Early report on city schools 'sparked outrage' for Wilmington Learning Collaborative

The Wilmington Learning Collaborative has released one of its first reports, delivering baseline "Opportunity Scorecards" across the very nine city schools it's charged with bolstering. Compiled by a third party, it was built from three-day site visits, work samples, surveys across schools and more.

Teachers did not like what they heard.

The collaborative saw nearly the first hour of its meeting Tuesday taken by public comment, as over 20 educators came to the podium at Warner Elementary School. Teachers felt "shamed" by certain core findings touted by the report, feeling it deaf to their passion, workload and challenges students face every day in Wilmington. Researchers presenting that evening stressed that was never the intent.

The citywide scorecard showed a Wilmington student spends 122 hours on grade-appropriate assignments, 87 hours of deep engagement and 80 hours of strong instruction, on average — out of about 180 hours spent in a class each year.

Only 16% of classes were reported to have teachers with "high expectations," while classes with more students of color encountered "significantly worse instruction" than those with fewer. More findings fill the report.

"I hear that the intention was never to shame teachers, but I honestly don't understand any other way that presentation could have been seen," said Maddie Geller, a reading specialist with Lewis Dual Language Elementary, speaking to show support for her building.

"To be told that supposedly fewer than 25% of us have high expectations for our students, then be asked to stay in our buildings reduced teacher turnover — just doesn't make sense. Why would we want to stay if we're told in very plain terms that we're doing a poor job? Every teacher I know has high expectations for their students."

Some came with anger, others coming to tears. Teachers described walking kids to school, addressing issues on their personal time, struggling to engage children dealing with personal trauma outside the classroom. And, many detailed a similar betrayal of trust.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a fractured fairytale," said another teacher, Valerie Jermusyk, from Bancroft. "The teachers are Red Riding Hood trying to make the grandmothers — the schools — feel better. Not just feel better by treating symptoms but by getting grandma on a path to wellness."

Then, she said, newly promised remedies seem to arrive every few years, to promise cure-alls.

"And when Red Riding Hood doesn't give the remedies to grandma, she is blamed for the failing health and told she put her own comfort ahead of grandma's," she continued. "But we don't live in a fairy tale. We have to deal with reality. And the reality is our kids are in crisis and struggling to learn."

Executive Director Laura Burgos knew this would be a difficult moment.

"For some, it sparked outrage, concerns around shaming, demoralization, absence of context, feelings of betrayal — all of these different feelings have been received," she said to the crowd, opening the meeting. "Tonight, I offer no excuses, but ownership over what the charge of the WLC is and the responsibility we have to our children, families and the adults who lead learning in our schools each day."

Burgos said she would have changed the delivery in hindsight, bringing in school partners ahead of public release, but that scorecard data was also shared with transparency and to "further motivate our collective sense of urgency."

Report writers also clarified the "high expectation" measurement further. According to nonprofit The New Teacher Project, that metric does not measure whether teachers want the best for their students — but closer to beliefs their students can master on-grade-level standards, that those standards are right for them or that their grades show mastery.

Regardless, Burgos and fellow council members repeated that they heard educator concerns, and they stressed that no one should turn away from this effort. Stepping out of an extended planning year, the collaborative is soon expected to highlight its expectations for the next year.

Absorbing feedback Tuesday, Burgos also shared plans to modify the report's presentation moving forward.

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Charting a path forward ...

Wilmington Learning Collaborative solidified in 2022, aiming to unify a fractured state of public education inside the city and combat issues long plaguing its students. It fuses efforts across three Delaware school districts and their nine inner-city schools, under north stars like mitigating low achievement and lowering absenteeism, while increasing teacher recruitment and retention.

Ahead of this academic year, Burgos was named the collaborative’s first executive director. The body just discussed $16.6 million in funding for next year in state budget talks. The educator was welcomed with smiles — and guardrails.

“For many people who looked at this, it was more of the same,” said the educator of 23 years and new Wilmington resident. “‘OK, here comes another investment.’ ‘It'll fizzle out.’ ‘What will truly change?’”

As its extended planning year winds down, that is the question. And the collaborative has begun sharing a glimpse.

'We cannot normalize failure': Wilmington Learning Collaborative eyes lofty goals ahead

Earlier this month, the group hosted one of a hoped series of community workshops. That April 3 session revealed three objectives under which the collaborative hopes to lead its shifts for Wilmington schools: "Students First, Connected Schools and Purposeful Partnerships."

Educators, a few parents and local officials participated in hands-on activities to give feedback on each potential focus area, adding to base principles set to guide the coming work. The collaborative says an official release, "putting stakes in the ground" for the next year, is soon to come.

Back in Warner this week, Burgos eventually thanked all of the educators for their candor.

"These are the conversations we need to be having to move the work forward," she said. "And of course, you've given all of us a lot to think about. The WLC is not an individual; it is a collection of communities, and we have an opportunity to make it what we want it to be."

She said they've barely scratched the surface.

Got a story? Kelly Powers covers race, culture and equity for Delaware Online/The News Journal and USA TODAY Network Northeast, with a focus on education. Contact her at kepowers@gannett.com or (231) 622-2191, and follow her on Twitter @kpowers01.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Early report on Wilmington schools 'sparked outrage' from teachers