Education Reform: Parent Action Spreads

Posted For Sandra In Brevard

The highlights indicate the States where parent organizing against teaching to the test are in action. All indications suggest this is a growing grassroots movement. President Obama's recently announced proposals for changing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) are likely to fuel more action. Here are some highlights from the President's education reform plan with regard to testing:


NCLB Status Quo: Rely on unsophisticated bubble tests to grade students and schools.


The Obama Plan: Support better tests. The Obama Administration has invested $350 million to support states in their efforts to create more sophisticated assessment systems that measure problem solving and other 21st century skills and that will provide teachers will timely information to help them improve instruction.

NCLB Status Quo: A narrow curriculum focused only reading and math.


The Obama Plan: Invest in state and local efforts to develop a well-rounded curriculum and allow states to include subjects beyond reading and math in their accountability system.


SB736 mirrors the goals the Obama Administration has in mind as educational reform. So, if you are a supporter and proponent of SB736, then you will be cheering. On the other hand, if you were concerned about the lack of details, lack of cost analysis, and continuing an obsession with tests, then things are not looking so good.

Read the President's education plan here.

UPDATE: EDWEEK reports that U.S. Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton "clarified" Obama's statement about too much testing, by countering it:

"While we're open to how we can best assess student progress in subject areas like history and science, we believe annual measures in reading and math are needed to assess progress toward college- and career-readiness. More must be done to improve the quality of those assessments, so that they're a more meaningful measure of student learning"

That certainly clears things up now....clear as mud. The President prefers less, the U.S Office of Education prefers the more.
 
Read the rest of Sandra's Education Blogs Here

Help Wanted: Florida Commissioner of Education

Posted For

Sandra In Brevaed







The week of March 21 was full of newsworthy education related events coming from Tallahassee.


On Monday, Commissioner of Education Eric Smith submitted his resignation effective June 2011, stating:

“The time has come to allow our newly elected governor to have input through the State Board of Education on the type of leader to pursue his goals for education.”

It is not the Governor who hires or fires the Commissioner of Education. That task is a constitutional duty taken by the State Board of Education.

On Tuesday, Board member Roberto Martinez called for an emergency meeting of the Board to "swiftly organize a search" for a replacement by August. The same day, Willard T. Fair, chairman of the State Board of Education, sent an indignant letter of resignation effective immediately citing his displeasure with the way Smith had been "fired", the fact that the Governor had never met with the Commissioner, the manner in which the Governor had ignored the State Board. In his last act as chair, he rejected Commissioner's Smith's resignation. He refused to participate in the emergency meeting calling it a sham, that the Governor had a candidate, and the Board's role would become a rubber stamping of that selection. He asked that his letter be placed into the record at the emergency meeting.

On Wednesday, Governor Scott called Commissioner Smith for the first time since the resignation and also made calls to State Education Board members, some talked to him for the first time. Scott said he recognized the duties and responsibilities of the Board in the selection of a new Education Commission and would help the Board make that selection.

"I will be working with the Board of Education to find a new commissioner," he said. "It's going to be somebody that believes the same way I do."

Scott has yet to clearly identify what he believes the goal and mission of public education is and its effect on the final customer - students.

On Thursday, Governor Scott signed SB736 into law. The State School Board met via telecon and decided to hire a search firm to find a replacement. The search firm will be selected by their next meeting.

Governor Scott will name three to the State Board of Education, replacing those members whose terms have or will soon expire. Fair's term expired in December and agreed to stay on til a replacement could be found.

What relevant experience and expertise will fill the an incoming Education Commissioner? Here is one scenario.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Florida Education Commissioner
Salary $195,000 - $283,000
No experience in the field of education preferred.
M.B.A.
Senior or mid-level executive.
Manufacturing, IT experience preferred.
Broad graduate preferred.

The job requires skills necessary to implement a $700 million dollar federal grant, manage multi-million dollars contracts and subcontracts, vendors and a contingent of consultants deployed to support local school districts. Initiate an organizational shift to oversee a significant increase in the size of Department of Education and its role in implementing the legislative requirements of SB736.

