Peter Greene followed the live tweets from AP reporter Gary Fineout, who covered the trial of Florida’s third-grade retention policy.
The high point–or should I say the low point–came when a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education said the report cards were meaningless.
He writes:
Especially in the districts like Orange County that are actually pursuing this stupid policy, I hope that teachers stand up, look their superintendent in the eye and ask, “Do you agree with the state that the report cards I fill out for my students are meaningless? Do you agree with the state’s contention that the work I do in assessing students is junk and has no value or should carry no weight? Do you agree with the state that my professional judgment as a teacher is worthless?” And if the superintendent hides in the office (which would be wise because really, how could any self-respecting superintendent face their teaching staff after this bullshit) feel free to send them a copy of this.
But kudos to the state for turning what was merely an attack on children and the rights of their parents into a wholesale attack on the integrity and competence of all teachers in the state. Because if report cards are meaningless, it can only be because all teachers are incompetent boobs. Well played, Florida education department.
The hearing included other lowlights as well. Children and their parents came to testify and all of the district lawyers filed objections– because if you have to actually look at the children that you’re doing this to, the small humans that you are, as the judge put it, “taking hostage,” it’s a lot harder to justify your brain-dead, abusively stupid policy. You end up looking almost as bad as you should look. Ultimately the children and families did testify.
It was brilliant to ask students to testify. How could a judge not be moved to see a bright and articulate child explain how humiliating it is to be forced to repeat third grade just because they didn’t take the Big Standardized Test?
It is one thing to talk about a policy in the abstract, it is quite another to see the children whom it affects.
Read Peter’s account of the testimony from the children, parents and even grandparents.
Peter writes:
The judge seems sympathetic and may rule within a week. Meanwhile, state and district school leaders in Florida don’t know what the hell they’re doing. One district said the FSA is mandatory; another said it isn’t. The state department doesn’t know what its regulations say. And all of these people are going to grind up some nine-year-olds just to prove that they are too the bosses of everyone in Florida and everyone must comply or else.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It won’t really matter what the judge rules. The Republicans in Tallahassee will call it judicial activism and appeal. In the meantime they will strong arm the district into doing what they want. That may be doing the right thing and passing the student to 4th grade based on sound educational practices, but that won’t be the reason why they want the student promoted. There is always an underlying principle to push the fake accountability and the false narrative of failing schools to bring about privatization. These cases are just viewed as speed bumps. Let’s hope the Tallahassee Republicans are exposed for the phony deformers that they are.
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“And all of these people are going to grind up some nine-year-olds just to prove that they are too the bosses of everyone in Florida and everyone must comply or else.”
This is what happens when corporations and private sector billionaires are allowed to have too much power to manipulate and subvert the democratic process.
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I spent a lot of time reading then re-reading Peter’s report. Stunning, really. I guess the Florida State Ed. lawyer was putting into words what is happening all over the country.
How much of what we do in our own lives as citizens in this nation is being defined as “meaningless” by the billionaires who are controlling so much of our government and the economy?
Right on, Lloyd. And, it is deeply troubling.
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For some comparison on “relative clarity” her is Ohio’s Grade three policy.
If a student does not take Ohio’s grade 3 ELA test during the testing window, the student will not have a score on that test. Unless the student qualifies for an exemption, the student may be retained. In addition, the student may be counted as “not proficient” for purposes of the K-3 Literacy Improvement Measure.
EXEMPTIONS TO RETENTION Each year, all students scoring below the promotion score on Ohio’s Grade 3 ELA Test must be retained, except for the following students:
• Limited English proficient students enrolled in U.S. schools for less than three full school years and with less than three years of instruction in an English as a second language program;
• Special education students whose IEPs specifically exempt them from retention under the Third Grade Reading Guarantee (more information is available in the Students with Disabilities section of this manual);
• Students who demonstrate reading competency on an alternative assessment for reading approved by the department (see detailed guidance below);
• A student whose IEP shows that the student has received intensive remediation in reading for two years, and the student was previously retained in any of grades kindergarten through grade 3; and
• Any student who has received intensive remediation for two years and was previously retained in any of grades kindergarten through grade 3.**
**A student that is promoted under this exemption must continue to receive intensive reading instruction in grade four. This instruction shall include an altered instructional day that includes specialized diagnostic information and specific research-based reading strategies for the student that have been successful in improving reading among low-performing readers.
