Most of them seem to work in and around the headquarters of Jeb Bush.
His executive director signed twice.
Ex-governor Bush promoted the parent trigger last spring and every Florida parent organization opposed it.
He’s back for round two.
71 signatures!
Is this what is known as a “groundswell” of public opinion in Florida?
Corporate reforms fare best when there are big campaign contributions to friendly legislators.
It is dangerous to rely on public opinion for corporate reforms.
Governor Rick Scott of Florida is taking out ads saying he too is opposed to high-stakes testing.
Of course, Jeb Bush travels the nation boasting of the wonders created by the same high-stakes testing regime perfected on his watch as governor.
But Coach Bob Sikes, Florida blogger, says that Scott’s apology is too little, too late.
Floridians are steamed about the teach-to-the-test mania that has gripped their schools for years.
What next in Florida?
A few months ago, the Florida legislature debated a “parent trigger” law.
It would have allowed parents to sign a petition and take control of their public school.
The proposal was strongly supported by Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee.
Florida parent groups rallied against the law, saying it was a ploy by the for-profit charter companies to trick parents and take over more schools.
In this post, one of Florida’s leading parent groups–Fund Education Now–explains why it opposes the “parent trigger.”
Coach Sikes, our reliable Florida informant, describes how that state’s for-profit charter chains are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into four key races for the state senate.
This past spring, the state senate deadlocked on a 20-20 vote and did not pass a parent trigger law supported by right-wingers Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee.
Even some Republican senators turned against the proposal when not a single Florida parent group supported it.
Every Florida parent group opposed it. They warned that the parent trigger was a transparent attempt by the charter operators to trick parents into handing their public school over to the charter chains.
By funding opposition to the senators who oppose the parent trigger, the for-profit charter chains are demonstrating that the parent groups were right.
We’ll be watching these elections this November and hoping for the victory of the state senators who listen to their constituents, not to the big money and profiteers.
A reader this morning said I should make a clear distinction between what the Republicans and the Democrats say/do about education.
I wish I could.
Race to the Top is no different from No Child Left Behind, other than the timetable.
It shares the same assumptions that testing, choice, and data are the magic keys to the kingdom of 100% proficiency.
The waivers to NCLB are more of the same data-mania.
A reader sent me this survey from Governor Scott Walker’s education department. Testing and data, plus charters and vouchers.
That’s the combination that won a waiver.
Why doesn’t Arne Duncan ever speak out against what is happening in Louisiana? in Tennessee? in Florida? in Ohio? in Indiana?
Why doesn’t Obama?
Why is there no prominent Democratic voice standing up against privatization?
Strange bedfellows.
Coach Bob Sikes put together a blog about the corporate supporters of Jeb Bush’s crusade for digital learning.
If you go back and read the report of the “Ten Elements of Digital Learning,” I suggest you scan the acknowledgments and you will find a representative of almost every corporation trying to sell hardware or software to the schools.
The other thing you need to know about the report is that it is based on zero evidence. It cites a US Department of Education study of evidence-based policy for online instruction, and that is supposed to impress the casual reader and make him/her think there is evidence to put every child online as much as possible. But I read that study and it says (p. 53) we don’t know enough about online instruction to make decisions in the K-12 area. There have been only five studies, not enough, the report says.
The accumulating evidence from places like Ohio and Pennsylvania is that online virtual schools are driven more by profit than by a desire to produce better education.
I just finished a chapter on this subject, and feel incensed that so much effort is being expended to spread the gospel on virtual schooling in the absence of evidence about where, where, and to whom. Certainly online instruction is important and necessary, but there is no support in research to have millions of chlldren home schooled in front of a computer, with the virtual school collecting millions of dollars while teachers have classes of 60:1, 100:1, even 200:1, at low pay.
This is a stunning article. A real journalistic achievement.
It shows in remarkable detail how certain politicians and investors and entrepreneurs are working together to privatize public education and to generate huge profits for certain companies.
Read this.
This is a good one. Florida charter chain Charter USA is expanding into Indiana, where it will run three charter schools. It is a for-profit operator. The states where it operates don’t require it to spend any minimum on educating kids. So it has enough money left over in its profits to make political contributions. According to our friend Coach Sikes, Charter USA contributed to the political campaign of state superintendent Tony Bennett, who in turn will be real friendly in granting more charters so they will have more profits to contribute to more political campaigns. Florida taxpayers are subsidizing Indiana’s race for state superintendent.
Remember education reform? Oh, that.
In response to another reader, this Florida teacher describes a plan for teacher professionalism that worked very well but was de-funded by the Legislature.
In Florida, we used to have a system in place for such merit: It was pay for National Board Certification. Teachers went through a very rigorous process of evaluations, lesson planning, test-taking, etc. over a year and submitted their work to a national organization to be evaluated. It was a tough process, and not every teacher made it. Some teachers took several years of re-submitting their work before they were considered National Board Certified.
Once teachers earned initial certification, they were expected to become mentor teachers to newer teachers. The idea was to help develop and retain other strong teachers in the field.
Florida used to pay for the costly process of becoming certified. Once teachers were certified, they got an bonus of several thousand dollars- merit pay if you will- each year. They even had to re-certify every few years. Beyond that, NBCT teachers were paid bonus money for the number of hours they put in mentoring.
So what happened to this system of merit pay? It got cut. Completely done away with. The legislature used to fully fund it, but even before the economy tanked (because of course, that would be the argument for doing away with a program that actually improved the teaching profession and retained the best teachers) they cut all funding for the program. The very same legislators who pushed through our ill-conceived current merit pay plan- cut all funding for a merit-pay program that was actually working.
And how much funding is there now for our current merit-pay plan based strictly on test scores? Nada. Nothing. Zilch. How in the world does any businessman propose a merit pay plan with no actual merit?
It’s destined to fail in every capacity. Well, except one: increasing the bottom-line for test companies. As we divert (not come up with new funding, but divert from existing classroom funds) millions of dollars into hundreds of new poorly-written tests meant to “fit” this merit pay plan and determine who the “best” teachers are.
And as others have said, you are trying to quantify something that can’t be measured. Bonuses for coaching, sponsoring clubs, taking on leadership roles, extra tutoring, going through rigourous evaluation systems like National Board, I could buy it- those generally are your best teachers who truly are there for the kids.
But what we are doing with test scores is a complete joke. This WILL fail and I pray in a few years the pendulum starts to swing back towards common sense.
A reader has a suggestion for the next Comissioner of Education in Florida. I am mentioning this because he made me laugh out loud. More than once.
I actually think that Bill Gates might like this job. He could try his bracelets on the kids, and use Florida as a kind of laboratory for reform. Florida always scores near the bottom with testing anyway, so what the hell. It is all the fault of the unions…oh I forgot, they don’t have unions, sorry. It may be something to do with the heat and optimal temperature for brain function. The kids could wear special helmets that would reduce the temperature of their heads to 72 degrees. He could lower the teaching requirements and start pulling people off the street to come in and try to raise test scores. “Hey you with the surfboard!” “Have you ever thought about being a teacher for two years?” “Put down that board and come with me.” Something like that. The rich people (the people who count/the job creators) already send their kids to private schools, so he wouldn’t get any pesky lawsuits. It sounds like a plan. Maybe he could bring Rhee in with him to fire them after two years. He could bring them in off the street, and Rhee could shout “no excuses for poverty” and fire them. I have some e-mails to write.
Diane Ravitch's blog 