Maybe the Broad Foundation has a candidate to fill this tall order

Visit Grumpy Educators to read the rest of Samdra's Education Blogs


© SandraInBrevard

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How Much will Teacher Merit Pay Cost

For months Sandra in Brevard has been asking that question here and on Grumpy Educators.  Florida Senator Paula Dockery has been asking the same question,   Senator Steve Wise and others who are trying convince Floridians that the bill's passage is urgent,and they along with President Obama and Jeb Bush have the only answer,  have flatly refused to discuss real cost or the laws impact on taxpayers in the future.

Just before the vote, Dockery asked Wise publicly on the floor of the Senate what SB 736 would cost in Florida.  Now would someone tell me WTF he actually said about costs?



Video by Tom Whatley, originally posted on facebook

This week, Education Reform including Merit Pay will be taken up by the Florida House..  Please send this video to your Representative and ask if they have a better explanation.  You can find their email address here Representatives of the Florida House, just click the name and you'll be able to connect to their email.

I

Senator Paula Dockery takes on Senator Wise

And Wise loses....

Paula Dockery asked Wise a few simple questions about the cost of his Education Bill SB 736 on the Senate Floor yesterday before the vote.  Wise rambled, babbled, evaded, dodged,  made a jackass out of himself and never came close to answering Dockery's questions.  Wise's bill calls for teacher evaluation.  By the time he was done with his non explanation of costs I was convinced he was more in need of an evaluation than the teachers, and for a diffeent reason..

As far as I know only one video exists of the exchange.   That video produced by Tom Whatley, a retired detective.  I experienced some technical difficulties trying to post it on Grumpy, I'm not sure at the moment if they can be resolved.  The video is currently on the facebook wall of an organization called  Testing Is Not Teaching.  I'm not sure how well this will work, but for the time being try going to

http://www.facebook.com/testingisnotteaching?sk=photos#!/testingisnotteaching?sk=wall

Make sure you're looking at their wall, scroll down untill you get to the post by Tom Whatley with a video. 

Sit back and watch Wise make a complete fool out of himself avoiding Dockery's questions.

It is now necessary to scroll to the bottom of the page and click Older Posts to find the video

Education Reform: Let's Do Things Like Singapore

Posted For

Sandra in Brevard










The headline reads "Wake-up call: U.S. students trail global leaders." This is not the first time other countries had a higher number than the U.S. What does that mean exactly?


If you watch CNN, you'll recognize journalist and author Fareed Zakariya. In 2006, he looked at the international test scores by Singapore's 4th and 8th grade students, who score #1 in global science and math rankings, but fair "poorly to American kids...down the road." Zakariya finds that "Singapore has few truly top-ranked scientists, entrepreneurs, inventors, business executives or academics."

To find out why this exists, he turned to Singapore's Minister of Education, Tharman Shanmgaratam.

“We both have meritocracies,” Shanmugaratnam said. “Yours is a talent meritocracy, ours is an exam meritocracy. There are some parts of the intellect that we are not able to test well ─ like creativity, curiosity, a sense of adventure, ambition. Most of all, America has a culture of learning that challenges conventional wisdom, even if it means challenging authority. These are the areas where Singapore must learn from America

.”

The information that is obtained from the international tests has value and the recent results confirm what we have already known for sometime without this test data. There is a widening student achievement gap based on socio-economic factors. This gap is a serious problem and needs a targeted solution; but a meaningful solution does not equal that we need to be more like Singapore. On the contrary, turning our school system into an "exam meritocracy" is no goal at all and harmful to what has made this nation a global leader.

Responding to this "crisis", Singapore Math textbooks and teacher training has hit the U.S. educational publishing market. In a 2009 press release announced that "global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt today launches Math in Focus, an innovative new math program based on the highly acclaimed Singapore approach to mathematics." The program is described as on the expensive side, both in materials it requires and teacher training. (Notably, the Florida Department of Education selected Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as its consultant to assist school districts in implementing new evaluation systems based on student achievement.)

Politicians, legislators, and professional educational reformers are going to have to be more precise as to how we are not able to compete in the global marketplace. That rationale is not enough to support legislation like SB736/HB7019. In fact, it is reason enough to reject the bill.


http://www.hmco.com/company/newsroom/news/news_release_042109.html


Missed blogs on educational reform efforts in Florida? There are all here.