DETAILED GUIDANCE: ALTERNATIVE READING ASSESSMENTS
The Alternative Assessment is a standardized assessment(s) for reading determined by the Ohio Department of Education for the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. It allows a third-grade student to take and demonstrate an acceptable level of reading performance for promotion to the fourth grade. The alternative reading assessments are optional for districts to administer.
The district is responsible for the cost of the alternative assessment. Districts may administer these alternative assessments twice during the year and once during the summer to mimic Ohio’s grade 3 English language arts test administration. Districts and schools should set dates for the administration of these …state-approved, alternative reading assessments. The state may annually revisit the list. Option 1. READING Parts 1 & 2. Of Iowa Assessments Form G, (grade 3) with score of 171 special price in Ohio. Option 2. Measurement of Academic Progress (MAP) from Northwest Evaluation Association with score of 186 Option 3. Terra Nova 3 with a score of 599.
SERVICES FROM OUTSIDE PROVIDERS Districts and community schools (charters) must offer intervention or tutoring services from at least one provider other than the district to students who are retained in third grade because of reading. Because local circumstances and needs vary, each district has authority to select its own service provider. Districts and schools may, but are not required to, use ( a six page screening tool) to help evaluate potential service providers (for-profits are permitted). Source http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Early-Learning/Third-Grade-Reading-Guarantee/TGRG-Guidance-Manual.pdf.aspx
I am not an expert in reading but well-informed people say that this requirement is based on dubious research. http://www.susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=412
And you can see who is pushing this and why, at
Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters, A KIDS COUNT Special Report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation http://www.aecf.org/resources/early-warning-why-reading-by-the-end-of-third-grade-matters/
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That “outside provider” rider looks like a carryover from the discredited grift that was known as “Reading First” and that arose from the pits of NCLB. When the scandal was uncovered that the USDOE was basically forcing districts to purchase services from political cronies who had obtained official imprimatur as being “research-based’ and “officially sanctioned” then Reading First slithered back into the darkness of the so-called ‘free’ market.
We had to hire outside providers to provide the after-school tutoring in all Title I schools and any schools who failed to make A/B/C grades and were, therefore, considered to be ‘at-risk of failure’.
The scams and grifts netted millions of dollars for lots of fly-by-night pop-up providers, many of which never delivered on their promised services or provided minimal student support while taking maximum profits.
A disaster being repeated by the once-great-state of Ohio. Sad, indeed but you get what you vote for, as we in Florida know all too well.
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Among a host of troubling issues arising from this trial, I am intrigued that the FLDOE spokesperson claimed that report cards are “worthless” when they are required under Florida statute:
(14) STUDENT REPORT CARDS.—Students and their parents have the right to receive student report cards on a regular basis that clearly depict and grade the student’s academic performance in each class or course, the student’s conduct, and the student’s attendance, in accordance with the provisions of s. 1003.33.
(15) STUDENT PROGRESS REPORTS.—Parents of public school students shall be apprised at regular intervals of the academic progress and other needed information regarding their child, in accordance with the provisions of s. 1003.02(1)(h)2.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=1000-1099/1002/Sections/1002.20.html
Perhaps this lickspittle of Governor Scott and his lackey Pam Stewart, Florida Commissioner of Education, was referring to the also-required-by-state-statute School Report Cards produced by the FLDOE?
(16) SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT RATING REPORTS; FISCAL TRANSPARENCY.—Parents of public school students have the right to an easy-to-read report card about the school’s grade designation or, if applicable under s. 1008.341, the school’s improvement rating, and the school’s accountability report, including the school financial report as required under s. 1010.215. The school financial report must be provided to the parents and indicate the average amount of money expended per student in the school, which must also be included in the student handbook or a similar publication.(16) SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT RATING REPORTS; FISCAL TRANSPARENCY.—Parents of public school students have the right to an easy-to-read report card about the school’s grade designation or, if applicable under s. 1008.341, the school’s improvement rating, and the school’s accountability report, including the school financial report as required under s. 1010.215. The school financial report must be provided to the parents and indicate the average amount of money expended per student in the school, which must also be included in the student handbook or a similar publication.
