Governing Wilmington public education: legal legacy, community impacts, policy recommendations
The governance system for public education in Wilmington, Delaware is incoherent and fractured. The responsibility for the education of Wilmington students is dispersed among many governing units, creating a complex system for parents to navigate and diluting the voice of the Wilmington community. This thesis identifies the sources of the fractured and dispersed governance arrangement through an analysis of the legal and policy legacy of segregation and desegregation. Additionally, this thesis demonstrates that changes in the economic and demographic conditions of the Wilmington community have resulted in a student population that is now largely poor, black and Latino. These impacts on the education system are profound for city of Wilmington students who, on average, lag in most areas of student achievement, including graduation rates. To analyze these impacts, a Wilmington student data base was developed using a data from the Delaware Department of Education. After 60 years of reform initiatives beginning with Brown v. Board, most students in Wilmington still do not have access to high quality educational opportunities. These conditions have been recognized by various task forces since 2001, demonstrated by a review of past committees that have proposed recommendations that have yet to be acted upon. The Wilmington Education Advisory Committee, formed by Governor Jack Markell's Executive Order in September 2014, has issued a new set of recommendations to redress the challenges posed by the fragmented and ineffective governance system. This thesis reviews and evaluates these recommendations and concludes that they will streamline governance in ways that benefit Wilmington public education, but they do not go far enough to create a coherent system of governance.
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