Paul Herdman is the president and CEO of Rodel, a nonprofit working to build an excellent and equitable public education system that supports all Delawareans to achieve success in school and life.
Delaware has declared a literacy emergency, which means our focus is clear: Early literacy is the foundation for readiness. The question now is whether the state and local education agencies can do what we’ve struggled to accomplish since the pandemic, which is to align around a clear strategy and stick with it long enough to make a difference.
There are reasons to believe this moment may be different.
Gov. Matt Meyer’s first major education decision was to appoint Cindy Marten as Delaware’s secretary of education in 2025. Improving literacy is her professional wheelhouse.
After years as a classroom teacher and school leader, Marten became the superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, serving more than 120,000 students — nearly the size of Delaware’s entire public school system. During her eight-year tenure as the superintendent, the district posted some of the strongest gains among large urban systems on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the Nation’s Report Card. In 2021, she was appointed to the second-highest role at the U.S. Department of Education. She arrived in Delaware in January 2025.
Last fall, Ms. Marten released a statewide literacy plan. It builds on a strong policy foundation established by our General Assembly and is backed by more than $20 million in statewide investment and, critically, a coherent implementation strategy. Since then, her team has been working directly in schools— especially those with the greatest needs — partnering shoulder to shoulder with educators to strengthen instruction.
Recently, she released a broader strategic plan for Delaware’s public schools. What stands out is that it is not political jargon. It is a working document with clear goals, measurable targets and defined actions.
One goal is particularly striking: increasing third grade reading proficiency from 38% to 53% by spring 2028. That would mean more than 1,500 additional Delaware students reading on grade level within the next two years.
In my two decades working in Delaware education, I have not seen a state leader publicly hold herself accountable to a goal that specific and ambitious.
The strategy is straightforward: Strengthen classroom instruction, align curriculum and assessment, support teachers and school leaders with high-quality professional learning, measure progress clearly and publicly, and stay the course long enough for the work to take hold.
Understanding why this moment matters requires stepping back.
For decades, Delaware students performed at or above the national average in reading. But, beginning around 2016, the state started to see a troubling slide. For example, fourth grade reading performance on NAEP has declined significantly since then.
There is no single explanation.
Education policy tends to swing between stronger federal accountability and greater local control. The federal government began playing a major role in public education in the 1960s, under President Lyndon B. Johnson and his war on poverty initiatives. In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act, which emphasized standards and accountability. That approach continued with the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top.”
Around 2016, however, educators and policymakers began pushing back against what many saw as an overly heavy federal hand. The pendulum swung toward local control.
In Delaware, that shift had unintended consequences. Districts and charter schools increasingly pursued their own approaches. In literacy alone, schools were required to assess K-3 reading three times a year — a sensible policy. But, because there were few common parameters around tools and measures, schools ended up using dozens of different assessments across the state.
The result is that, today, parents and policymakers struggle to clearly see what is working and what is not. Over time, that lack of statewide clarity contributed to uneven implementation.
To their credit, the Delaware General Assembly and the Department of Education took steps to respond, including requiring teacher training in the “science of reading” and promoting higher-quality instructional materials. Those were important moves. But, without a sustained statewide strategy tying standards, curriculum, training, assessment and accountability together, progress remained uneven.
Then came COVID-19.
For roughly 18 months, Delaware schools were virtual, hybrid or closed. The decisions made during that period were made under enormous uncertainty, but the academic and social impacts are still with us.
Six years later, many are asking why Delaware has not rebounded as strongly as some other states.
Consider Mississippi.
Over the past decade, Mississippi has posted some of the strongest reading gains in the country. Carey Wright, the state’s superintendent during that time, often said the success was not a “Mississippi miracle” but a “Mississippi marathon.” The progress came from deliberate, sustained work over many years.
Mississippi aligned standards, curriculum, teacher training, assessments and accountability around a clear goal — and stayed the course.
Now, it’s Delaware’s turn.
The state’s literacy and strategic plans aim to bring that same coherence to Delaware’s education system. And that matters because 9 out of 10 Delaware children attend public schools.
Literacy is the foundation of every child’s future. Delaware has named the emergency; now, we — parents, educators, policymakers, employers and community partners — must maintain the urgency, alignment and leadership needed to address it, together.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