There is much wrong with the FLDOE, not the least of which is the ever-long and ever-strangling tentacles of Jeb! Bush and his cronies in Tallahassee and the bought-and-paid-for by ALEC Florida legislature.
Florida parents, however, are angry, organizing, and beginning to fight back in number. The Florida legislature may have, for now, a gerrymandered gurantee that the Republcan party will hold the reins of state government for another generation but the state as a whole went for Obama twice and is trending toward Hillary now. It’s a matter of GOTV since Democrats and self-described liberals and progressives outnumber conservative Republicans, as they do everywhere in this country. They just need to get out and vote on election day.
All of the current crop of anti-public school politicians won within a very narrow margin in the last election cycle, including our infamous Govvernor and Junior Senator.
The number of immigrants and urban expatriate migrants and retirees are beginning to outnumber the conservative Tea Party Republican retirees and racist white natives and election results are beginning to show that, especially in the urban centers of the state. The FL Legislature is flirting with disaster when it ignores the will of the people over and over in service of Jeb! Bush, ALEC, and the plethora of lobbyists who pay them so well.
Our House and Senate are both populated by legislators who profit handsomely from the voucher system, the for-profit charter industry, and the crooked lobbyists. The governor would be a felon rotting in prison for his historical fleecing of Medicare if not for the protections provided by incorporation.
My own representative in the US House was guilty of massive fraud through his private business yet has been elected twice by a small group of ultra-conservative voters that make up a small portion of the populace; his oppenents came within striking distance twice with zero support from the national Democratic party and after being outspent by huge margins.
The Legislature is trying very hard to ensure that Democrats, progressives, liberals, people of color, and other traditional opposition voters have high hurdles to overcome on Election Day.
Despite all this, the people of Florida are uniting and they are not pleased with Tallahassee and what comes from it. Jeb! Bush has an eternal vendetta against public schools and unionized teachers for twice successfully thwarting his opposition to the class size amendment to the state constitution and successfully appealing his voucher scam through the FL Supreme Court.
Much of Jeb’s! anti-public school policy and hatred of teachers derives from his arrogance and inability to move past being told no twice and being forced to bow to the will of the people.
Organized opposition is arising in the Sunshine State. Behold the power of the governed in it’s infancy. It will be formidable when it comes into its own in a few years.
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Thanks for the tip on the outside provider.
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Chris in Florida – you are always on the money, quite literally…thank you for your information and keeping us informed. Florida shows us some of the extremes of corporate reform and it is not pretty.
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Interesting that the report cards are to be considered meaningless. The requirements and criteria for those grades are set by people outside that classroom, who don’t know the kids, and who feel free to micranage the assessment and grading. ***if report cards are meaningless, it can only be because all teachers are incompetent boobs. *** And who is responsible for such a state of affairs? All these alleged incompetents got into that position with approval from somewhere, right? Seems like the problem isn’t really in the classroom. But you and I already knew that….
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Retention must only be considered on an individual student basis. perhaps the student had gaps this past year due to tragedy in the family, illness, etc? How will it, if at all, benefit the child? It must be approached with lots of knowledge, support, interventions and positive spirit. But I must say, teachers cannot be undermined in their decision to retain a child when all factors have been considered. Usually they do have the student’s best interests at heart and are not recommending retention for any other reason.
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Principal,
It is not the teacher’s wish to retain the child, it is a law passed by politicians in the legislature
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I wish people would remove the political element out of these discussions. There are many Republicans as well as Democrats who dislike Common Core, high stakes testing and charter schools. We do not group think. These issues were topics in both party platform negotiations. Though Republicans are not particularly happy with public sector unions, I can assure you that there are plenty of Republican teachers and their supporters who actively march with them.
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April,
I think conservatives and liberals, Democrats and republicans, should unite in support of their community public schools.
