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Florida: Testing and Accountability System is in Disarray

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2016 //
20

Florida led the way in creating a system where schools and students are judged by test scores. Florida has seen some test score gains, but it is nowhere near the top of the national field in national examinations. How many hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on testing, accountability, grading, and choice, with little to show for it?

 

Now parents and educators are at odds about how to straighten out a system that few have faith in. Jeb Bush may say on the campaign trail that he modernized education in Florida, but not many in Florida would agree with him.

 

The state board of education just agreed to make tests harder to pass, but easier for a school to get an A.

 

On one side is the business community, demanding higher standards and harder tests. On the other are parents and educators, complaining about the “test-and-punish” strategy. Educators are calling for a total overhaul.

 

But the biggest problem is:

 

“the growing lack of confidence in the 16-year-old education accountability system.

 

“We still contend that our accountability system needs to have another look-see,” said Pasco County school superintendent Kurt Browning, echoing the state superintendents association’s position. “We need to review it in total, not just pieces.”

 

Groups promoting tougher standards expressed dismay after the board’s vote, suggesting the outcome presents a too-rosy picture of student and school performance. Those who see the current model as “test and punish” were equally disappointed, saying the board stuck to the status quo rather than looking for ways to improve beyond “raising the bar.”

 

Even board members acknowledged their effort was incomplete. Lacking learning gains data, they asked Stewart to restart the conversation in the summer, after students have completed their spring FSAs.

 

“New standards, a new assessment, rollout challenges, and an absence of learning gains all impact the results in ways that we can’t predict,” board member Rebecca Fishman Lipsey said. “It seems responsible for us to wait for a second set of more complete data … then step back and ask ourselves if our grading system is set correctly.”

 

The question of whether school grading accomplishes its stated task of improving schools has long been a focal point of Florida education politics. It came into stark relief in 2013, though, when former education commissioner Tony Bennett — one of the nation’s biggest promoters of accountability and grading — resigned his Florida post over a school grades scandal in his home state of Indiana.

Categories Accountability, Florida, Testing

Tampa Bay Times: Charter Schools Rip Off Taxpayers

By dianeravitch
January 7, 2016 //
5

The Tampa Bay Times published an editorial expressing their disgust with the wheeling and dealing of charter school operators. This suggests an awakening. Enough is enough. Thanks to Jeb Bush, Florida is one of the charter-friendliest states in the nation. It has more than 600 charters. They open and close like day-lilies.

 

The editorial board writes:

 

Florida has invested heavily in privately run charter schools for years, and the payoff for taxpayers has been uneven at best. While some successful charter schools fill particular needs in local communities, too many have failed and research shows they have not outperformed traditional public schools in the state. Taxpayers also have lost millions in construction costs and other capital investments when charter schools have closed, and state lawmakers should revisit the oversight and funding for these schools.

 
The state has lost as much as $70 million in money for construction, rent and other costs when charter schools have closed over the last 15 years, a recent Associated Press analysis found. In Broward County, 19 now-closed charter schools received $16.5 million. In Hillsborough County, 17 now-closed charter schools received more than $5.4 million. In Pasco County, three now-closed charter schools received more than $900,000, and in Pinellas County three received almost $550,000. In Miami-Dade County, the Liberty City Charter that Jeb Bush helped establish before he ran for governor in 1998 received more than $1 million in capital money from the state before it closed with financial problems. Why should taxpayers be shouldering such financial risk and eating these losses for privately run schools?

 

 

It would be one thing if traditional public schools were flush with cash with no need for new construction or maintenance. In fact, the state’s 67 school districts received no new construction money for three years before finally dividing a modest $50 million last year (a handful of rural counties got another $59.7 million). Those facilities are used by more than 2.7 million students, yet far fewer charter schools that served about 230,000 students split $75 million. This year traditional schools and charter schools each received $50 million, and Gov. Rick Scott recommends public schools and charter schools each get $75 million for construction and maintenance for 2016-17. But a 50-50 split of the money is hardly fair. Pinellas County schools alone have more than $400 million in construction and capital needs over the next five years, yet the district has received just $8.1 million in construction and maintenance money from the state over the last five years.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Florida, Hoax

How the ALEC Stole the Public Out of Public Education

By dianeravitch
December 25, 2015 //
11

Teacher Andy Goldstein reads a poem which is a variation of Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

Andy, who teaches in the public schools of Florida, recites a poem called “How the ALEC stole the Public Out of Public Education.”

