Increase FSA passing standards?

Senate bill SB 926 contains a phrase that changes the name of the level 3 on the FSA from ‘satisfactory’ to ‘proficient’.  What does that mean?  Amendment # 351834 was filed to find out.

It asks the Commissioner of Education to study achievement levels and their relationship to student performance and success.  The Commissioner is charged to recommend changes in the meaning of the achievement levels to the Governor and the Speaker, the President of the Senate and the State Board of Education by July 2018.

This is the procedure that is required in existing law to change performance standards on the FSA.  It has been tried before.  What would the approximate impact be?

 

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Compromise reached in Senate to improve testing bill

Flores’ bill regarding state assessment requirements has several amendments that improve the bill.  The bill now includes several of Senator Montford’s bill to reduce testing  in schools.  The bill:
1.  use of value added model optional
2.  eliminates EOC requirement for Algebra II, Geometry, US History and Civics
3.  removes change from ‘satisfactory to proficiency’ language for the level three assessment score.
4.  developmental milestones for preschool education
There are 13 amendments that come up today at 1:30 in the Education Committee.    The changes in this bill are in response to the concerns that Senator Simmons had with regard to the manner in which some members of the committee ‘borrowed’ provisions included in Senator Montford’s bill to improve testing policy.

N. Y. Times: Who Needs Charters When You Have Schools Like This!

Ask children, teachers, and parents about time.  They will likely say:  “There’s not enough time in a day to do what needs to be done”.    There are ways to do something about it.  We in Alachua County have been talking about how to reorganize the day to fit in pre school, hands on academic programs, school activities, and after school activities in a semi rational way.  We are asking if it is possible, without large influxes of money, to make an 8-5 school day.  Could all of these activities happen in one place without driving teachers to distraction??  Our local league will study examples of how this could be done.

Professor David Kirp, University of California, Berkeley, already has some successful examples.  In Tulsa, Oklahoma the  Union school district has implemented a community-based school program that has defied the demographic odds. School attendance has soared, achievement has risen, and suspensions have plummeted.  We need schools like that here.

We have one school, Howard Bishop, that has been identified as a community school.  It is just starting in that direction this year, and has not expanded to the full eight hour day.  The community social services support, however,  are centered not in various offices in town, but in the school.  They have a ways to go to catch up with the Union school district, but the Children’s Home Society is helping them.

We all need to help community schools make progress.  If nothing else, you can help financially.  It is not all about money, though.  Oklahoma has lower per student funding than Florida, and this district has found a way to expand the day and still make ends meet.  Let’s find out how.

With community support we can begin to dream of a world where the lack of time does not manage us; we manage time!  Let’s see if we can make our public schools the envy of the world of choice.

 

Retain Students or Do not Retain?

A lot of hoopla has been centered around third grade retention based on Florida assessment scores.   It was credited for the large increase in Florida’s fourth grade reading scores.  Something went wrong, however, in eighth grade.  What went ‘wrong’ may have nothing to do with the quality of instruction.  If so, what could explain the apparent decrease in eighth grade achievement?  Some possibilities are suggested.

The case for retention.  Retention became mandatory for third grade in 2002-03.  Florida, however, retains students beginning in kindergarten as the above chart shows. Thirteen percent of third graders were retained.  An additional nine percent of the lowest scoring students were promoted with a ‘good cause exemption’ such as a portfolio, an approved alternative test or consideration of a type of disability, and certain English language proficiency rules.

Retention helped (58%) some students according to a 2006 Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) study.  It certainly boosted the image of the ‘Florida miracle’ of achievement increase.  In spite of the publicity about school reform measures, however, the chart below shows the greatest improvement occurred between 1998 and 2002, before reforms and mandatory retention were implemented.  Florida went from below the national average in fourth grade reading and math scores to above the national average.  Some gains continued afterward.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Changes in retention policy.  Over the years, retention has diminished because more exemptions were granted.  (Some students were simply getting too old for the grade in which they were enrolled.)  In 2014-15, the Florida Department of Education granted exemptions to 28,436 third grade students.

Note below the significant decrease in non promotions in 2014-15, in spite of enrollment increases, especially for third and ninth grade.

Retentions:    2002-03          2014-15

Kindergarten: 13,278             7,674

First Grade:    15,360             8,250

Third Grade:   27,713            9,458

Ninth Grade:   51,638            9,870

As of 2011-12, only fourteen states mandated third grade retention.  Florida’s high retention rates compared to other states no doubt helped boost its fourth grade National Assessment of Education Progress (N.A.E.P.) scores in earlier years, but there may be more to that story.

Questions about the value of retention.  When results are not clear, opposition grows.  HB 131  Cortes (SB 1280 Rodriquez) have been filed to end third grade retention.

