Jeb Bush has toured the country boasting of the Florida miracle. Central to the miracle is the letter grades for schools. But the state just reported that the proportion of A-rated schools fell from 48% to 29%.
Is the Jeb miracle over?
The schools didn’t suddenly get worse. The grading system is arbitrary, capricious, and meaningless.
As Fairtest points out, the state has changed the formula at least 30 times.
Here is the Fairtest view:
FairTest
National Center for Fair & Open Testing
for further information:
Bob Schaeffer (239) 395-6773
cell (239) 699-0468
for immediate release, Friday, July 26, 2013
FLORIDA SCHOOL GRADES ARE “WORSE THAN USELESS;”
ASSESSMENT EXPERT CALLS THEM “EXTREMELY MISLEADING,”
“PHONY LABELS FROM BY A POLITICALLY MANIPULATED BLACK BOX,”
AND “A CLASSIC CASE OF GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT”
Florida school grades released today are “worse than useless measures of educational quality,” according to a local expert on assessment. Bob Schaeffer, Pubic Education Director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), explained, “Based largely on scores from the low quality FCAT exam, state officials change the grading formula each year to serve their political agendas.”
The result, Schaeffer said is that “Florida’s school grades are extremely misleading. Phony labels from a politically manipulated black box do nothing to improve educational quality. It’s time for Florida to end this cynical, failed experiment in bogus accountability.”
Schaeffer noted that the state admits to having made more than 30 changes to its school rating system since 2011. “This is a classic case of garbage in, garbage out. The standards for letter grades are not even consistent from one year to the next.”
Founded in 1985 by leaders of major education, civil rights and student groups, FairTest is based in Boston, Massachusetts. Schaeffer has lived in southwest Florida for 14 years while continuing to work for the organization.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Same old deformer GIGO, garbage in, garbage out.
The game is rigged. There is no other way to describe it. Here’s what the Miami Herald had to say:
“For the second year in a row, the state board of education has included a “safety net” provision that prevents schools from dropping more than one letter grade in a given year. According to a DOE analysis, there would have been 262 F schools in Florida this year without the safety net. With the safety net, that number drops to 108.
Still, 108 F schools is a dramatic jump from only a year ago, when 40 schools in Florida received an F grade. Florida’s grading system relies largely on standardized test scores to grade schools, and there has been no similar dramatic drop in test scores this year. In categories such as reading and math, student performance was generally flat, and in some test categories students actually improved.
That startling disconnect — a nosedive in school grades that doesn’t match the results of test scores that the school grades are supposed to be based on — has school districts crying foul.
“There is no validity necessarily attached to this year’s A, B, C, D or F,” Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said. Miami-Dade actually improved its test scores this year at a higher rate than the state as a whole, and yet suffered in its school grade results anyway.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/26/3523140/school-grades-drop-under-new-formula.html
In my own district 13 elementary schools received an “F” and 5 received an “A”. Guess what the economic and racial makeup of these schools are? And under state law the students in those “F” schools must be offered a transfer to the “A” schools. Putting aside the impossibility of accommodation, since you can’t divide 13 into 5, does anyone honestly think the parents of those “A” school students would stand for a huge influx of “F” school students?
So now we know that in Florida your students may improve their scores on the FCAT test yet your school will still drop a letter grade and you will be labelled as failing, allowing the state to take over and ultimately fire all the teachers and administrators. Even the hand-picked Tea-party line state Board of Education members had 5 people who publicly stated that they have no confidence in the state’s grading system and that it is statistically unreliable.
What a horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad mess Jeb! created here. And other states are actually following his lead.
And as long as human beings are treated like pieces of data, it will never work. There’s a principle of humanity operating here that folks who devoid themselves of compassion will never understand.
Gee, A Bush who lies, cheats and has a hidden agenda…must be a family trait! The entire charter school Trojan horse is predicated on just what Jeb has done in Florida.
Same plan of disguising reality to sell snake oil, the same Michelle Rhee, boot stomping over dedicated educators and the ultimate fleecing of public funds and academic viability of the children of America.
How much clearer could the perpetrators of destruction show their motives, methods and ultimate results they produce?
Diane, I had to share this editorial with you from a local Florida newspaper, The Bradenton Herald. It is a very conservative, Republican-leaning newspaper and editorial board that always endorses Republican candidates and platforms. This is Katherine Harris’s old congressional district where Republicans outnumber Democrats more than 2 to 1.
