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NEA Member, Union Leaders Join Vice President Biden at Delaware School

Tags: Beth Kudlick, Delaware State Education Association, Delaware Vice President visist, Delaware vocational schools, Diane Donohue, DSEA, Howard High, NEA Priority Schools Campaign, Vice President Joe Biden, Wilimington high school

By Cynthia McCabe

You would hope that a school where educators are welcomed to the table by school and district administrators to collaborate in the best interest of the students, and where those students’ achievements are staggering, would get a little attention some day.

That day is here for Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington, Del., as Vice President Joe Biden will join state and union leaders Monday afternoon to highlight the achievement at the career technical school. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will attend, as will Delaware Gov. Jack Markell.

He will be introduced by the school’s teacher of the year, Beth Kudlick. The English teacher spent much of the past week in disbelief that she would do the honors today.

“I’ve gone from being a single mother who just loves to teach, to being recognized as Howard’s teacher of the year, to introducing the vice president of the United States,” Kudlick said Sunday. “It’s incredible.”

Howard High School is one of four vocational schools in the county. Sixty-one percent of the 860 students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. More than half the students enter not having made grade-level math and/or reading standards on state tests.

But as they proceed through their time there, the students of Howard tell a different story. They have an overwhelming 97 percent graduation rate and an enviable daily attendance rate of 95 percent. The school has won national awards for creative service-learning programs that involve students in community service projects related to the career skills they are learning in class.

Howard is the first high school in the region to have computers networked throughout the building, enabling students and faculty to access data and resources from any computer station in any classroom.

Delaware State Education Association President Diane Donohue will take Biden on a tour of the school’s state-of-the-art computer technology lab, where students can hone their technical skills, prep for the SATs and do word processing and desktop publishing.

For Kudlick, the national spotlight shining on her school is gratifying recognition of the collaborative work that occurs there. Principal Tim Capone purposely schedules common planning time, so teachers can align curriculum, create effective lessons, and analyze data. He and Superintendent Steven Godowsky are strong proponents of teacher leadership, said Kudlick.

“I feel important at my school, as though the ideas I contribute matter,” said Kudlick, an English teacher whose classroom focuses on students workshopping each others’ writing to intensify the writing and editing process. “This motivates me to do more.”

All teachers at Howard are asked to be on “Partnership Zone” committees — comprising educators, school and district administrators, and union and state representatives — on which they research high achieving schools and analyze their our own data, with the goal of making recommendations to the district for carrying out the Partnership Zone Plan.

Kudlick credits the work of local Association representatives Charlie Hoard and Jane Lauginiger — who spent hundreds of hours with district and state leaders to collaborate on the Partnership Zone plan — for being early and committed advocates of genuine collaboration among the school, district, and state.

“Everyone is coming together for one goal,” said Kudlick. “Student achievement.”

To learn more about collaboration taking place among union educators and leaders, school and district officials and their communities, visit NEA’s Priority Schools Campaign.