Month: June 2013

Gov. Rick Scott and Education Commissioner Tony Bennett engaged Florida’s teachers of the year Thursday in a roundtable discussion of education philosophies. Most of the talk focused on the transition to Common Corestandards and the assessments that will be used to measure student and teacher performance.

“The implication of Common Core will be one of the largest policy implications lifts the states have engaged in the history of education,” Bennett said during the talk with about 40 teachers. “In the very near short-term we’re going to have to make some decisions about what will be the assessment regimen for Common Core — if you were going to ask me what is item No. 1 for the next 30 to 60 days, that’s item No. 1.”

Florida and 44 other states are adopting a set of achievement standards designed to teach what students need to know to succeed in college and careers. Thursday’s roundtable discussion came amidst concerns about the Common Core transition and expectations that Florida schools are going to post falling grades when school grades are released later this summer.

The roundtable event was scheduled as part of a two-day meeting that brought teachers from across the state to Tallahassee. The idea behind the summit, according to the governor’s staff, is to provide Scott the chance to hear from classroom instructors about best practices and ideas to improve school performance.

The teachers also had a chance to probe the minds of the governor and the education commissioner. In response to a question about a vision for Florida’s education system Scott discussed the importance of preparing young people to work in a rapidly changing world.

“The pressure on education is not going to slow down. I think it’s going to get worse,” Scott said. “Companies that were very successful 20 years ago are gone today. And the change is happening, the expectations of what their employees need to know is going to get more aggressive all the time.”

Reporter James Call can be reached at jcall@thefloridacurrent.com.

http://www.thefloridacurrent.com/article.cfm?id=33427755

Maybe, just maybe in a bizzaro type way
all of above would be worth it if it led to academic gains but as Diane Ravitch
revealed in her blog, they just haven’t worked. She wrote: There were big
achievement gains from 1971-2008
for whites, blacks, and Hispanics, and big achievement gains for students at
every age level tested–ages 9, 13, and 17.

From 1971-2008, in reading, black students at age 9 gained 34
points; at age 13, 25 points; at 17, 28 points.

From 1971-2008, white students at age 9 made gains of 14 points;
at 13 points, 7 points; at 17, 4 points.

From 1971-2008, Hispanic students at age 9 gained 25 points; at
13, 10 points; at 17, 17 points.

However, for the past four years, from 2008-2012, the scores
have been stagnant for every racial and ethnic group and for every age group
with the singular exception of Hispanic 13-year-olds and female 13-year-olds.

From 2008-2012, the acme of the high-stakes testing era, there
were no gains for black students at ages 9 or 13 or 17. http://dianeravitch.net/2013/06/27/the-latest-naep-report-dont-believe-what-you-read-about-it/

It’s a definition of insanity to do the same things over and
over and expect a different outcome, well friends we have four years of data
that says high stakes standardized tests aren’t working. Wouldn’t it be insane
to continue down the same path? The era of high stakes testing should
mercifully come to an end and then we should track down all the students who
went though it and apologize.

 Want some light reading about the pervasive nature of high
stakes tests? Click the links. 

Wow! Can I believe that
all children deserve a chance to learn at the highest levels and succeed in the
21st Century world and not believe in common core? Am I dooming them to
mediocrity by thinking we should slow things down?

To read his piece, click
the link: http://www.jaxpef.org/news/2013/06/common-core-deserves-

Kathryn Leroy was hired to be
the superintendent of Polk County and she has taken 5 long time Duval
administrators with her. 

Jacqueline Byrd, will be deputy superintendent,
and Tony Bellamy and Kenneth Reddick will be regional assistant superintendents. Jaquelyn Bowen, will be the senior director of reading
and Aaron Smith will be the senior director of math. All
five will earn six figures.

Byrd, Bellamy and Reddick had been reassigned to schools
as principals before their departures. 

To read more
click the link:

The real problem is the only
time the state doesn’t ignore poverty is when it says poverty is an excuse,
well look where all the schools that are struggling are. There isn’t a school
in Mandarin or at the beach doing poorly. St. Johns has zero charter schools
too. They are all in high poverty areas.

Poverty, by the way, is the
number one quantifiable measurement in education; those students that live in
it as a group do worse than those that don’t. But that’s not to say we should
just throw our hands up, quit, dismantle public schools, though many
influential members of the state government would like us to and ship the
students out.

Instead we should employ
common sense solutions that don’t break the bank or reinvent the wheel, and
perhaps most importantly that don’t wreck neighborhoods in the process. We
should have disciplined and rigorous classes. We do students no favors when we
pass them along without discipline, or a work ethic, or the basic knowledge
that they need. We need to provide legitimate after school and summer school
opportunities to catch the kids up to where they should be. We could make the
schedules more manageable (8 classes at a time, really) and make school more
enjoyable to kids by making sure each student had a least one elective on their
schedule. That and we can make many of their education experiences more
meaningful by offering more trade, skill and arts opportunities. We can’t continue to make school such drudgery or irrelevant
for kids and then wonder why so many do poorly or drop out. Then
we need social workers and mental health counselors because often why a kid
does poorly in school has nothing to do with school. We could make a change. We
could be doing so much better if we wanted to.

It is tough to be a black kid in
Florida