DASP Dispatch

Delaware Leaders,

Sometimes our most important work is the work that challenges us most.Leadership asks us to step into difficult spaces—to support a school that is struggling, have the conversation we would rather avoid, make a decision that may not please everyone, advocate for what scholars need, or acknowledge that what worked yesterday may not be what is needed tomorrow. In those moments, remember:The difficulty of the assignment does not diminish the importance of the assignment.Leadership has storms. Data does not move as expected. Initiatives fall short. Staff become overwhelmed. Families have concerns. Communities expect answers. Decisions are questioned. And sometimes, even the leader gets tired.

Those moments do not define our leadership. How we respond to them does. When a school is struggling, ask, “What support have we not tried yet?” When a colleague needs support, reach toward them rather than around them. When the data tells us something is not working, change the approach without lowering the expectation. When we make mistakes, own them, learn from them, and move forward.

And when another leader is navigating a difficult season, remember that leadership should never be a lonely place.The work we lead also works on us. It stretches our patience, sharpens our thinking, challenges our assumptions, and reminds us that leadership is not about having every answer. It is about having the courage to keep asking the right questions.

So I challenge each of us to consider:

Who needs you not to give up?

What school, staff member, scholar, or community needs you to look beyond what is happening and consider what is possible?

Where might you need to listen differently?

And perhaps most importantly:What assignment are you tempted to run from because it is asking you to grow as a leader?

Across Delaware, our districts and schools may look different, but our responsibility is shared: to create the conditions for every scholar and every educator to thrive. That requires courage. It requires collaboration. It requires us to challenge one another, support one another, and sometimes change ourselves.

Don’t run from the assignment. Don’t let a difficult season determine the destination. Adjust. Learn. Lead. Keep going. Sometimes the assignment that challenges us most becomes the one that changes our leadership the most.

Delaware leaders, keep leading. Keep growing. Keep showing up for our scholars, our educators, and one another.

With appreciation and purpose,

Equetta

Please join DASP in congratulating Dr. Jerod Phillips, Principal of David E. Robinson Elementary School, on being named one of just 39 National Distinguished Principals in the nation for 2026!

This prestigious recognition celebrates Dr. Phillips' exceptional leadership, dedication to student success, and commitment to educational excellence. We are incredibly proud to celebrate this well-deserved honor and the positive impact he continues to make in his school community and across Delaware!

👏 Congratulations, Dr. Phillips! Thank you for leading with purpose and inspiring excellence!

Read Framework Here: https://education.delaware.gov/community/spsf-framework/

Give Feedback Here: https://education.delaware.gov/forms/spsf-feedback/

This summer, we’re bringing school leaders from across the country to Denver, Colorado, for three days of inspiration, connection, and learning. Surrounded by the energy and expansive views of the Mile High City, we’ll come together to exchange ideas, gain new perspectives, and explore what’s possible when school leaders are equipped to grow, lead, and move their learning communities forward.

What can you share that will help shape the learning experience at the conference and help other educators lead to new heights? We’re looking for fresh ideas, innovative approaches, practical strategies, and stories from the field that will give school leaders new ways to think about and approach their work.

Ready to share your expertise? We’ve laid out everything you need below to help you prepare your proposal.

Each year, NAESP recognizes Pre-K through grade 8 principals from across the nation, as well as representing the United States Departments of Defense Office of Educational Activity and the United States Department of State Office of Overseas Schools. Public school elementary and middle-level principals are nominated by peers in their state, and final selections are made by committees appointed by each of NAESP’s state affiliate offices.

Criteria established by NAESP requires that the individual:

In addition, the individual must be a member for DASA AND DASP to be considered as our Delaware candidate.

Delaware would love to submit an Elementary and a Middle Candidate to NAESP this year. Nominate and encourage others to apply for this recognition.

• October 2026 NAESP NOAP application available

• January 8, 2027: Delaware deadline for applications

• January 19 - 22, 2027: Delaware winner announced

• February 7, 2027: Delaware winner's application due to NAESP

Click NOAPOY 2027 Application Portal to register your account and complete the application. First-time applicants will need to select "Create An Account" to establish their login credentials.

Important Dates

• Applications Open: September 2026
• Delaware Deadline: November 13, 2026
• Delaware Honoree Announced: December 1–4, 2026
• Delaware Honoree Application Due to NPA: December 15, 2026

Important Dates

• Applications Open: September 2026
• Delaware Deadline: November 13, 2026
• Delaware Honoree Announced: December 1–4, 2026
• Delaware Honoree Application Due to NPA: December 15, 2026

October 13th
Evelyn Edney, Early College School @DSU

Dawn Lybarger, Phillis Wheatley Elementary

October 24th
Kimberly Webb, Lula M. Ross Elementary

October 25th
Michael N Scott, Oberle Elementary School

October 26th
Sue Kranich-Jackson, Cedar Lane Early Childhood Center

October 27th
Amber Augustus, North Smyrna Elementary

The 2026–2027 DASA Membership Open Enrollment window closed September 15. Thank you to everyone who completed the new membership enrollment form as we transitioned to our streamlined membership process this year!