In Florida, the public school budget has become a playground for hucksters, scam artists, and profiteers. The charter industry has captured the Republican Party and the State Legislature. Crony capitalism at its worst.

Categories ALEC, Florida

Florida May Extend Its “Worst and Dumbest” Program

By dianeravitch
December 23, 2015 //
19

Valerie Strauss reports that Florida’s legislature may blow away another $44 million on a program that has been called “the worst and dumbest” in the state. This is the “best and brightest” bonus for teachers who got high SAT and ACT scores when they were in high school.

 

I earlier reported that the Florida Education Association has sued to block this program. But the Legislature evidently has fallen for the idea, even though it lacks a scintilla of evidence for its efficacy.

 

Strauss writes:

 

 

It turns out that about 5,200 teachers qualified and will get the bonuses soon — about 3 percent of Florida’s 170,000 eligible classroom instructors, the Sentinel reported, but there isn’t enough money to pay them all. One teacher not on the list: Florida’s teacher of the year, who was feted last summer at a black-tie event with Gov. Rick Scott.

 

And now, Florida lawmakers want to extend the program to go beyond one year. In fact, the state House education committee recently approved a bill to do just that. So this nonsense could easily last more than one year and waste more than $44 million.

 

Teachers who never took the SAT or the ACT don’t qualify for the bonus, nor do veteran teachers who can’t locate the scores of tests that they took many years ago. This isn’t merit pay or performance pay. It is a signing bonus for bright young people who make no commitment to stay.

 

This is a giveaway to Teach for America, the bright young kids who will get a $10,000 bonus before they start teaching, then leave after two or three years.

 

It is the “worst and dumbest” idea yet. At least in Florida.

Categories Education Reform, Florida

BREAKING NEWS: Florida Education Association Sues to Block Bonus Pay for New Teachers

By dianeravitch
December 21, 2015 //
7

The Florida Education Association is suing to block the implementation of a program that gives $10,000 bonuses to teachers with high SAT or ACT scores (taken in high school), but denies the bonuses to regular teachers unless they can not only produce their high school scores (20 years ago? 30 years ago?) but are rated “highly effective.” At the time the bill was passed, even some Republican legislators called it “the worst bill of the year.” It never had a hearing in the Senate. Its author wrote the bill after he read Amanda Ripley’s “The Smartest Kids in the World.”

 
December 21, 2015 Contact: Mark Pudlow 850.201.3223 or 850.508.9756

 
FEA files discrimination charges against
Best and Brightest teacher bonus program

 
The Florida Education Association (FEA) filed age and race discrimination charges today against the Florida Department of Education and the state’s school districts over implementation of the controversial Best and Brightest bonus program that was slipped into the state budget at the close of June’s special session of the Florida Legislature. FEA filed the charges with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Florida Commission on Human Relations.

 

“Too many high-quality teachers in Florida were denied access to this bonus program because of the unfair and discriminatory rules and short timeline set up by lawmakers,” said FEA President Joanne McCall. “This bonus plan wasn’t thought out very well and wasn’t properly vetted in the Legislature and that has resulted in many good teachers unfairly denied access to this bonus.”

 

In the complaint, FEA notes that the Legislature appropriated more than $44 million for salary bonuses of a maximum of $10,000 each to teachers who received an evaluation of “highly effective” and who scored in the 80th percentile or above on their college admission test, either the SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) or the ACT (American College Testing). The law exempts all first-year teachers from the “highly effective” requirement.

 

The complaint says this bonus program discriminates against teachers who are older than 40 and minority teachers, providing these reasons:

 

· Because no percentile data is available from ACT or SAT for teachers who took these tests before 1972, such teachers are disqualified from receiving the bonus.

· The October 1 deadline for submitting applications for the bonus further discriminates against teachers older than 40 years old, because a disproportionate number of them took the ACT and SAT many years ago and were unable to get access to their scores from the testing programs before the deadline.

 

· The exemption of first-year teachers from the requirement that they provide evidence of being rated “highly effective” under the respondent employers’ performance evaluation system further discriminates against and has a disparate impact on teachers older than 40 years old. First-year teachers are overwhelmingly younger than 40 years of age.

