October 26, 2022

Milford Teacher Named Delaware 2023 Teacher of the Year

Milford School District Teacher Ashley Lockwood was named Delaware's 2023 State Teacher of the Year at a celebration earlier this month (more pics).

A fifth-grade teacher from the Milford School District is Delaware’s 2023 State Teacher of the Year.

Ashley Lockwood of LuLu Ross Elementary School now is Delaware’s nominee for National Teacher of the Year. She will use her position to advocate for historically underserved populations of students.

With the mindset “We repeat what we don’t repair,” Lockwood said our school systems collect many forms of data, but educators too often don’t discuss or understand the “why” behind certain data trends.

“When we break down data by racial demographic, we see year after year that a significant number of students of color are performing below proficiency levels in both reading and math despite high attendance rates and having parental support,” Lockwood said.

Lockwood started a committee in her district to bring colleagues together in this work.

“Over the course of my career, I have had the privilege of meeting and working with some of the most dedicated educators. I have learned that most of them want equitable outcomes for students of color but do not know where to begin,” she said. “In the work of educational equity, the most important point to realize is that you do not have to look like your students or have the same background in order to advocate for their needs. When I started the Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee in my district, I made it clear that the committee was not going to be made up of only staff of color but of staff who teach students of color.

“We all have the responsibility to close the opportunity gap. The first step is to understand how our own biases and past experiences may show up in our classrooms. Even in our best attempts at inclusion, we must recognize implicit biases in schools do play a significant role in the outcomes of students of color,” Lockwood said. “Recognizing our own biases through professional development, committee involvement, or self-study proves we are committed to removing the barriers that have kept students of color from advancing academically, socially and emotionally.”

Governor John Carney made the announcement during a Dover ceremony to honor the 20 district/charter teachers of the year.

Video: Meet the 20 district/charter Teachers of the Year

Twenty Delaware educators were selected from among the nearly 10,000 public school teachers in the state as nominees for the 2023 Delaware Teacher of the Year award, which was announced earlier this month in Dover. The nominees each represent one of the state's 19 school districts and network of charter schools.

Candidates were nominated by their districts or the charter network during the 2022 calendar year because of their superior ability to inspire students with a love of learning, exemplary demonstration of professional traits and strong sense of dedication and devotion to teaching. Check out this video to learn more about what makes these teachers so amazing.

Delaware Launches School Security Initiative

High-Resolution Campus Maps Will Strengthen Efforts to Protect Students and Teachers

The Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) and its Comprehensive School Safety Program will invest almost $1 million to enhance school security statewide by providing accurate and uniform maps for all of Delaware’s 19 public school districts and charter schools to enable law enforcement and first responders to react swiftly during emergencies in unfamiliar environments. Delaware’s General Assembly provided the funding this year as part of a $10 million allocation to the School Safety and Security Fund, which was originally established in 2018. Under the bill, $1 million was provided to the Department of Safety and Homeland Security for “school mapping, reporting application, and threat assessment tools.”

“These digital blueprints and maps represent a significant, tangible investment in school safety and security throughout Delaware. The goal is to ensure all emergency personnel have the best tools to communicate and collaborate in a crisis – when seconds count and lives are on the line,” said Safety and Homeland Security Secretary Nathaniel McQueen, Jr.

Delaware is partnering with Critical Response Group, a New Jersey-based firm that specializes in collecting and digitizing school building blueprints and making them available to first responders. Its proprietary Collaborative Response Graphics® (CRGs) are built upon the same tactical and operational framework used by highly trained military units. Featuring a gridded overlay map of school buildings and grounds, CRGs provide simple visual communication tools to coordinate emergency response during an incident. Easily understood during stressful situations, the maps enhance response time and improve command and control during an incident. Any changes will be updated continuously in a sharable and easily accessible format for ready access by school officials, emergency personnel, and law enforcement.

Video: October celebrates Delaware principals

Governor Carney and Lt. Governor Hall-Long join the Delaware Department of Education, the Delaware Association of School Administrators, and school principals from around the state to sign a proclamation for Principals Month this month.

Freire Charter focuses on rebuilding traditionally racist systems

REthinc Co-Founder Kenan Bishop addresses the Class of 2022 at Freire Charter School’s graduation at Frawley Stadium in June 2022.

Editor's Note: The following piece was submitted by Freire Charter School.

When Freire Schools made its Commitment to Antiracist Action in June 2020, school leaders knew that becoming an actively antiracist school network would require a sustained commitment as well as a long-term action plan that would keep them focused on racial justice long after the news cycle changed focus. 

Fortunately, ESSER provided school leaders with resources to address the needs of their individual schools and to address the unique needs of racial and ethnic minorities and low-income students.  And, Freire Charter School Wilmington believed adamantly that addressing racism and promoting equity was central to supporting and uplifting our students and preparing them to build the future.

Freire Wilmington and its partner schools in Philadelphia were able to use ESSER funds for equity-driven leadership training with REthinc (formerly Just Instruction), weekly coaching sessions and race-based affinity groups to provide staff with safe spaces to share their experiences, process feelings brought up by our work, and begin to develop a path forward.

In 2021-22, the school refined its antiracist goals to focus on: (1) raising the bar academically for all kids, (2) revisiting nonviolence policy, and (3) embracing generative conflict as a way to create new possibilities and connections. These three goals continue to guide the school's equity work.

Freire Wilmington Head of School Madeline Weckel said, “Last year was a year of big transition, as we welcomed kids back into our buildings and helped them cope with academic, social, and emotional losses from the pandemic. With all that was going on, our partnership with REthinc kept us accountable for making the sustained changes needed to grow into a fully inclusive, antiracist, multicultural school community.”

Building on the past two years of extensive training with REthinc, Freire Wilmington is now putting its commitment to action. One of the concrete action steps the school is taking is developing a cohort of staff who are skilled at restoring classrooms and the community when harm has been done and who can model these practices to the larger community. Freire Wilmington leaders are grateful that ESSER allows the school to now partner with Restorative Practices in Action (RPIA) to train a cohort of teachers and leaders in developing restorative classrooms that uplift student voice.

“We need to always remind ourselves that antiracism is a process not a product,” said Freire Schools network founder and CEO Dr. Kelly Davenport. “Our staff and leaders have shown tremendous commitment to growth and willingness to be vulnerable and to interrogate their biases, and our schools are stronger and more inclusive for it. I’m excited for this new phase of our work, and how RPIA will help us empower students to restore relationships in our schools.”

Delaware Department of Education I education.delaware.gov