Unfortunately the republican establishment does not support public schools but prefers charters and vouchers. If you read the platform, they support anything but public schools.
I wish it were not so.
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So April, the Florida legislature is overwhelmingly Republican and has been since Jeb! Bush was governor and started the public school destruction. The bills that created the current mess we are in were written by Republicans and passed by Republicans, without Democratc support.
Is the Democratic party perfect? Absolutley not! The neoliberal wing, headed by Obama and Clinton, are equally guilty of being captured by the false promises of Friedman economic theory.
I will not, however, stop telling the truth about who has caused the destruction here in my home state and which party it originates in overwhelmingly and without doubt.
Yes, there are a handful of Republicans who vote against the most egregious bills and the Republican-controlled Senate did send the Republican-controlled House a bill to stop profiteering by charter school operators (and the House defeated it, and promptly).
I have known many Republican teachers who faithfully vote the party line and then are simply bewildered when their pay wass cut, their benefits were reduced, their tenure/due process was taken, there teaching licenses were threatened by VAM, etc. But that’s a book that’s already been written (What’s the Matter With Kansas?).
Calling out Obama and the neoliberal Democrats has never been a problem for me and I am not in any way a Hillary Clinton supporter but speaking truth about Republican policies and politics, not matter how discomforting it may be to Republican teachers, is not something I will ever stop doing.
Since I am a teacher, here is a little lesson for you as well about the Republican party and public education:
“In an article about education, it’s appropriate to start with a pop quiz. Today’s question: Republican strategists want to privatize education because:
a) Education is a multibillion dollar market, and the private sector is eager to get its hands on those dollars.
b) Conservatives are devoted to the free market and believe that private is inherently superior to public.
c) Shrinking public education furthers the Republican Party goal of drastically reducing the public sector.
d) Privatization undermines teacher unions, a key base of support for the Democratic Party.
e) Privatization rhetoric can be used to woo African American and Latino voters to the Republican Party.
f) All of the above.
OK, I admit it, the answer’s obvious: all of the above. But in the debates over education policy, the Republican political agenda (see d and e) is often invisible.
Occasionally, Republican strategists let the cat out of the bag and admit that vouchers–which divert public dollars to private schools–are about politics, not education.
Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform and one of the most influential Republican strategists in Washington, has long recognized the partisan value of vouchers, sometimes euphemistically referred to as “choice.” “School choice reaches right into the heart of the Democratic coalition and takes people out of it,” he said in a 1998 interview with Insight , the magazine of the conservative Washington Times.
Norquist and others see great political benefit in going after the teachers’ unions. During the last thirty years, as private sector unionism has declined, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) have grown in strength. Today, the 2.7 million-member NEA is the country’s largest union. The AFT has one million members, mostly in education but also in health care and the public sector.
While both teacher unions overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party, conservatives especially hate the NEA. It is larger, more geographically diverse, with members in every Congressional district in the country, and more likely to push a liberal agenda that includes social issues such as gay rights.
As the conservative Landmark Legal Foundation complained this fall, the NEA is “the nation’s largest, most powerful, and most political union . . . .
“Eliminating public education may seem unAmerican. But a growing number of movement conservatives have signed a proclamation from the Alliance for the Separation of School and State that favors “ending government involvement in education.” Signatories include such Washington notables as David Boaz and Ed Crane of the Cato Institute; conservative author Dinesh D’Souza; Dean Clancy, who is an education policy analyst for House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert; and Howard Phillips, president of the Conservative Caucus.
Wisconsin State Representative Chris Sinicki, who was a Milwaukee School Board member when vouchers began in Milwaukee in 1990, says there is no doubt that vouchers “are a Republican strategy to take down public education and the unions. This is partisan politics, completely.”
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/special_reports/bushplan/righpro.shtml
And another history of the back-and-forth over supporting publc educaiton that was intensified by the Civil War and the end of segregation, the seat of much of the current opposition from evagelical Christian and white supremacist Republicans:
http://www.criticism.com/policy/republicans-education-policy.php
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Dianeravitch, ahh, but IT IS per ED Code a teacher’s decision and right to retain a student, at least in CA. The parent can appeal within 15 days with cause to prove why they feel their child should not be retained. This is Ed Code too. Then the Superintendent or designee has a right to overturn it.