 

· The bonus program also discriminates against African-American and Hispanic teachers by using the SAT and ACT as qualifiers. It has been well-established in the courts and peer-reviewed scholarship that the SAT and ACT are a racially and culturally biased tests that disparately impact test-takers on the basis of African-American and Hispanic race.

The complaint also notes that the SAT and ACT were not designed for measuring teacher performance, for use in granting salary bonuses, or for any other aspect of the Best and Brightest bonus program.

 

FEA is seeking to make sure all qualified teachers are able to get access to the bonus money if they are qualified.

 

The Florida Education Association is the state’s largest association of professional employees, with more than 140,000 members. FEA represents pre K-12 teachers, higher education faculty, educational staff professionals, students at our colleges and universities preparing to become teachers and retired education employees.

Categories Florida, Hoax, Teachers

Florida: Parents Organize to Fight for Recess in Elementary Schools

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2015 //
17

In Florida, there are laws governing how many minutes must be devoted to reading but there is no law requiring recess.

 

Some elementary schools have eliminated recess altogether. Some make it available only once a week.

 

The state does require 150 minutes of physical education each week. But that is not the same as recess, where children can play without adult direction.

 

Folks, we are talking about little children. They need time to stretch and run and play. They need time to exercise their bodies. Why are state officials allowing schools (or, compelling schools) to eliminate activity that is necessary for good health?

 

Fortunately, parents have begun to organize to demand that their children have recess every day.

 

Time for recess has been squeezed out in recent years, but now social media is helping parents, such as Lakeland mother Amanda Lipham, organize recess supporters.
Lipham says she organized the push for recess in Polk when she saw changes in her five year old son.

 

“He was losing his enthusiasm for school,” Lipham says. “His attitude was changing. I could see his spirit being broken.”

 

First, Lipham handed out flyers in the car line at her son’s elementary school, and she spoke out at a school board meeting. Then, she formed an online petition that garnered thousands of signatures.

 

Now parents are creating similar online petitions around the state. More than 2200 people have signed a petition to make recess mandatory in Pinellas County, This fall, Parents in Osceola County also started a petition demanding recess. And a similar effort in Orange County last year led to a school board resolution recommending that schools provide the breaks.

 

And that’s the way change might happen, says Judy Stockman, who teaches at Sykes Elementary school in Lakeland — when parents get involved.

 

You may be sick of hearing about Finland, but consider this: Elementary school students get a 15-minute recess after every class. They go outside and run around and play. Then they return to their classes refreshed and ready to learn. Sounds good to me.

 

 

 

 

Categories Childhood, Florida

Florida Legislature Considering Charter Bill for More Charters, More Accountability

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2015 //
11

The Florida legislature is debating a Republican proposal that would increase accountability for charters while making it easier to open new ones. The proposal, pushed by conservative Republicans, cleared a subcommittee on choice and innovation in the House. The state has more than 600 charters. It is a haven for flim-flam operators because of low accountability, lack of transparency or oversight. Florida charters are rife with conflicts of interest.

 

 

“The proposal…aims to weed out “bad actors” by requiring charter schools to disclose their finances on a monthly basis and to provide quality learning for their students. Any charter school that receives two consecutive “F” grades would be “automatically terminated.”

 

“The measure also would create the Florida Institute for Charter School Innovation to help charter school operators submit good applications to school districts and to better navigate the approval process.

 

“New this go-around: The proposal would establish a “High Impact Charter Network” to encourage charter schools to set up in “critical needs areas,” or those where traditional public schools have received school grades of “D” or “F” in four of the past five years. The bill includes a financial incentive to do so by automatically waiving a 5 percent administrative fee — roughly $87,000 for 250 students — that charter schools typically pay school districts.

 

“Another new provision would allow “high-performing” charter schools an easier way to replicate their model anywhere else in Florida. Instead of submitting their applications to local school districts, school operators could get them vetted by the new state-level institute instead.

 

“It would create opportunities to allow high-performing charter schools in other parts of the state. We want to make sure we encourage that as much as we can,” said Rep. Bob Cortes, R-Altamonte Springs, who is again heading up the proposal for the 2016 session.

 

“Charter contracts would still have to be negotiated by local school boards, but Democrats worry diverting applications to the institute might take away districts’ local control.