When the reformers start losing the party stalwarts like this and party faithful start speaking the truth and questioning the motives and actions of the reformers I think it must be a sign that the whole edifice is starting to crumble. At least that’s what I hope!
http://www.bradenton.com/2013/07/23/4620076/florida-gets-an-f-on-public-school.html
From the editorial:
“Why would certain elements in the state want to flunk so many schools? Where’s the truth in changing the rules of the game and punishing more schools willfully? Is the real motivation to humiliate public schools and propel expansion of the charter and private school movement?
Politics and big business are inextricably intertwined in Florida. Charter school management companies are major players in Tallahassee, providing big campaign contributions.
On the heels of Republican efforts to pass legislation allowing parents to turn failing schools over to for-profit management companies, the connection between tougher school grading and politics cannot be ignored.
Fortunately, though, that so-called parent trigger bill has failed to pass the state Senate the past two years — by very slim margins. This issue will likely come up again during the Legislature’s 2014 regular session.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with charter or private schools — Manatee County is home to a number of outstanding success stories — the state should not undermine public schools with unfair and misleading assessments of student achievement.
All of this isn’t to suggest Florida lower its education standards either. Indeed, an even more rigorous curriculum is coming with the new Common Core State Standards in the 2014-2015 school year, first with math and language arts.
The state will phase out FCAT exams in favor of new tests aligned to Common Core. That, too, has already generated controversy, with Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford calling for Florida to abandon the national assessments, still under development. The two leaders want the state to compose its own exams. That’s another issue, one that will continue the debate over high-stakes standardized testing.
Florida must implement an assessment system that is fair to students, teachers and schools; takes politics out of the equation, and puts the focus on children.”
It’s wonderful. Maybe they’re finally figuring it out.
Why do southern states (especially) keep electing these snake oil salesmen who sell our children to the highest bidder? Its stomach turning.
niemeyerm7 hours ago
“Commissioner Tony Bennett said the results are not an indication of students, schools and teachers doing worse, but rather a reflection of the state’s move to more rigorous expectations.”
Then why did I get an email from my principal to prepare us that a letter will go out to parents inviting them to accept an opportunity scholarship so their child may attend another school in the district? …because this is the law, right? Well, Mr. Education Commissioner, your law is unfair, unjust, and as FLAWED as this State’s accountability system that FAILS our schools, teachers, students, and communities. Thank you but NO THANK YOU.
Mary:
an “opportunity scholarship”? you mean a VOUCHER?
when I worked at DOE when Bush was governor no one was allowed to use the term voucher at DOE.
As a principal of a school in Florida who ‘fell’ from a B to a C, despite all the news press of the lack of reliability in the change in grades, our parents will still think our school is ‘getting worse’. In reality, our scores are the same or better than last year. Trying to explain this to parents and ensure their confidence in our school and teachers isn’t shaken is a difficult task.
Jeb! and his cronies have done an outstanding job of convincing Florida parents that Florida’s public schools are bad and constantly getting worse, even while he tours the country bragging about how he improved the schools in Florida. The damage that has been done by another change in the formula resulting in lower grades will impact educators and students both. Imagine how children feel when they learn their school did worse? These test scores belong to children, children who are being told loud and clear that they are failures as well as their school. I would love for Jeb! to explain his grading formula to a third grade child who now has to repeat third grade because Jeb! and his foundation decided it was time to ‘raise the standards’ once again. How can the FCAT be called a criterion based test when the criteria constantly change for no other reason than we have too many A schools? Can’t have folks believing public schools might actually be doing a good job, you know.
Frankly, I am very grateful I am close to retirement because the sadness I feel about our Florida public school system is becoming too great to bear. Of course retiring will help me, but who is going to help the children of Florida?
Right on Annie. As a teacher I am interested in hearing what principals of Florida as well as Superintendents have to say about this. I read so much from teachers but rarely from admin. I’d love to hear more on how administrators feel about grading schools! So administrators speak up!
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Here is a quote from Tony Bennett in Florida Today in Melbourne, Fl, “The state is moving toward new education standards know as Common Core, and potentially new tests, and that transition would increase volatility in school grades for several years to come”. Students, parents, teachers, administrators, we are all confused and scared. Every year the game changes.
In Gainesville a school called Einstein Montessori received an “F.” It is a charter school specifically created for children with reading disabilities. They gave the children with reading disabilities and their teachers an F because they didn’t do we’ll enough on a reading test!!! It is insanity and dispicable! Parents must be the ones to make this stop!!!