LWVeducation
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.
Carol told me that in his application for Superintendent in Palm Beach County, Robert Avossa spoke of his passion for public education. He did not suggest he would turn Palm Beach into a charter school district. Now, this is exactly what he wants the Florida legislature to do. Fulton District Schools in Georgia, where Avossa was Superintendent, became a charter district under his watch. Carol says she has a wonderful blues CD by BB King performing at San Quentin prison. He sings ” Nobody loves me but my mother , and she could be jiving me too”.
AlterNet published another story on the origins of school choice in Florida. The story begins with Jeb Bush’s term as governor. What may have been intended to dramatically improve schools only turned out to be dramatic in the number of reports of corruption and chaos. The article ties together the power brokers and the growth of for-profit charter schools.
It is a money and politics tale. You can read it here: How Jeb Bush’s Florida Plan School ‘Choice’ Created Industry Corruption and Chaos. You will find reports about the League of Women Vote’s study including data from Sue Legg and Pat Hall (LWV Hillsborough).
By Margery Marcus, LWV Broward County
The local Broward League interviewed the principal of Pinewood School. Their story is one most districts must consider. How do you balance student needs, financial support, and school choice in a diverse district. School grades reflect the socio-economic backgrounds of students. Remove a large group of higher income families, and a school’s grade goes down. Create a magnet program in a low income school, the grade goes up. Perhaps even more important, maintaining a reasonable balance of students from different backgrounds allows a culture of possibility and achievement to flourish. Without a view into a larger world, schools get mired in defeat.
The League will continue to watch Pinewood in the hope that the district will not abandon it. There is support coming for the school.
Jeff Bryant has done it again. In today’s AlterNet, he writes about How Jeb Bush’s Florida Plan for School Choice Created an Industry of Corruption and Chaos. Bryant quotes Rosemarie Jensen, from United OptOut and Nan Rich, former State Senator whose views on charters have changed as they watched the consequences of school choice in Florida. As early as two years after Governor Bush launched school choice, it became clear that money, not improving education was the driving force in Florida.
Much of the profits in charter schools derive from real estate dealings. Charter management companies have their own companies. They build or purchase facilities and lease them to charter school boards, often at exorbitant rates. Bryant summarizes reports of corruption and abuse that has ensued. The case in Broward County quotes League studies of rapid expansion at the cost of traditional public education.
This is a comprehensive article that underscores the problems associated with inadequate planning and oversight of charters. The Senate Education Committee is planning hearings. They need to hear from you.
Some groups are making teachers into scapegoats to justify opposition to unions, taxes, or facing problems in low income neighborhood schools. In a 20014 speech, U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan claimed that academically, our teachers were in the bottom third of their college class. He argues that new teachers are underprepared, and low-income students get short changed. Somehow better qualified teachers would improve our ranking on international tests.
A New York Times article by Daniel Willingham Teachers Aren’t Dumb takes a different view and gives facts to back it up.
There is a debate about the validity of school grades. There are reasons to think twice about releasing the 2015 results. School grade formulas change regularly, so it is difficult to know whether the grading formula, the characteristics of the student body, and/or statewide test results have the greatest impact on a school grade. The school grade formula will change again this year. In addition, the grading system has a new set of challenges.
What will happen with the new school grade system that calculates achievement gains based on scores from two different tests: FCAT and FSA? Even if the passing standard is equated to ensure the same percentage of students pass, it does not mean that students are proficient on the new standards. It means that school grades will move around until the DOE matches the items with the standards as suggested in the FSA validity study.
I looked at Palm Beach’s school grades over the last five years. Grades in most schools shift from one year to the next. This cannot be due to changes in instruction! Then, I looked at how grades were calculated. Therein ‘lies the rub’.
I wrote this piece as a lead in to the testing forum sponsored by the Gainesville Sun on September 16th. The issues are there. So are some ways to think a little differently about current tests and testing alternatives. The article was published today. It starts like this: “Florida has been using tests to drive instruction for years”. It ends with putting Florida’s legislature to the test. In between are some ways to think about improving our schools. See the article here.
Nathan Crabbe, the Gainesville Sun’s editor, announced a forum on testing to be held on September 16th at 6 p.m. in Pugh Hall on the University of Florida campus. He will moderate a panel that includes Superintendent Owen Roberts, Sue Legg (President Alachua County League of Women Voters, Susan Bowles (Teacher of the Year), and Shan Goff, Foundation for Excellence in Education.
The latest feature on the Pinellas County Schools neglect of low-income minority schools lets the children tell their stories. Anyone who thinks that these children do not know better and can not do better should listen carefully to what these children say. Promises for help from the district were not kept. Teachers gave up.
What will be done to fix a problem the district helped create. Charters are not to blame; they are nowhere near.
Late yesterday, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that charter schools were unconstitutional. The lawsuit was brought by the League of Women Voters, the Washington Education Association, and the State District Superintendents. Charters are new to Washington, only a few opened last year. More are scheduled to open this year. There is a twenty day period for response to the ruling.
The basis for the ruling is explained below.