On April 26, 2005 the Delaware State Board of Education and its partners, the Department of Education,the Delaware Association of School Administrators, the Delaware Principals Academy, and the State Action for Education Leadership Projectpresented a Secondary Schools Summit entitled Challenges and Opportunities.The guiding principals of secondary school redesign for the Summit included:

• Change will be student based to reflect the needs of the student, not the system;
• Change will be sustainable and systemic;
• Change will be inclusive in that everyone has a role to play and a contribution to make;
• Change will be comprehensive to minimize unintended negative consequences; and
• Change will be non-punitive, there is no blame game.

The Summit registered more than 260 individuals including parents, middle and high school teachers and administratorsas well as the district level administrators, local school board members, State Board of Education members,Department of Education officials, higher education officials, legislators, and members of the Education Consortium.

Governor Ruth Ann Minner opened the Summit and underscored the importance of the work ahead on high school re-designand higher expectations for all students so that they are well prepared for additional education and training following their high school graduation.

The day allowed for large and small group presentations as well as an afternoon forum for open discussion.

The following is a summary of the information that was provided and discussed in the course of the program.

A bibliography can be found at the end of the report that will provide additional resources to the reader.

• Secondary Schools Summit Report
• Strand 1 - Increasing Rigor
• Strand 2 - Distributed Leadership
• Strand 3 - Personalizing Learning
• Strand 4 - Creating Learning Communities
• Strand 5 - Connecting with Parents and Communities
• Strand 6 - Leaving No Child Behind

Achieve.org - Standards-Based Education Reform