LWVeducation
Patricia Levesque, CEO of the Foundation for Excellence in Education published a call to action today. She asks people to contact Pam Stewart, Florida’s Commissioner of Education, and let her know that Floridian’s want high standards. Of course they do.
The issue at stake is what does proficiency mean?
by Anne Marie Farmer, Nashville League of Women Voters
If you follow public education in Nashville, you’ve probably heard mention of the Achievement School District, or ASD. But, many people are unsure what the ASD is and how it impacts Nashville. This article is a quick primer on the ASD, its performance, and its footprint in our town.
At a meeting of the Florida State Board of Education in Miami, District Superintendent Carvalho argued that school grades should not be calculated, according to the Miami Herald. Carvalho stated that school grades were based on student gain scores as well as proficiency standards. Since this is the first year that the FSA is administered, there can be no gain scores.
State Board members responded that by law, school grades must be reported. They said that Governor Scott could prevent their use by executive order. The 25,000 letters that Senator Legg and Representative O’Toole complained about may have been sent to the wrong person.
Dale Russakoff was interviewed on NPR’s program Fresh Air today. Her comments were similar to those I reported yesterday. She added a few points that are important to consider:
I just finished reading Dale Russakoff’s book The Prize on the collapse of the Newark school reform effort. Newark was supposed to be the poster child for school reform. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook donated $100 million dollars. Cory Booker, Newark’s mayor became a television celebrity. Governor Christie was a staunch supporter until he wasn’t. Cami Anderson was hired to lead the charge. She left.
The book reads like an adventure story beginning with Booker and Christie trolling the streets of Newark in the dead of night.
I thought The Prize would be about charter schools. It really was not. It is about…
Senator’s Montford and Gaetz asked some hard questions of the Alpine testing company that did the FSA validity study. I agree that the mismatch of questions with specific standards is an issue. I agree that validity is relative; tests are not 100% valid for every purpose. Alpine states this clearly in its report.
I keep wondering why no one has brought up the fact that independent ratings of the complexity of the math and ELA tests revealed a serious mismatch with ratings done by DOE staff. The mismatches were systematic, so the math items were less complex than intended and the ELA items were more complex. The DOE should have had these questions evaluated but did not have time, so they did it in house. This problem can come home to roost when proficiency levels are created.
I posted about this earlier. I object to the word ‘slightly’ that was used in the report. Over one third of the items were affected. This is not a ‘slight’ problem. Here’s the data:
DOK ratings were slightly lower than intended in math because somewhat more items were intended to reflect level 2 but were rated level 1. Thirty-six percent of the math items were rated below the intended level.
DOK ratings were slightly higher expected in ELA because many were intended to reflect level 3 but were rated at level 2. Thirty seven percent of the ELA items were rated above the intended level.
Questions need to be asked about the way in which the DOE will adjust proficiency this year and in following years. With a mismatch of items and standards plus a mismatch of item complexity, one wonders what proficiency means.
The Gainesville Sun, The Bob Graham Center at the University of Florida, and the Alachua County League of Women Voters sponsored a panel on the over abundance of required tests in Florida public schools. Moderated by Nathan Crabbe, the panel included Superintendent of Schools Dr. Owen Roberts, Dr. Sue Legg, President, Alachua County League of Women Voters, Susan Bowles, Alachua County Teacher of the Year, and Shan Goff, Policy Director of the Florida Foundation for Excellence in Education.
The discussion was wide ranging. Questions were raised about the validity of the new Florida Standards Assessment, the rationale for and impact of annual testing, the use and misuse of achievement test scores for teacher and school accountability. Dr. Roberts spoke about the need for quality preschool educational programs rather than tests that do not help children learn. He laughed and said: If you want to help a pig gain, you feed it. You don’t just keep weighing it. Children’s brains need to be nourished, not measured to make them expand. You can watch the video here.
Sandy Stenoff posted this comment on Facebook:
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In this brief published by the National Educational Policy Center, Jennifer Rice expands on Horace Mann’s view of what it would take to provide equal opportunity in our schools. She asks: What is equal opportunity with respect to education and how to we measure it?
Her argument is expansive. It requires policy makers and the public to formalize policies that account for the social and economic role of schools in determining students’ life chances. She argues that if we commit schools to providing equal opportunity, it will broaden the evaluation of schools from a narrow academic achievement focus.
Providing equity requires a whole community to participate. Rice explains how. I give an example of a school in Orlando that shows this concept at work. It is startling! If it works so well in one school, how can a community plan differently to help all schools?
There are many ways to be heard. Responding to the DOE webinar and survey is one. Writing your legislators both at the state and national levels is another. Showing up at school board meetings can help. In the end, we will also need the courts.
There is a lawsuit: Citizens for Strong Schools that comes to trial in March. The suit supports public schools based on Florida’s constitutional requirement for a unified, strong, efficient, high quality system. Note the word ‘unified’. The school reform movement advocates privatizing our schools by creating charters and tax credit scholarships to private schools.
Southern Legal Counsel is the firm that has filed the Citizen’s for Strong Schools lawsuit. They are operating pro bono. If you can help them raise money to cover expenses, then go to their website. You can donate there. Just click the DONATE button. Any amount can help.
The new FSA cut scores have been released. There is a WEBINAR tomorrow about them. I signed up. You can too. Go to: FSA Cut Scores You need to register.
There is a SURVEY to complete for the DOE to give your feedback. You do not have to watch to complete the survey. The input survey is here.