The big puzzle now perplexing the legislature, Senator Stargel SB 360 in particular, is why Florida’s fourth grade NAEP reading scores are six points higher than the national average, but eighth grade scores are just average.    Fourth grade math scores are higher than average, but eighth grade math scores are consistently lower.  Stargel proposes a study to find the answer.    A look at the NAEP data gives some clues:

In fourth grade, 39% of students score at or above the NAEP reading proficiency level.   Only thirty percent do so in eighth grade.   These are the top scoring students. 

One would expect that the percentage of high scoring students would be relatively the same for fourth and eighth grades unless, in some way, students’ characteristics change from elementary to middle school.  What could account for the difference?

Do Florida students’ reading skills get worse over time?  This seems unlikely.  There was a relatively large increase in reading scores for eighth grade in 2009, and scores have only fluctuated slightly since then.

Other possible explanations.  Perhaps eighth grade student characteristics are now different than in fourth grade?  How could this be?  There are several ways to explore this possibility:

  • Florida’s retention policy is more extreme than most other states’ policies.  Thus, Florida has more students who have been in school longer by fourth grade than do other states.  One would expect their reading and math levels to be higher.  This advantage may be lost by eighth grade when these skills are more complex.
  • Does Florida’s school choice policy pull out more low scoring students in elementary grades, thereby elevating its fourth grade scores compared to other states?  Do many of these students return to public schools in middle school and lower the state achievement scores?

We know from Florida DOE data that the Florida tax credit program enrollment drops more than one half between kindergarten and eighth grade.  Which students leave the private schools and which remain?  If the struggling students leave, as the DOE evaluations suggest, eighth grade scores in public schools would decline.

A similar examination of the achievement levels of students who return to public schools from charter schools between fourth and eighth grade may also shed some light on the changing student achievement

I welcome an evaluation of Florida’s school accountability approach to improving student learning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supreme Court Supports Standards for Students with Disabilities

Are schools expected to do more than provide minimum educational standards for students with special needs.  According to this report, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that students with disabilities must be given the opportunity to make ‘appropriately ambitious progress’ consistent with federal law.

Approximately thirteen percent of all children between 3-21 have some type of disability.  Complaints that students are given minimal academic standards triggered the lawsuit.  In this case, Endrew v. Douglas, Endrew was a fifth grade autistic boy whose IEP plan had not changed from one year to the next.  The family withdrew him from public school and enrolled him in a private school where he did make progress.  The family then sued for tuition reimbursement.

Senate Committee Considers Testing: New Bill Likely

It would seem that a new bill on reducing the testing requirement is likely to emerge says Senate Education Committee acting chair  Wilton Simpson.  Currently, Senator Flores supports moving the state assessment tests to the end of the school year.  Senator Montford’s bill actually reduces the number of tests, moves testing to the end of the year, and decouples FSA gain scores from teacher evaluations.  Gain scores have been largely discredited because they are not stable indicators of teachers’ effectiveness.

Watch for the compromise bill in the Senate.  The House version of this bill, HB 773, eliminates no tests.  It moves the testing window.

 

 

 

Origins of Florida’s Tax Credit Vouchers–Or, Don’t Buy a Pig in a Poke

Diane Ravitch requested this article.  As I wrote it, I was struck by what a small, but politically well connected club was behind Florida’s choice movement.  They attracted big money to sell their ideas.  The end result, in spite of the growth of Florida’s tax credit vouchers, shows that: Not all Choices are Good Choices. 

Following Jeb Bush’s 1994 defeat in his run for governor, he dented his image.  According to a Tampa Bay Times report, in a televised debate Bush responded ‘not much’ when asked what he would do for black voters.  Faced with criticism, he launched a charter school in Miami, and the school choice movement in Florida began.

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Perspectives on Florida’s FTC Private School Tuition Programs

Public schools are the foundation of our democracy.  Yet, too often school choice divides rather than unifies communities. Parents want the best for their children, but when are choices good choices?  In this radio interview, Sue Legg and Charles Showalter discuss the issues surrounding the Florida Tax Credit Scholarships.  You can listen to Tuesday’s broadcast here.

Florida Appeals Court Overturns Ruling Supporting OPT OUT Parents

The Florida Appeals Court stated that the Leon County district court did not have jurisdiction over parents’ complaints about third grade retention based upon the Florida Statewide Assessment scores.  Instead, the court determined that the lawsuits should have been filed in local district courts where parents resided.  According to the Orlando Sentinel report, the Appeals Court ruling declared that the state assessment had a laudable purpose to ‘assess whether the student has a reading deficiency and needs additional reading instruction before or after being promoted to fourth grade’.