Delaware State Profile

Lead Agency and Contact

The Delaware Adult Education professional development system is based on state and federal goals, technical assistance determined through peer monitoring and state review of performance data. The Adult Community Educators (ACE) Network Resource Center and the Adult Education and Workforce Development Branch of the Delaware Department of Education provide Professional Development opportunities and resources.

STAR Pilot

Delaware is implementing STAR in Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs operating in communities and in correctional settings. We are piloting the program at seven community sites and four prisons. ABE program policies and procedures are consistent across the state regardless of location. However delivery format varies dependent on site logistics. Community ABE classes are generally two to three hours two to four times a week. Prison education classes operate for one and a half to three hours five days a week year round.

Consequently, DE rolled out a two-prong approach to STAR. Community programs are reviewing student reading assessment data and administering at least one component of the training with instructional follow-up. For FY 08, these teachers will focus on better understanding the four reading components, discovering how to integrate assessment and instruction into currently operating programs, piloting various components of the assessment process, reviewing data, and developing instruction for follow-up. The results of these pilots will help program administrators plan for implementation in FY 09.

A more intensive and comprehensive pilot of STAR will occur in the Prison Education Program. Prison Ed is using STAR as the basis for its FY 08 "Strategic Educational Improvement Team (SEIT)", an annual professional development project conducted by all prisons. Implementation of STAR will be the first time that the same SEIT project will be conducted by all four prisons simultaneously. At each prison, teachers have developed into teams led by SEIT chairpersons. Each academic teacher will use the STAR assessment process and the four STAR components to improve reading levels in at least three focus students during a 9-10 weeks period. Each student will be pre and post tested using the TABE and in all of the four STAR components. Appropriate instruction will follow. At a recent Prison Ed Staff Development Day, progress on STAR was discussed with all prison teachers.

To assist teachers in both community and prison programs, resources are being purchased. A listserv for STAR participants has been created and some teachers are using it to collaborate and share resources.

FY 08 will serve as a pilot phase to determine how to best integrate STAR into our instructional programs, determine resources necessary for implementation, and discover the reading areas in which staff development would be beneficial.

A SEIT report with the results of the project will be presented in July 2008.

• Baylor Women's Correctional Institution
  Wilmington, DE

• Howard R. Young Correctional Institution
  Wilmington, DE

• Delaware Correctional Center
  Smyrna . DE

• Sussex Correctional Institution
  Georgetown , DE

• Appoquinimink J. H. Groves Adult High School
  Middletown , DE

• New Castle County Vo Tech J.H. Groves Adult High School
  Wilmington , DE

• Kent/Sussex Even Start/ELL
  Harrington , DE

• Polytech J.H. Groves Adult High School
  Woodside , DE

• NEW START-Adult Learning Program
  Odessa , DE

• DTCC- Wilmington
  Wilmington , DE

• OAASIS
  Bear, DE

• Sussex Tech J.H. Groves Adult High School
  Georgetown, DE

• DTCC-Terry
  Dover , DE