 

“Republicans countered that approving a charter school application isn’t a subjective decision — either the applicant’s proposal complies with state standards, or it doesn’t — and they want to start penalizing school districts that reject new charter schools for “arbitrary” reasons, such as simply not wanting more in their districts.

 

“You can’t just willy-nilly this approval because you think you don’t need anymore schools,” said Rep. Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah, the committee chairman.

 

“Under the committee bill, the administrative fee owed to school districts would be waived for any operator whose charter school application is denied by the district but approved on appeal.

 

“The bill is troubling to me,” Rep. Cynthia Stafford, D-Miami, said. “I believe it takes money away from traditional public schools. … We’re trying to solve a cash-flow problem for charter schools while ignoring traditional schools.”

 

 

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Florida

Florida: This Child Says the Tests Are Pointless

By dianeravitch
November 21, 2015 //
15

Bonnie Cunard Margolin is a blogger and parent activist in Florida. Her daughter did not take the state and local tests, and her mom is very proud of her.

 

Margolin writes:

 

This year, I have opted my 6th grade daughter out of all district and state testing. So, yesterday and today, while her classmates were taking the district test/ practice FSA writing assessment, she wrote an essay, on her own, instead. Here it is.
Julianne M. Cunard

ELA 6 ADV
18 September 2015
Testing: I Can Do the Math.
Learning is not just about taking a test. It is about understanding a lesson, not about sitting at a desk for hours, failing as you go. If you wanted to educate children, why is there an FSA, FCAT, FAIR, PARCC, LSAT, MCAT? What do all of these words mean to you? Is standardized testing effective in education? I can tell you what tests mean to me.
Testing is something I refuse to be a part of, even teachers don’t like these tests. From the article, “Putting it to the Test”, the author writes, “In September, Susan Bowles, a kindergarten teacher at Chiles Elementary School, received widespread buzz when she openly refused to administer the computer-based Florida Assessments for Instruction in reading, or FAIR.” Teachers are forced to read the script, exactly as written, scared of losing their jobs if not. There should not have to be a time in school where anyone feels extremely worried. At school, students should feel relieved and secure. Yet then, these tests come along.
If I walked into a room and saw everyone taking a district\state test, I would not be happy because the students are not learning anything. The author writes, “Teaching is an art. It is about connection. It is not about getting ready for a test that is designed 70 percent to fail. Our best teachers are leaving because they are being forced to do things in the classroom that they know is not for OUR KIDS! They are leaving for OUR KIDS!” That statement right there tells me that teachers have had enough. This is a good reason why testing is not good for education.
Teachers shouldn’t have to quit because they are forced to do something, it is their life, their class. Oh, but no… that teacher can’t talk about it. It’s all so “secret” because nobody knows how to opt out, except for the kids that know. They know how to opt out. They know they won’t fail their grade because of a test. They know they will sit there for an hour, sitting and doing nothing, everyone looking at them. They know they will get an NR2. Other kids don’t. They don’t know what an NR2 means. They DON’T know, they don’t… but they should. The one thing everyone knows in that classroom is that these district\state tests are unnecessary and ineffective.
Let’s see how the leaders would like it if we gave THEM a standardized test. Are you shocked that I said that? Well, nobody realizes how bad these tests are. One person says they are fine, but someone else will say not to take it. What do they do? This is way too much pressure for children… WAY too much. THEY ARE KIDS, TESTING FROM THIRD GRADE THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL. Innocent children testing every day. What did they ever do to you?
Some think that testing is not a big deal. It isn’t but when it’s every day, like standardized testing is, I believe that it is an outrage. From the article,”Mom- Why My Kids Won’t Be Taking the New Florida Standards Assessment Test”, the author writes, “They have to be quiet, have alternate scheduling, sit in a single classroom and learn NOTHING during “testing season” because others are testing. This is time they’ll never get back in their education.” The author is correct. What about the kids?
What if everyone wants to opt out, they know, but can’t because the leaders are telling them not to. The kids shouldn’t be punished for other’s repetitive mistakes.
There were seven hours of FSA testing that I did NOT do last year. Others did. Don’t you feel bad for the children, wasting all of that time? Yes, it’s a waste of time. I should know, I did the math, and I don’t need a test to prove it.
‪#‎ThisMomGivesHerAnA‬+

Categories Florida, Opt Out, Students, Testing

Perez and Sirota: Corporations Subsidized Marco Rubio’s Lifestyle

By dianeravitch
November 10, 2015 //
4

Investigative journalists Andrew Perez and David Sirota write that Marco Rubio led a luxurious life, subsidized by corporations.

