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Education Issues Blog

To Educate and Inform on Issues Relating to Public Education

Introduction

Our blog is a tool box. Make it work for you. Here you will find data, studies, and perspectives that inform the discussion about school choice. Send stories of events in your state. Tell us about studies that clarify issues. Do your own studies. Use the information you find here to advocate for League positions.

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VISIT THE COMMITTEES. You will see the latest on national school reform issues. Learn about school and teacher ACCOUNTABILITY, CURRICULUM, LAWS, MANAGEMENT, FACILITY issues, and VOUCHER concerns. We will post questions of the week about the hot topics. Participate through our contact icon.

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Helping Children, Not Test Scores

team-150149_1280Florida’s DOE did a good thing for 3rd graders today.    We have been talking about NAEP results in Florida for fourth grade.  See Testing: Maybe we should require statistics.  I mentioned some published concerns about third grade retention policies that might skew fourth grade test results.  If students who fail FCAT are retained, then fourth grade NAEP scores should look better.  After all, the children who struggle the most are still in 3rd grade.  Guess what I found out today.  Children should do a happy dance.

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Testing: Maybe We Should Require Statistics?

Seeing the World with Rose Colored GlassesThe Commissioner of Education, Pam Stewart did a presentation today about testing in Florida’s public schools.  Part of her comment about the impact of testing on student achievement in Florida was  unsettling, or just plain wrong.  In the video of the Education Appropriations Committee meeting today, she said Florida’s children from low-income families tested number one in the country and other groups were in the top 10.  It is a rosy view of the situation.

 

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Beware of Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

graph-41423_1280I liked this book when I read it years ago.  Still do. I really look at numbers and think about what they do and do not tell us.  When I learned that the Florida Legislature had changed the evaluator for the Florida Tax Credit scholarship (FTC) program, I wondered why.

Before we judge, let’s look at the data from the April 2014 FTC scholarship program for private schools.  These are the scholarships funded by tax rebates to corporations.

How are tax credit voucher programs evaluated in other states?  Let us know.  Here is what was reported in Florida.

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Pure Serendipity: Thinking Outside the Box

outside the boxReading Freakonomics (by Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner) was supposed to be a lark for me.  You know, perusing fun ideas. There are certainly some of those.  Who would believe, however, that the book was full of information about educational reform!  Now the title of the book really makes me smile.

Some interesting data about Chicago schools may explain U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s thinking.  For some students, there really is a problem that no one can solve alone, and it is the culture of some schools that inhibits learning.  Is it better to help a few to leave a bad situation than to do nothing?  Or, do you take on the whole problem knowing you do not have the resources and capability to solve it?  People will be hurt; children will be lost either way.  What would you do?  Leavitt’s data makes you think out of the box.

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