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Education Reform: A Good Old Fashioned Crisis

Posted For

Sandra in Brevard










Kids don't change



Why can't our Highly Paid Educational Experts figure out
how to Teach Them



National and state policymakers cite U.S. student performance on international exams as the reason for urgent education reform. These results are the indicators that the U.S. will not be able to compete in the global marketplace. And so the reforms begin....again.

In 1983, a report titled "Nation at Risk" described the grave outcomes for the nation if the reported decreased S.A.T. scores at that time, were not taken seriously. In the context of the Cold War, the report found a "rising tide of mediocrity" was sweeping through the public education system.

"If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves."

In 1990, the U.S. Secretary of Energy commissioned the Sandia Laboratories to support the claims in the "Nation at Risk" with real data. The study of declining S.A.T. scores revealed that overall scores had indeed dropped, but the scores of sub-groups had increased, known in statistics as Simpson's Paradox. The fact that more students of all backgrounds were taking the S.A.T. than in previous years is significant in understanding test scores. The government received the report, did not like the analysis, shelved it, and the narrative continued. Others who examined the analysis found the findings relevant, but the media took no interest. What has resulted is a national past time of reform efforts in every single administration since - Democrat and Republican. In 1980, the U.S. spend $16 billion on education to $72 billion in 2007.

In other words, the U.S. has been in a sustained state of an education crisis for 31 years, dominated by an industry of professional education reformers, non-profit educational consultants, publishing corporations, and software developers, standing in line to answer the call of legislators and politicians, who promise to make education their number one priority and fix the broken system.

After 12 years of test-driven schools with questionable outcomes, isn't it long overdue that we hold the Florida legislature accountable? Failing to pass legislation that meets the requirements of Race to the Top funding has funding consequences. The requirement, as I understand it, is that legislation must mandate that teacher evaluations be based to some degree on student achievement data. Current bills are far more complex and attempt to standardize a process statewide. Proponents acknowledge the bills are incomplete and will be fixed over time. There is worry over costs and silence on the math.

Conclusion

We are in a budgetary crisis now, but I do not believe we have been in an education crisis at all. The word has been used effectively to manipulate public opinion for 30 years. After reading commentary and opinions from a variety of viewpoints, I conclude we do have serious problems that require precision akin to a surgical team, whose members are knowledgeable and experienced working with children and adolescents, armed with the relevant data gathered over the years, and unaffiliated to politics, large corporations, and money-pumping non-profits.

Not a dime should be diverted from classrooms and students in order to fund solutions and experiments that fail to identify the problem and fail to identify all the costs.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-04-22-nation-at-risk_N.htm

http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-end-of-the-education-debate

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0422/p13s02-lepr.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey/righting-wrongs_b_75189.html



Missed a blog on education reform efforts in Florida? You can find them all here.


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SB736: Senate Budget Sub-Committee votes 8-1 in favor

The Senate Budget Subcommittee on Education Pre-K12 Appropriations voted 8-1 in favor of SB736. The lone "No" vote was caste by Senator Paula Dockery, who took a stand against SB6 last year because she believed Florida could not afford it. I am assuming she believes the same this year.

Committee member Senator Evelyn Lynn, however, suggested that the bill needs improving, but "suggested that the kinks could be worked out over time, saying that this legislation is the 'next major logical step in education reform,' building upon the state's A-Plus system." Next logical step? Senator Lynn also noted that money would be required.

“I do believe we’ll need the dollars. I don’t want the dollars to be taken away from one group of teachers to pay another group.”

According to the Orlando Sentinel, "most of the bill’s provisions don’t kick in until 2014, so supporters said there will be time to work out the finances — and the details of a bill that aims to use tests (some not yet developed) to help determine teacher quality and pay."

Others on the committee "cautioned that the bill needs more work before they're will to back it on the floor. " More revisions? Like what?

Questions remain over how to pay for raises, for instance, and how the bill jibes with other endeavors, such as Race to the Top."

Sounds like a rerun. Pass a flawed bill in committee, send it out to the floor in whatever shape it is, and promise to fix it later. Avoid the entire issue of the price tag.

Thank you Paula Dockery!