This is the Florida way.

The good life:

In 2003, as a member of the Florida State House, Rubio created a special fundraising committee, called Floridians for Conservative Leadership, that could accept unlimited contributions. In the span of a year, the committee raised $228,000, with large donations from lobbyists, telecom giant AT&T, health plan manager WellCare and the state’s sugar conglomerates, Florida Crystals and U.S. Sugar. Not all of the contributors were disclosed, and some are listed simply as gold or silver memberships.

By mid-2004, the group had spent $193,000. More than a third of the committee’s money was spent on meals and travel. Some of those expenditures were made as reimbursements to Rubio and his wife, Jeanette. Other payments appear to be multiple items lumped together as single expenditures — an uncommon arrangement — like a $3,476 expense listed under “Citibank Mastercard” that includes hotel, airfare, meals and gas. Another $71,000 was spent on staff and consultants.

While Rubio was in the legislature in the February of 2004, he created a federal 527 organization with a similar name, called Floridians for Conservative Leadership in Government. Rubio was listed as the group’s president, with his wife as vice president. The committee raised $386,000 by the end of 2004, with donations from Hewlett-Packard, Dosal Tobacco Corporation and private prison company GEO Group, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service.

The federal group spent $316,000 by the end of 2005. The bulk of its spending was on consulting, but the committee also paid Rubio’s relatives roughly $14,000 for items wrongly described as “courier fees,” the Tampa Bay Times reported.

A  new definition of conservative.

Categories Florida, Politics

Hillsborough County Will Ditch Bill Gates’ Teacher Evaluation Plan

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2015 //
12

What if you build it and it collapses? Well, you can always try to “stay the course.”

Or, in the case of Hillsborough County, Florida, you can start all over again and just write off the millions of dollars already spent on a failed teacher evaluation system as a bad debt. Just pay it off and move on.

Valerie Strauss reports that the new superintendent of schools in Hillsborough County (who followed MaryEllen Elia, who was fired, then hired as New York State Commissioner of Education) has decided to drop the Gates-funded teacher evaluation plan. Gates promised $100 million but delivered only $80 million because the approach wasn’t working.

Strauss writes:

Here we go again. Another Bill Gates-funded education reform project, starting with mountains of cash and sky-high promises, is crashing to Earth.

This time it’s the Empowering Effective Teachers, an educator evaluation program in Hillsborough County, Florida, which was developed in 2009 with major financial backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A total of more than $180 million has been spent on the project since then — with Gates initially promising some $100 million of it — but now, the district, one of the largest in the country, is ending the program.

Why?

Under the system, 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation would be based on student standardized test scores and the rest by observation from “peer evaluators.” It turned out that costs to maintain the program unexpectedly rose, forcing the district to spend millions of dollars more than it expected to spend. Furthermore, initial support among teachers waned, with teachers saying that they don’t think it accurately evaluated their effectiveness and that they could be too easily fired.

Now the new superintendent of schools in Hillsborough, Jeff Eakins, said in a missive sent to the evaluators and mentors that he is moving to a different evaluation system, according to this story in the Tampa Bay Times. It says:

“Unlike the complex system of evaluations and teacher encouragement that cost more than $100 million to develop and would have cost an estimated $52 million a year to sustain, Hillsborough will likely move to a structure that has the strongest teachers helping others at their schools.”

Eakins said he envisions a new program featuring less judgmental “non-evaluative feedback” from colleagues and more “job-embedded professional development,” which is training undertaken in the classroom during the teacher work day rather than in special sessions requiring time away from school. He said in his letter that these elements were supported by “the latest research.”

This may be the beginning of the end for test-based accountability. It has not worked anywhere, and it has cost the schools of the nation hundreds of millions–or more likely–billions of dollars that would have been better spent on reducing class sizes, promoting desegregation, opening health clinics, and hiring teacher of the arts.

Categories Failure, Florida, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teacher Evaluations
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