Missed the enrollment window? A mini-enrollment period will open in January–February 2027, providing another opportunity to join or make changes to your DASA and associated memberships. Additional information will be shared as that window approaches.

Association Update: Effective July 1, 2026, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) became the National Principals Association (NPA).

Questions about your membership? Contact the DASA office at office@edasa.org or 302.674.0630.

Thank you for being part of Delaware's professional community of school leaders!

Susan and Patricia

In this article in Review of Educational Research, Cheyeon Ha (Rossier School of Education, USC) and Michael McCarthy, Michael Strambler, and Christina Cipriano (Yale School of Medicine) report on their meta-analysis of 40 studies (2008-2022) analyzing the impact of school-based social emotional learning programs on K-12 students’ academic achievement. The key finding: students who took part in universal SEL programs showed significant improvements in ELA and math test scores compared to students who did not.

In short, conclude the authors, “there is robust evidence to suggest that SEL programs not only serve their intended primary purpose, but also significantly increase students’ academic success in schools.”

“Disentangling the Effects of Social and Emotional Learning Programs on Student Academic Achievement Across Grades 1-12: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” by Cheyeon Ha, Michael McCarthy, Michael Strambler, and Christina Cipriano in Review of Educational Research, October 2026 (Vol. 96, #3, pp. 1839-1880); Ha is at cheyeonha@gmail.com.

In this article in Edutopia, Paige Tutt and Stephen Merrill say that 20 years ago, medical students carried around well-worn copies of Pocket Medicine in their white lab coats, consulting it many times a day for authoritative advice as they learned their profession. Today’s medical students and doctors consult OpenEvidence, a chatbot that puts vast amounts of up-to-date medical information at their fingertips.

But there’s no substitute for doctors acquiring deep knowledge over years of study and practice. “When I skim a chatbot’s response to a question about back pain,” says Dr. Rachel Bedard, “I’m intuitively testing its suggestions against my hard-won mental model for how to approach back pain. Could I have developed that if I’d had a robot leading my thinking all along?” Absolutely not.

The same is true of K-12 students as they acquire foundational skills in reading, writing, and mathematics and learn history, science, and other subjects. Many educators think the proper relationship with AI is the student as lead thinker and AI as a capable assistant. Tutt and Merrill are skeptical. “Before allowing students to consult an ever-obliging AI assistant,” they say, “it’s worth considering whether they have mastered the core mechanics of the task at hand.” They cite five situations where they believe AI use is inappropriate:

• Brainstorming – It’s true that AI can instantly generate lots of cool ideas in response to a prompt, but on closer inspection, a 2026 study found, there’s a lack of the zaniness and creativity in the output. More disturbing, researchers found that people who used AI for

brainstorming were less creative when they didn’t have access to their high-tech buddy. Use of AI, say Tutt and Merrill, “had left a ‘scar’ that may have permanently altered the ‘creative trajectory’ of its users.”

• Writing a thesis statement – The rationale for having AI do this is that the thesis is just the framework and the student will do the heavy lifting. But AI is often conventional and superficial as it taps into existing knowledge. Good thesis statements “emerge from deep thinking about a subject,” say the authors, “and distill that thinking into a provocative, focused statement that a writer is ready to defend… They are unique by nature and are not a separate process from the writing.”

• Conducting research – Students may groan about the legwork involved in doing research, but it’s one of the most important skills to learn in high school. Sure, AI can find information more quickly and with less student effort, but that effort and time are vital experiences, along with the critical thinking involved in selecting, curating, and summarizing a search – and being able to explain and defend it in person.

• Summarizing learning – Students can get a false sense of mastery by reading over notes generated by AI, but it’s superficial and ephemeral and much of it is gone in hours. “Effective study is effortful,” say Tutt and Merrill, “and requires an element of active retrieval – challenging oneself to recall, then rearticulate what they’ve learned on their own.” They note that AI can be helpful quizzing a student and revealing gaps in knowledge and understanding.

• Writing first drafts – It’s tempting to use AI to overcome writer’s block and get an initial draft done. But studies have found this is a slippery slope, with students allowing AI to go well beyond the rough draft and take major responsibility for the essay itself – to the detriment of developing the uniquely human skills of thinking and writing.

“5 ‘Good’ AI Use Cases That Are Actually Bad for Students” by Paige Tutt and Stephen Merrill in Edutopia, October 16, 2026

The Delaware Association of School Administrators has an app!

Have you signed up for the new DASA App yet? Be sure that you download it to stay up to date on all things under the DASA umbrella

• iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/de-assoc-of-school-admin/id1548494338
• Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apptegy.delawarede

We will be working in the future to be adding to our DASP information to the app

President: Equetta Jones

President Elect: Holly Langley

Secretary: Dawn Lybarger

Treasurer: Suzanne Street

Member Awards and Programs Coordinator: Nicole Ickes

NAESP State Representative: Jerod Phillips

NPA State Coordinator: Nyia Pritchett

Past President: Evelyn Edney

At-Large Members: Rahsheem "Rocky" Hollis, Nigdra Calloway, Ashlee Upp, David Carter, Chandra Phillips, and Erika Gunter