Student Success 2025

Moving the Vision for Education in Delaware Forward

The Vision Coalition of Delaware
A public-private partnership composed of a broad range of Delawareans
The goal is to prepare every student in Delaware for a lifetime of success
developed the Vision 2015 plan in 2006
In 2014, 4,000 Delawareans contributed to the development of a plan for the next decadeincluding 1,000
students.
Student Success 2025
10-year vision for public education in Delaware
focused on the skills and attributes every educated Delawarean should have by 2025and the
strategies to achieve that vision
Great progress has been achieved, and Student Success 2025 builds on the foundation of success.
Action has been taken on more than 75 percent of the recommendations in the Vision 2015 plan,
including
higher academic standards
greater investments in teacher and principal preparation and support
investments in quality improvements in early childhood education.
Policy shifts have resulted in better outcomes for students, including increases in
children in high-quality early learning environments
students in foreign language immersion programs
AP course taking and passing
students applying, attending, and succeeding in higher education
new student career pathways to link schools and business in areas such as healthcare to
advanced manufacturing
But Delaware can and must do better to prepare all kids for success in life. We need them to be more
prepared for careers, postsecondary education, and active citizenship, particularly in a world that is changing
quickly around them. We still have a long way to go to close achievement and opportunity gaps between
Delawares low- and higher-income students, and between Delaware students and those in other countries.
Changing demographics, leaps in technology, and constrained resources create new challenges. Every child in
Delaware deserves options for his or her future and to be ready for whatever tomorrow holds.
To get involved and learn more, please join us at the:

Launch of Student Success 2025 on September 16 at 10:00 a.m. at the Delaware Technical
Community College Dover Campus Conference Center

Eighth Annual Conference on Education on October 28 at Clayton Hall at the University of

Delaware

Visit www.visioncoalitionde.org and follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/VisionCoalitionDE, and

on Twitter @VCDelaware to register for events, find out how to get involved, check out videos of
Delaware students, and find out more information.

Student Success 2025 FAQ

Process
How does Student Success 2025 relate to ED25?
Throughout 2014, Delawareans weighed in on a draft vision for the future of education in Delaware in 2025
(ED25). The culmination of those efforts is a 10-year plan called Student Success 2025.

Was my feedback incorporated into Student Success 2025?

The Vision Coalition Leadership Team worked to incorporate the public input and strengthen the vision.
Developing the final plan Student Success 2025 took months of thoughtful consideration.

The North Star, the beacon for all the recommendations included in the plan, is a distillation of
Delawareans responses to the question, What skills and attributes should an educated Delawarean
have in 2025?
Delawareans emphasized the importance of focusing on the students, which inspired the title of the
report. The Leadership Team worked to put students at the center of the work and frame the plan around
how to help students be prepared for a lifetime of success. Check out the videos of students from across
the state talking about aspects of the plan in their own words.
Other major themes included providing support for the whole childincluding social and emotional
support; encouraging collaboration across sectors, grade levels, and between families and schools;
elevating the value of the teaching profession in the community; securing funding that is adequate,
flexible, and equitable; and more.

How much money did the Vision Coalition invest in the production and promotion of Student Success
2025?
The resources contributed to the project include:
The time of 4,000 Delawareans who contributed to the plan
Hundreds of hours of loaned staff capacity from the full range of public and private leadership team
organizations to help staff meetings, take notes, share information with their stakeholders, and host
meetings
Financial contributions by the Delaware Business Roundtable Education Committee, J. P. Morgan
Chase, and the Rodel Foundation of Delaware to support meetings, printed materials, and
communications and policy experts that worked with the Leadership Team

People
Were classroom teachers involved in the creation of Student Success 2025?
Classroom teachers were engaged in developing the plan on each of the six Working Groups and the Steering
Committee, as well as in development sessions. The DSEA Executive Leadership Team, State and District
Teachers of the Year, and Rodel Teacher Council contributed to the plan.

Were parents consulted involved in the creation of Student Success 2025?

The president of the PTA served on the Steering Committee, and multiple PTA leadership team members served
on Working Groups. The majority of those serving on the leadership groups are parents themselves, and several
community organizations representing families were involved, including the Christina Cultural Arts Center, Latin
American Community Center, West Side Grows, and Children and Families First.

How is the special education community represented in Student Success 2025?

