LWVeducation
Last week the Alachua County school board faced some harsh realities. The teacher shortage has hit home. We now have long term substitutes for positions we cannot fill. Board members attended the Rally in Tally to support our schools and teachers. They announced that 4,000 people were there.
Perhaps the most hopeful moment at the board meeting came when a parent, Kanh-Lien Banko spoke.
I saw a bit of trivia in the Tampa Bay Times the other day. It made me laugh or cry, not sure which, at life’s absurdities.
Based on VAM achievement gain scores only, 32 teachers in 18 districts had highly effective evaluations and 5 districts had elementary teachers who consistently earned unsatisfactory ratings over 4 years. Such small numbers can only mean that VAM scores are worthless.
There are 175,006 teachers in Florida. Could it just possibly be that VAM scores reflect which students are assigned to a teacher rather than which teacher is assigned to a class? It does not take high level critical thinking to answer this question.
The Florida legislature could come up with a better evaluation system. Almost any one of the options would be better if laced with a little common sense.
This week’s rally against the FEA lawsuit brought out 10,000 people. If those people lived in Ireland, many would change their views. The Catholic Church runs almost all public schools in Ireland. It’s in their constitution. What does this mean for non-Catholics?
In today’s New York Times, there is a report of a growing movement to separate church and state. Here’s why:
Irish law guarantees freedom of religion in public schools, but it also allows enrollment based on religious preference. In reality, parents have little choice.
Florida’s system of choice moves the educational system toward exclusion and religious, racial, and socioeconomic segregation. There is a lawsuit over this in Florida. There is also one in Ireland. Our founding fathers recognized this problem.
We need to reaffirm the need to keep church and state separate. When the shoe is on the other foot, as in Ireland, it hurts.
Was the Common Core movement simply botched or just renamed? We know that most states have adapted their state standards to align with but not mirror Common Core standards. We also know that there is substantive reasons for concerns over the suitability of the standards especially for primary school age children.
Yes, the tests are also not perfect. Even worse, the test and punish mentality is worse than the problems that Common Core is supposed to correct. You cannot use the ‘drill and test’ instructional method to teach critical thinking and problem solving. The tests themselves, moreover, are a work in progress. Questions are complex and testing is time consuming. If the end of year assessment paradigm were scrapped for a periodic diagnostic testing program, everyone would benefit.
The deeper question that has to be addressed is: Why the Common Core in the first place? Politicians and educational policy analysts are grappling with a genuine concern for the future opportunities for our children. They clearly are–too often–using strongman techniques to get their message across. What message is it? It is one we need to hear.
The World Economic Forum just published its report on The Future of Jobs. We know that traditional middle and lower middle class jobs are disappearing. New jobs are being created that require different skill sets–and those skill sets tend to change rapidly.
How must the educational sector adapt to meet these new conditions? This is a vitally important issue. Our local district’s advisory council has been charged with evaluating its career and vocational programs. What would the World Economic Forum advise us to do?
HR
workforce parity
dichotomy between Humanities and Sciences and applied and pure training
life long learning and reskilling
NEA has created an online petition to end high stakes testing. The high stakes relate to student promotion, teacher evaluation, and school grades.
The new ESSA bill requires annual testing, but states now have the authority to change how scores are used.
Here is the link to the petition.
Just click the link and complete the information. You can make a difference.
The constitutional amendment to create a state charter school system passed the House K-12 subcommittee this morning. We really do not want this. Contact your legislators. It would take a 60% vote in the Florida House and Senate to put it on the November ballot.
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I just saw a post from Diane Ravitch citing a New York Daily News report. Parents have organized against Success Academy Charter Schools in New York. I wondered when this lawsuit would happen. The charges include:
Capital Intrigue: Tallahassee Democrat January 16, 2016. In response to the rally in Tallahassee for tax credit scholarships for private schools, the League of Women Voters received the……
–Florida League of Women Voters President Pamela Goodman
This session the legislature has bills ranging from accountability to discipline and sex, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. The State LWV Florida sent out a helpful list of education bills that will be heard in committee tomorrow. The Tallahassee Democrat overview is helpful to understand the legislative priorities.
The lead article in today’s Gainesville Sun features the Citizen’s for Strong Schools lawsuit coming to trial in March. The story reports on the 5forChange meetings that are being organized at schools around the county to help raise funds. Two local citizens organized this effort. I hope other counties take up the effort and spread the word.
Read the article. Spread the word. The time is now to force a better future for our children.
