LWVeducation
by Carol Clark Hentschel, Broward County
Maybe not everything is decided by how much money is thrown at a problem. Maybe some people tell it like it is. This has happened in Broward County, Florida. Common sense ruled. Find out why Broward’s school board said no to over three million dollars. Here is a post from LWV Broward.
by Carol Clark Hentschel, Palm Beach
Palm Beach has had more than its share of problems with failing charter schools. Citizens there want better management oversight. Carol is the Palm Beach League’s education team chair. She makes a strong argument that the time is now for change. The buck stops with us. We have to insist on better accountability and oversight.
An important vote on H.R. 5 is scheduled Friday. While the League of Women Voters supports national curriculum guidelines and assessment of skills that compares the student achievement across similar districts, it also supports local implementation of the curricula and skills. The operative definition of the League’s position is that all children should have access to an equitable, quality education. To what extent does this bill have the desired result?
The bill severely cuts the role of the U.S. Department of Education. It also freezes funding until 2021. Finally, it increases support for charter schools and allows Title I funding for low income schools to be moved to other schools. The bill has generated controversy. Specific requirements follow.
If you wish to contact your legislators, a contact list is below.
Education Commissioner Pam Stewart issued her report on high stakes testing in Florida. Yes, students are tested too much. Some testing can be eliminated. Which ones?
Are the recommendations meaningful or just a peace offering? The report lists the number of days of required statewide testing as seven or fewer, but districts have many more mandated tests. Their tests, however, tend to be used to diagnose learning problems as students progress throughout the year.
Senators Montford and Legg have filed bills to modify the Florida Accountability System. Their views differ, particularly on the dates for implementing the accountability measures for school grades and teacher evaluations. Both bills address district readiness capacity for computer based testing.
The Senate version of the education bill (See: US Senator Lamar Alexandar Bill ) and the House version differ mostly on the requirements for achievement testing.
The House version is a reintroduction of last year’s Student Success Act. Both version emphasize returning control to the states.
A summary of the House version follows. We will track the bills. Check Legislative Updates on the rotating banner for the blog. It is the photo of the green chalkboard.
If as we hear, the best teachers tend to gravitate to where the better students are, how do we help low achieving students?
Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, believes that a culture of ‘good enough’ exists in some schools that has to be changed.
Grading schools and teachers drives change to help students, so the argument goes.
Good teachers do make a difference in student learning in a school that supports their efforts. How much students learn in a year, adjusted by other factors, is the value added measurement (VAM) used to identify good teachers. This is a tricky business. Even the experts do not agree how accurate they are. Read to the end of the post, I saved the best until last.
Florida’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.
The 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.
Federal officials will tell you that education is a state responsibility, but federal dollars impact state policy.
So, if Race to the Top (RTT)
does lose it funding in the new Omnibus bill, what goes away?
What are the new education priorities in the bill? A listing from the U.S. Department of Education website gives a list of RTT grant initiatives that may be affected.
New priorities are set. School Improvement Grants (S.I.G.) remain.Continue reading
from Meredith Machen, New Mexico
Charter school oversight problems are rampant. In today’s New Mexican the State Auditor revealed a serious lack of oversight of charter schools by the State Public Education Department (PED).
At issue was charter school financial mismanagement and conflict of interest. The Auditor charged that the PED was unresponsive even though the school was raided by the FBI in August. This case highlights the struggle between local school districts vs. state control of the charter authorization and oversight process. This is only one of 18 cases nationwide of charter educational management firms nationwide that the U.S. Department of Education, the FBI, SEC, and IRS are investigatingContinue reading