All Delaware students should have access to a world-class education, no matter what their academic abilities and
challenges may be.
The tenets of personalized learning draw from several principles of special education, particularly the idea that
each student has unique strengths, needs, challenges, and interests. In addition, a personalized learning
environment often incorporates technology to assist students in their learning, much the way assistive technology
functions for special education students.
The report also proposes a shift in how Delaware funds education to become more responsive to individual
students needs, which would help to ensure that schools receive the appropriate resources to best serve
education students.
How will Delawares next Governor and secretary of education impact the recommendations set forth in
Student Success 2025?
We look forward to working with the next governor, secretary of education, State Board of Education, and others
to implement the many opportunities in this plan. Many of the likely candidates have been engaged in improving
education in their current and previous roles. The hope in creating a shared long term vision for our schools is to
ensure that there is an understanding of the work underway and a general agreement on the priorities ahead so
that we can build on whats working and move forward.

Plan
How is this different from Vision 2015?
As a state, we have acted on the majority of the recommendations put forth in Vision 2015. With Student
Success, we look ahead to a future world very different than 10 years ago or today, informed by our rapid
advancements in technology, shifts in global competition, and changing demographics. Additionally, Student
Success 2025 focuses attention on postsecondary success, personalized learning, and other subject areas not
covered in Vision 2015.

Did Vision 2015 work?

Great progress has been achieved, and Student Success 2025 builds on the foundation of success.
Action has been taken on more than 75 percent of the recommendations in the Vision 2015 plan,
including
higher academic standards
greater investments in teacher and principal preparation and support
investments in quality improvements in early childhood education.
Policy shifts have resulted in better outcomes for students, including increases in
children in high-quality early learning environments
students in foreign language immersion programs
AP course taking and passing
students applying, attending, and succeeding in higher education

new student career pathways to link schools and business in areas such as healthcare to
advanced manufacturing

We have made progress in some of the core areas, such as early childhood. In 2006, the Stars quality rating
system did not exist, and today the majority of centers participate and low-income children participate in high
quality programs. We have financial awards for low-wage staff, and we have provided facility, continuing
educational, and technology capacity improvements to providers. Other areas, such as funding, have not seen as
much progress.

How much will it cost to implement the recommendations in Student Success 2025?
Implementing the plan will take significant resources, especially for expanding services for and meeting the needs
to the changing demographics of our students. Our low-income population in Delaware has grown by 68 percent
in the last decade, and special education population has grown by 14 percent.
However, the 10-year vision will not be implemented all at once, will require tough choices about the resources
we have today, and may need to be piloted in some areas before taken to scale.
Many of the ideas in Student Success 2025 involve finding efficiencies and offsets in existing budgets. For
example, as more open educational resources become available online, textbooks and digital content may
become less expensive. Districts already are sharing resources and utilizing purchasing in areas such as
professional development and technology.
The recommendations should serve as a guiding framework for how we can accelerate our efforts to build a more
coherent and high performing system of public education, over time.

What needs to happen first?

Action on these recommendations will take all of us working together. Some of these recommendations are
already underway and others will need champions to take off. To learn about groups of Delawareans that are
already working on a number of areas in each category, please visit the Call to Action section of the website and
join the action groups at the Annual Vision Coalition conference on October 28.

There hasnt been much harmony when it comes to education policy in Delaware lately. What makes this
any different?
The Vision Coalition Leadership Team acknowledges that major stakeholders in Delaware will not always agree
on everything. But as a collaborative group, the coalition remains committed to working together on issues that its
members do agree onwhich make up the overwhelming majorityin order to keep the work moving forward.
We accept that there will be real disagreements on the margins, but we cant let that slow us down.

Does the 2025 in Student Success 2025 indicate that we are deferring success for 10 years? Why arent
we focusing on student success now?
The 2025 in the title reflects our target goal: an education landscape 10 years in the future that better prepares
students for success in life. However, most of the hard work necessary to reach that vision can begin
immediatelyand can begin impacting student outcomes immediately. Many of the changes and initiatives
outlined in Student Success 2025 are already underway in Delaware.
While some goals may indeed take 10 years to reach, the coalition feels strongly about tackling some key shortterm priorities mentioned in Student Success 2025, including:

Continued investments in quality early learning programs and support, to build

upon the critical progress weve made
Building upon the statewide momentum in areas such as college access and
career readiness
Addressing structural revenue issues to ensure we can meet the many growing
needs in the state

Strategies will surely change and evolve over the next 10 years, but our essential commitment is to the North
Star, and to equipping our young people for the world that awaits them.