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Twin Story: What Really Happened to Pinewood
How can a school go from an ‘A’ to a ‘D’ in three years? Pinewood was an ‘A’ school serving over 1000 students for many years. About sixty percent of its students were economically disadvantaged. A higher than average number of students were English language learners or had learning disabilities. By any measure, Pinewood was a public school success story. The charter located across the street was half the size. It had 20 percent fewer economically disadvantaged students, and it earned only a ‘B’ grade from the State. Then, Pinewood’s world began to change.
A Twin Study in Broward
by Margery Marcus, LWV of Broward
Margery’s compares two schools located across the street from one another, Pinewood traditional elementary and North Broward Academy charter school. Pinewood used to earn a ‘B’ school grade. The schools could be fraternal twins, but now one earned a ‘D’ and the other an ‘A’. I was intrigued. So, I went back through the data for the last three years to see if there were changes in the schools over time. There were.
- For two of the years, Pinewood had twenty percent fewer students proficient on the kindergarten readiness test than North Broward (74%-92%). In 2012-13, there was a 40% difference. Clearly, North Broward has attracted better prepared students.
- Broward’s district achievement levels are nearly identical from one year to the next. However, Pinewood’s FCAT proficiency levels go down somewhat over time, especially in third grade, and North Broward’s go up.
- Pinewood’s staff is stable; they had 16% new teachers compared to 43% new teachers at North Broward. They were not likely to become less effective in three years. Yet, school grades kept declining.
- Pinewood lost 100 of its 716 students in three years. North Broward gained fifty students (683) over the same period.
- The mix of students also changed. Pinewood gradually increased its percentage of economically disadvantaged students to 80% in 2014 compared to 75% at North Broward.
Margery states that CSUSA is doing something right. What do you think it may be? Numbers do not always tell the whole story.
Public School Choice: A Revolving Door
In the last legislative session, there was a proposal to allow students to enroll in any public school that had room. It would give parents flexibility.
Most districts already allow students to enroll in a district school outside their zoned school to accommodate parents’ work places. Some states have enacted these open enrollment policies for everyone to go to any school. I was surprised at what happened. Maybe this is not good for Florida.
ALEC Admits Vouchers are for Suburbia
Vouchers for private school tuition were supposed to be for at risk children in poor neighborhoods. In Florida, that assumption was dropped when the legislature expanded eligibility for tax credit scholarships to include family incomes up to $62,000. Now, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is more concerned about the high cost of tuition for middle class families. They want to help.
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