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Where are the taxpayers? It is costly to retain students, especially students who do not require it. It is time for someone to post the names of every politician who voted for that legislation and vote them out of office. Why are they allowing testing companies to determine student success? It couldn’t be all the millions spent lobbying for these tests and all the money testing companies rake in $20-$30 billion???
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I’ve wondered that, too. In Utah, retention happens extremely rarely, because it costs the state to pay for an extra year of school. Even when parents ask for a child to be retained, it rarely happens.
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Research shows that the BEST predictor for success in college is a student’s high school grades, so how can grades be considered “meaningless”? These grades are a much better indicator than SAT or ACT results.
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Rheephormistines have said from the beginning that grades should match test scores, and if they don’t match it’s the teacher’s fault. Not teaching hard enough. Not requiring enough grit. Not showing working class people how dumb they are. It’s a simplistic argument that doesn’t take into account the many facets of grades (or how the economy works, for that matter). Knowledge, subject-based skills, effort, improvement, social adaptation, modifications for special needs and abilities, etc. go into a grade. It’s too easy to say, “That kid is not at the cut line, period,” and hold back the child’s progression of learning in ANY way based on test scores, grades, or any other categorizing measurement tools. It is the holding back and holding down of students, after all, that puts them on the so-called “prison pipeline” track. If we cannot conduct intervention and remediation when necessary based on a whole child, supportive approach instead of a formulaic, punitive approach that ignores the complex nature of humans, then we cannot educate those most in need. Now that’s a fail. Rheephormistines fail to reform education because they see the world in shades of black and white (and $ green).
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LeftCoast this is the answer: “If we cannot conduct intervention and remediation when necessary based on a whole child, supportive approach then we cannot educate those most in need.” Think of all the success we would have had if they spent money helping students acquire the basic skills they lacked instead of closing schools when test scores were not met. Why do we (Unions) continue to allow this nonsense to continue. It is so frustrating. We lost all our support staff who were able to pull-out students one-to-one and in small groups and were really making a difference with struggling students. This happened to coincide with test based accountability for the teaching staff. Coincidence??? I think not.
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You got it, Always. And don’t forget about the cradle to grave, Big Data-based, rate and sort computer systems that have nearly destroyed child-centered approaches. Shuttering schools, privatizing them, and making teaching a temp job instead of a lifelong profession… just more stale ingredients on the Billionaire Boys Club Sandwich.
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From Wrightslaw:
“5. Read these publications about retention from the National Association of School Psychologists:
Grade Retention – Achievement and Mental Health Outcomes
“6th grade students rated grade retention as the single most stressful life event, higher than the loss of a parent or going blind. Retained students are less likely to receive a high school diploma by age 20, receive poorer educational competence ratings, and are less likely to be enrolled in any post-secondary education program. Retained students receive lower educational and employment status ratings and are paid less per hour at age 20.”
Position Statement on Student Grade Retention and Social Promotion
“Through many years of research, the practice of retaining children in grade has been shown to be ineffective in meeting the needs of children who are academically delayed.”
For more information and resources about retention and social promotion, visit the Retention, Delays, & Social Promotion page on Wrightslaw.
– See more at: http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/retain.strategies.heath.htm#sthash.BSvXPXSW.dpuf
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There is no virtue in making children so brave that they might withstand the idiocy of adults. Nor is there any virtue in lying to children so as to protect adult ridiculousness.
And no community of parents should brook the manipulations of a deceiving government when it is their own children who are caught in the asinine intrigue of politicians who seem at ease wounding those children.
Where is the wisdom in gluing children to desks for hours as they squirm their way through some asinine educational gauntlet that has no real purpose other than to pay homage to some testing god? Who thought that a good idea? And why do any of us acquiesce?
A school has is a special place where every minute should be crammed with as much wonder as a minute might hold. It has no place or space for anyone unable to plug into their memory bank for recollections of their own childhood.
If one cannot stay linked with the memories of their own past, perhaps they shouldn’t be in the memory-making business at all.
Denis Ian
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