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/?p=16940

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/

Regarding Tenure

Posted For

Sandra in Brevard



In the month of January, Grumpyelder published eight blogs I wrote on education reform efforts in Florida. He has graciously opened a branch of the main site that holds all of those blogs. My hope is that these blogs serve to inform the Brevard community on this year's efforts on so-called education reform. I have attempted to tell a complicated story in manageable chunks of information, identifying the key players, their beliefs, factual information, the legislative process, often used terms and what they mean. If you've missed a blog or wish to read one again, you can find them here.

What works in D.C., Miami, or Singapore, may not work in Brevard County. The term tenure fires up emotions. I believed there was tenure in Florida until a comment was posted saying otherwise. I was surprised at the comment, arched an eyebrow, and went looking for facts. Well, the fact is here is no tenure in Florida and the practice was ended through legislation in the mid-1980's. I notice that when legislators talk about tenure now, they qualify it with "or what we call a professional contract." Currently, after successfully completing new teacher requirements, teachers are offered a three-year contract that can be broken under specific circumstances stated in law. SB736 would remove three-year professional contracts and any assurances of a job the following year. New evaluation systems, 50% based on student achievement scores, would determine whether a teacher would be offered employment again, or not. The manner in which the other 50% of teacher evaluation is not clear to me, but you might want to watch the video on the new site. Teachscape is a U.S. company ready to sell video systems to school districts.

Since salaries are varied and higher in other areas of the State, how will elimination of a professional contract help Brevard keep the competitive edge to attract, hire, and retain highly prepared and effective teachers? If local school districts want to be able to offer a professional contract, then that should be a local decision and not directed from Tallahassee or Washington D.C

******************

Last year at the Wickham Park Tea Party they announced the Charlie Crist had vetoed SB 6.  A huge cheer went up, maybe for the wrong reasons but Crist had done something right.  At the time I wished Sandra had been there to hear it.  Just like she's working this year to let us know the truth about SB736 she had exposed dozens of problems with SB6. Not the least of which was potentially billions of dollars in unfunded mandates that would have been passed down to local districts in order to pay for an experiment.  An experiment that had an unknown cost and countless foreseeable unintended consequences,

This year all the same players in Tallahassee are back,  pushing a variation of the same scheme   As many of you know, Sandra has done a considerable amount of research on this years version.  Everytime she posts a new blog we find something else to dislike about the bill.  Eveything from data Mining our kids,  forcing teachers to teach to tests instead of teaching a subject and putting our teachers under constant video surveilence.  Not surprisingly, the bill is being written by special interests who stand to sell Florida School Districts billions of dollars worth of products if it passes.  So far no one is willing to guess how much this will cost... But they want to make law 

The information Sandra has been putting together will a tremendous asset for people who want to know how much were spending and what we'll get out of it, before we're stuck with something that might or might nor work.

SB736 Heads to Senate Education Appropriations Committee

Posted For

Sandra in Brevard





SB736 got a unanimous vote in the Senate Pre-K12 Education Committee and will now be considered by the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Education Pre-K12 Appropriation. The subcommittee is chaired by Senator David Simmons and Senator Bill Montford is VIce Chair. Committee members are Senators Nancy Detert, Paula Dockery, Anitere Flores, Evelyn Lynn, Jeremy Ring, Gary Siplin, and Stephen Wise. They will meet to discuss SB736 on February 15.

Some members of the Educations Appropriations subcommittee already showed some irritation with Governor Scott's budget plans for education that includes a 10 percent cut and a suggestion districts use this years funds to make up for the cut next year. Here are some highlights of their comments:

Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, cast doubt on Scott's suggestion to plug some of the hole with stimulus money districts were given to spend for the current school year. "I just don't think that's as straight an arrow as I would expect," said Lynn, chairwoman of the Republican Senate Conference. "I look at it as a little smoke and mirrors."


"Regifting," Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, interrupted.


"It seems a little bit improper," Lynn said.


Chairman David Simmons, R-Maitland, said some districts, including Broward - the state's second largest district, had already spent the money. Simmons said he's awaiting a report on all the districts.


"We'll have a better idea about whether this is real or not," Simmons said.


Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander pointed out to the governor's budget staff in his committee that their math did not add up correctly. While the staff showed cuts of $4.6 bilion in spending, Alexander pointed out the "real cut" adds up to less than $3 billion.

Reaction from the House side was similar:

“A 10 percent reduction is a significant cut,” said committee Chairwoman Marti Coley, R-Marianna.


Coley and Rep. Janet Adkins scolded Scott’s office for trying to "have it both ways" with the education budget. Scott said he’s against the use of federal stimulus money, but his office tacitly encourages school districts to use the money to boost per-pupil spending.


“It’s imperative that you go back and you redo the numbers,” said Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach.


"Committee members also questioned why budget categories had been renamed and changed. The so-called FEFP — the state's complicated, longtime school-funding formula — gets a new moniker, for example, and is now the Education Choice Fund.


Such changes make it hard to compare Scott's spending proposal with prior years' budgets, they said. "I don't know how the math adds up," said Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland."

Reaction from Sandra In Brevard

Last year there was no detail on how much SB6 was going to cost. The Appropriations Committee must explain this year how much SB736 will cost and given the proposed cuts where the funds will come from precisely. And "fiscal impact is indeterminate" is not an acceptable response. If they do not develop a cost analysis, there's no point going forward.


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/08/2057172/lawmakers-demand-budget-details.html#ixzz1Dgbq3R74

Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2011/02/gov-rick-scotts-k-12-budget-called-smoke-and-mirrors.html#ixzz1DgaK2EXH

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/02/scotts-4-6-billion-in-cuts-dont-add-up.html

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-scott-education-budget-folo-20110208,0,5917927.story

SB736: Fiscal Impact Indeterminate

Posted for

Sandra in Brevard




The Florida Senate Bill Analysis and Fiscal Impact Statement for SB736, filed by State Senator Stephen Wise, appeared on the PreK-12 Education Committee website. On page 11, Section V: Fiscal Impact Statement reads as follows:

A. Tax/Fees Issue: None

B. Private Sector Impact: None

C. Government Sector Impact:

"The fiscal impact of this bill is indeterminate.

According to the DOE, there will be additional costs to the districts for monitoring the use of evaluation criteria by supervisors and administrators.

As part of Florida's funding in Race to the Top, the DOE will assist school districts in their development of assessment items that may be used for locally developed assessments. Specifically, the DOE will provide the following:


Resources for districts to develop assessment items for "hard to measure" content areas, including Physical and Health Education, Fine Arts, and World Languages; Assessment items for core academic areas (Math, Social Studies,


Science, Language Arts, and Spanish) for grade levels and content areas that are not already tested by FCAT or state end-of-course assessments; and Development of a technology platform that will provide districts secure access to high-quality assessment items and tools for the creation and administration of student assessments.


The DOE notes that over the next three years the grant will provide funding for the development of end-of-course exams in most subject areas. The DOE also noted that additional resources or user charges will be necessary to maintain an assessment item bank or platform at the conclusion of the grant period.

According to the DOE, there are over 400 charter schools in Florida. The DOE reports that there will be a significant impact on its staff to review the evaluation systems for these schools.

It is not anticipated that the bill revises the total funds for instructional personnel and school administrator compensation."

Senator Wise seemed to indicate that he would focus on getting legislation written, but let the Senate Education Appropriations Committee figure out how to fund it. No cost analysis ever emerged for last year's effort (SB6).

Given the current state of the economy and Governor Scott's newly released budgetary measures, it is impossible to guess if SB736 is fundable even if a cost analysis emerges. With the proposed additional slashes to education funding, it would be unreasonable to divert a single remaining local dollar and/or resource to new tests and database development. Race to the Top funds extends to those school districts who signed on. The analysis does not address funding for districts that are not getting Race to the Top support.

Reports suggest that the Governor's proposal was not received with smiles and cheers in Tallahassee. While Scott proposes lowering the forced property tax, he cannot control local (county) education property taxes. If SB736 turns out to be an unfunded mandate, will local governments have to look at local increases they control?

The devil is in the details and we just don't have enough of that. Scott's proposal has to be voted on by the legislature and it looks like Scott needs to convince them. Simply stated, there must be no unfunded mandates and no encroachment on local control.

Read the full bill analysis here: http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2011/736