Delaware’s Education Opportunity: From Priorities to Results

By Julia Keleher, Ed.D., Bob Perkins, and Michael J. Quaranta​

Delaware has an opportunity to become a state others look to for how to improve student outcomes while preparing young people for a rapidly changing economy.

Governor Matt Meyer has declared a literacy emergency, launched the Delaware Early Literacy Plan, and supported new investments in reading. Education Secretary Cindy Marten has established priorities aimed at improving student outcomes. Districts and educators are working to translate those priorities into practice. The question now is how the rest of us can help that work succeed.

We already have many of the pieces required: statewide priorities, committed education leaders, employers who want to engage, districts that know their students and communities, and families who want strong schools and better opportunities for their children. The challenge now is connecting those pieces and maintaining the discipline required to turn priorities into results.

That starts with recognizing that no single institution, profession, or constituency has everything required to solve a problem this complex. Educators understand teaching and learning. District leaders understand their students and communities. Families know their children. Employers see changing technologies, skill requirements, and workforce needs. School boards bring local governance and accountability. State leaders establish policy and priorities. Taxpayers have an expectation that student outcomes will improve. 

We see value in bringing these different perspectives together around a shared problem. Each brings knowledge, experience, and capabilities the others do not. The opportunity is not for everyone to think alike, but to listen to one another, learn from what each knows, and use those different strengths to build better solutions.

From Priorities to Implementation
Delaware’s business community has long been involved in education policy, workforce development, and conversations about the skills young people need to succeed. That work remains important. 

But policy is only the beginning. Improvement ultimately happens in schools and districts, where statewide priorities must become local practice and better results for students. Through the Delaware Education Performance Partnership, or DEEPP, First State Educate is working with state, local education, and business leaders to help make that connection.

The work has already begun. We are meeting directly with superintendents and district leaders to understand what they are trying to accomplish for their students, where barriers exist, and where outside partners could be useful. Those conversations are identifying practical opportunities, including career exposure, workplace tours, work-based learning, employee volunteers, technical expertise, literacy support, and other district-defined needs.

The point is not to take the same program everywhere. Different communities have different needs, and different partners bring different capabilities. Alignment does not require uniformity. It requires enough listening to understand what each partner needs and enough coordination to connect those needs with what others can offer.

Employers bring a different perspective. They experience the education-to-workforce connection directly through changing skill requirements, new technologies, workforce shortages, and the capabilities young people will need in the economy ahead.

They also have more to contribute than commentary. Businesses can open workplaces to students, provide internships and career exposure, share technical expertise, offer employee volunteers and resources, and encourage talented employees and retirees to consider service on local school boards.

None of this creates a new education agenda. Secretary Marten and state leaders establish statewide priorities. District leaders and educators implement them. School boards govern, set expectations, monitor progress, and provide local accountability. The role of business is to listen, understand where help is needed, and contribute resources, relationships, expertise, and opportunities that strengthen implementation.

Results Over Participation
Delaware’s current results show why improvement matters. The state has also set ambitious improvement goals, including significantly increasing third-grade reading proficiency by 2028. Setting a goal is the first step. Successful execution of any strategy requires knowing what strategies are being used, who is responsible for carrying them out, how progress will be measured, where implementation is getting stuck, and what will change when results are not improving.

We believe success should not be measured by meetings held, programs created, or organizations involved. It should be measured by whether students are doing better.

That’s a functional definition of accountability. For us, accountability is not about assigning blame or creating a “gotcha” system. It is about being clear-eyed about the outcome, supporting the people responsible for the work, monitoring progress, and adjusting when something is not producing the intended result.

Business leaders are not interested in importing business practices into schools. They are interested in offering their understanding of performance management in ways that optimize the expertise of educators, leadership of district administrators, insights of families and communities and governance of school boards. 

Preparing for What’s Next
Education improvement rarely happens on the timeline of a single program, budget cycle, or leadership term. Administrations change. Education leaders change. Policies evolve. Economic conditions shift. But many Delaware employers remain rooted in the state for generations. That gives the business community an important role: to champion long-term priorities and sustain focus on the outcomes Delaware is trying to achieve, even as leadership, strategies, and circumstances change.

The value of long-term business engagement is not that business determines the education agenda. It is that employers and civic leaders can help Delaware maintain focus on the outcomes that matter, ask whether strategies are producing results, and remain engaged long enough to see difficult work through.

Delaware has no shortage of people who care about public education. What we need now is the willingness to lean in, listen to perspectives different from our own, connect statewide priorities with local needs, and build solutions that reflect the communities they are intended to serve.

• For districts: tell us what would help.
• For businesses: tell us what you can contribute.
• For families and communities: stay engaged, expect strong local leadership, and support the people and partnerships working to improve outcomes for students.

Delaware’s Opportunity
We believe Delaware can build a new model for improving student outcomes: one that recognizes the central role school boards play and is designed for the world our students are entering. Artificial intelligence is reshaping work, employers are adapting to new technologies and skill demands, and economic and geopolitical conditions are changing quickly.

Our approach must reflect our students, our communities, our educators, our employers, and our economy. Mississippi and Louisiana show what sustained focus can accomplish. Their progress required clear priorities, disciplined implementation, and the willingness to stay focused on results over time. We should bring that same discipline to Delaware.

But the model itself should be ours. The goal is not to become the next Mississippi or Louisiana. It is to build the Delaware story that other states study next. 

If you are a district leader, school board member, educator, employer, or community partner interested in helping turn these priorities into results, we invite you to engage with the Delaware Education Performance Partnership and contact Julia Keleher at [email protected] to learn more.

Julia Keleher, Ed.D. is the Executive Director of First State Educate. Bob Perkins is the Executive Director of the Delaware Business Roundtable. Michael J. Quaranta​ is the President of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce.