NCR Pearson is the company that scores the FCAT results. When they bid for renewal of their contract, they underbid their competitor by $300 million, and won the $245 million dollar contract. Unfortunately, things didn't work out so well for Florida or for Pearson in 2010. In fact, things didn't work out so well in Wyoming, Minnesota, or Virginia either in returning results on time and generating some irregularities in scoring. Pearson paid Florida a fine of $15 million for the delay due to the "extraordinary difficulties in matching test results to each child's demographic information." They apologized saying that they had "underestimated the complexity of the work called for in the FCAT contract." Superintendents around the State challenged the results since their testing departments found drops in scores unusual. The State conducted two audits. The first was conducted by a company that was a sub-contractor to Pearson. The State then contracted a firm without any connection to Pearson, which found that the data was historically consistent with fluctuations in the past. Commissioner Smith then gave the FCAT results a "clean bill of health." What will this year bring?
Unsatisfied with the outcome, Alachua County school Superintendent Dan Boyd said all he can do is accept what the state's education commissioner has said regarding the audits.
"But there has been great consternation around the state with this, and we noticed some things we were concerned about with the scores, too," Boyd said.
There was particular concern when comparing student learning gains on this year's test with those of the prior year, especially for the lowest-performing students.
"And in looking at those scores, that was the problem with Pearson initially in matching those scores. So if they could not match them, how could they give us accurate results?" Boyd asked.
This year, Boyd is serving on a state-level FCAT review committee.
Florida has decided to develop end-of-course tests. Pearson was selected to develop these tests.
What business model is this? SIB to Captain Eagle, come in Captain, over......
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/os-fcat-test-company-problems-06-09-120100609,0,4407916.story
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/10/1674316/fcat-test-producers-under-fire.html
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100916/ARTICLES/100919558
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100806/articles/8061007
It is Miss.....Miss Management...I do not like that lady.
ReplyDeleteCapt, last day of school last year, my 9 year old grandson came home, and I asked him if he'd passed. I was joking, I thought, his report card had been good all year. Then I heard his answer.
ReplyDelete"I don't know grandpaw, they gave me this letter'
The letter said, the Brd of Ed didn't get back the FCAT Scores, his report card means nothing until that happens. So Sorry
He didn't find out for sure he'd passed until a few days before school reopened
The Board got reimbursed for their inconvenience. The kids got to spend the summer wondering, and I'm sure, in some cases worrying
Summer break was hit or miss for me..all depended on that stupid report card...I always made it. In School I belonged to the 2/3rds that made the upper 1/3rd possible.
ReplyDeleteIn college I was in the upper 5 percent.
Mismanagement is polite.
ReplyDeleteThe results of the FCAT mean more than a report card or GPA these days.
I wonder how everyone feels about Tenure in public schools?
ReplyDeleteThere is no tenure in Florida's public schools, Capt.
ReplyDeleteTenure is on its way out. There is no such thing as life long job security anywhere. Extra pay for a degree other than the subject matter taught is on the table. The rationale seems to be that an MA in education is not relevant. School districts across Florida are putting together merit pay plans in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Race to the Top grant. If teachers are to be paid based on test data, shouldn't the data be reliable? And shouldn't the data collected be limited, with full disclosure to parents, and privacy mechanisms in place? What business model is it that would rely on unreliable data for decision-making.
ReplyDeleteChris, Gov.Scott wishes to end tenure in Florida. I don't think that has happened in legislation yet. I am aware that districts manage tenure rules differently. For example, a math teacher with full tenure who gets a degree in counseling and changes position loses tenure. Tenure is not portable, if a teacher moves from school district to another, they lose the tenure. I am also aware that in recent job cutting, a tenured art teacher lost the position. Tenure did not matter. I am aware of these things because of co-workers who share the experiences of wives, husbands, daughters, sons, and other close relatives and friends working as teachers.
ReplyDelete" What business model is it that would rely on unreliable data for decision-making?"
ReplyDeleteHappens all the time, one of the biggest reasons most new businesses don't last a year.
You'd think State Legislators would be Wise enough to realize that.
There is no tenure in Florida, Sandra.
ReplyDeleteTeachers, after three or four years of probation, may earn a professional services contract. PSC entitles a teacher to a due process if adminstration deems the teacher's performance as unsatisfactory. In my district, this due process usually shakes out this way: the teacher is apprised in writing of perceived deficiencies; two college-level professors are assigned to remediate the preceived deficiencies; further evaluations are done, after which the teacher is found to be competant or deficient. If found to be deficient over time, the teacher is dismissed.
Your examples seem to refer to the question of seniority. Once a teacher earns PSC, he or she undergoes either a long form or short form annual evaluation, with a long form evealuation administered every third year. If ateacher changes schools or is asked to teach a different program, the long form is implemented.
By the way, we have a form of merit pay in place in my district. If a teacher merits a Needs Improvement (NI) on an item in an annual evaluation, he or she is not entitled to a pay raise or a bonus. Also, teachers must recertify, with the DOE, every five years and may do so by earning college credits and/or professional development hours.
Thanks Chris for the details. Then what is it that the Governor is proposing on "ending tenure?" That is what I see in the headlines.
ReplyDeleteI guess the question becomes the process....who picks the Profs? What is the criteria?
ReplyDeleteWhat is contained in a Long/short form eval?
How is a bonus calculated?
Are these Union Rules..or State rules?
Chris, Capt had some good questions. Adding to his question regarding the selection of the professors doing the evaluating;
ReplyDeleteIn some cases, it is possible the teacher being evaluated would be dealing with a unique category of students, anything from gang members to severely disabled.
Would the experts doing the evaluation have had real world experience dealing with that kind of issue?
Posted here on Jan. 5, 2011 "Show Me The Money" -
ReplyDelete"State School Board member Dr. A.K. Desai supports the use of video for teacher evaluation, a concept being piloted across the nation and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. According the TEACHSCAPE, a company that leases video equipment for this purpose, says the initial start up costs $1 million per school district and $800,000 per year per district after that. I do not think these costs include the group of external evaluators who would watch and rate the performance. With a $3 billion deficit and school budgets slashed right and left, this idea does not seem sensible. First, it fails the priority test, fails to define the problem that justifies such an expensive process as the best solution, and ignores the fiscal realities at all levels. Show me the money!"
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2010/12/put-video-cameras-in-classrooms-help-do-objective-teacher-evaluations-says-state-board-member.html
Sandra asked: "Thanks Chris for the details. Then what is it that the Governor is proposing on "ending tenure?" That is what I see in the headlines."
ReplyDeleteIMO, Sandra, the Governor, and other individuals and entities, purposefully misuse the term "tenure" to evoke a mental picture of the retention of an incompetant employee and to further a general anti-teacher bias. The objective is to do away the due process mentioned.
Capt. asked: "I guess the question becomes the process....who picks the Profs? What is the criteria? What is contained in a Long/short form eval? How is a bonus calculated? Are these Union Rules..or State rules?"
I believe the process, and its component parts, varies from district to district and is subject to collective bargaining between the district and the bargaining agent for the education employees...the teacher associations of each district.
IMO, by eliminating due process (along with other changes that will arise out of the next legislative session), the State would thereby weaken the influence, if not the existence, of teacher associations, as well as the overall control over setting education policy, now and in the past, held by parents, community members, and educators. The ultimate objective is the privatization of education, directing the control of significant resources to corporate entities.
BTW, Capt., by State law teachers are not represented by "unions" but by "associations" whose powers are limited in comparison to the powers, presently and historically, afforded to unions of other workers in our country.
Grumpy asked: "Chris, Capt had some good questions. Adding to his question regarding the selection of the professors doing the evaluating; In some cases, it is possible the teacher being evaluated would be dealing with a unique category of students, anything from gang members to severely disabled. Would the experts doing the evaluation have had real world experience dealing with that kind of issue?"
Grumpy, under the No Child Left Behind legislation, all students are expected to meet the standards proscribed in the law by 2014, regardless of individual differences and circumstances such as disabilities, prmary language, socioeconomic standing, or environmental affects.
In the brave new world of privatized education, the "experts" you allude to, whether those actully instructing students, evaluating teachers, or setting policy in general, would have little to say. The new experts are to be the members of the boards of directors of education enterprises.
Chris, that sounds similar to the program Sandra talked about in her blog "Follow Up to Data Mining". My gut reaction is; from a big business perspective it's better than privation. They control individual school boards curriculum's, They sell the tools to teach the curriculum and evaluate their success. As a by product, they glean tons of marketable personal information.
ReplyDeleteWhen taxpayers eventually revolt, it will be the elected board members and properly appointed superintendents who will catch hell. Not the corporations
The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation is a national venture philanthropy established by philanthropist Eli Broad to advance entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science and the arts. The Foundation funds the Broad Residency, which searches for individuals with MBA's and in industry for candidates to take rapid training to take on positions as superintendents and other managerial positions in our nation's school districts. The Broad Foundation subsidizes salaries once hired on. The Broad Center announced it's placed "the largest class of 42 early career executives into 28 public education systems, expanding for the first tie into state departments of education." One Broad Resident now works for Hillsborough County Public Schools
http://grumpyelder-todayimgrumpyabout.blogspot.com/2011/01/follow-up-to-data-mining.html
In many ways I feel this is a big game of Three Card Monty. A skilled dealer wants us to watch a battle between the teachers and the parents...while they slip away with the Queen.
ReplyDeleteSemantics..such as..association vs. union...may invoke a different image..such as an association of pig farmers....but, to borrow a term from the President...it's just lipstick on a pig.
The villain...if you wish to think that way...is the Administrators...it is their job to manage the money they are given by the public in an effective way...they are failing the students, teachers, parents...and most importantly..the country.
Capt. That's been my thought the last few years, whenever teacher pay or benefits are being discussed.
ReplyDeleteIn this case I believe the administratiors who are stealing the queen, and the entire pot if they can get away with it are at the state and federal level. mote than a few of them are elected, not appointed..