

(1) Chairpersons of the Senate and House Education Committees, who shall act as Co-chairs of the Task Force;

(2) One (1) member appointed by the Delaware Senate president Pro Tempore;

(3) One (1) member appointed by the Delaware Speaker of the House;

(4) Secretary of Education or designee;

(5) Associate Secretary of Assessment and Accountability or designee;

(6) One (1) member appointed by the State Board of Education;

(7) Two (2) representatives of the Delaware State Education Association, one (1) of whom must be a current classroom teacher;

(8) Three (3) Superintendents, one (1) from each county, appointed by the Delaware Chief School Officers Association;

(9) Three (3) parents, one (1) from each county, appointed by the Education Committee of the House and Senate;

(10) One (1) charter school leader, appointed by the Delaware Charter School Network;

(11) One (1) school board member appointed by the Delaware School Boards Association’s Board of Directors;

(12) Two (2) building level administrators appointed b the Delaware Association of School Administrators;

(13) One (1) representative of Vision 2015 appointed by their Chair;

(14) One (1) representative of the Delaware P-20 Council appointed by their Chair;

(15) One (1) representative of Delaware colleges and universities, appointed by the Delaware Higher Education Commission; and

(16) The Budget Director of the State of Delaware.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Task Force shall use the May, 2006 Assessment Task Force report as the starting recommendations in working to ensure that the statewide pupil assessment system:

(1) is cost effective and, to the full extent possible, is developed in common or in collaboration with other states;

(2) provides more useful information to teachers, students, and parents regarding each student’s current achievement and instructional needs;

(3) returns scores as expeditiously as possible;

(4) consists of end-of-year assessments in elementary grades and five end-of-course assessments in high school, one (1) of which must be a writing assessment;

(5) transitions Delaware as soon as possible to online testing in order to ensure faster scoring and reduced printing costs; and

(6) is ready for use as a comprehensive new assessment system, no later than the end of the 2010-2011 school year.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Task Force shall submit the Request(s) for Proposals for the next state assessment system to the President pro Tempore, Speaker of the House and Governor by May 15, 2008.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that financial and administrative support for the Task Force shall be provided by the General Assembly.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a simple majority of the members of the Task Force shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of all Task Force business and all decisions of the task Force shall be approved by the affirmative vote of a simple majority of its members.

SPONSOR:	Rep. Lofink & Sen. Sokola