Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education:
Tampa Bay Times: Florida’s School Grading System “Divorced From Reality”
Yowza: Good high schools. Great faculty. Underperforming students. • That’s the condensed version of recent education reports out of Tallahassee spawned by an accountability system gone awry. Apparently schools and teachers are doing great, it’s just the students who aren’t making the grade. Gov. Rick Scott and local educators boasted last week that Florida high schools are doing above-average wor
You Can Be Sure Florida Ed Policymakers Know All About NY’s Common Core’s Rocky Rollout
Most of the politicians who have to face voters are survivalist, so you can be sure Florida’s -like, say, Rick Scott – are tuned into what happened in New York with the roll-out of Common Core. Here’s this from Syracuse Post-Standard reporter Paul Riede: State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch has appointed a task force to study the rocky rollout of the Common Core academic standards in New
YESTERDAY
Three Indiana Charter School USA Takeovers Earn F’s
From the Indianapolis Star: A year of state intervention hasn’t improved failing grades for Indianapolis’ worst public schools, A-F accountability grades released today show. Four chronically underperforming Indianapolis Public Schools under state takeover — Arlington High, Emma Donnan Middle, Manual High and Howe High — continued their pattern of F grades this year. That didn’t come as any surpri
Tony Bennett’s Favorite Charter School Gets an F
From AP reporter Tom LoBianco on the ABC News Feed: The Indianapolis charter school at the center of Indiana’s grade-changing scandal saw its grade drop from an “A” to an “F” in school grades released Friday. The Christel House Academy benefited last year from grading changes made by former schools Superintendent Tony Bennett. But grades released for the 2012-2013 school year showed a precipitous
The Curious MacDill AFB Charter School USA Proposal Gets More Curious
After the Hillsborough school board unanimously rejected a Charter Schools USA proposal to open a school on MacDill AFB, superintendent Maryellen Elia went to work on coming up with alternatives. They came up with some good one’s, but not good enough for MacDill’s base commander. From The Tampa Tribune’s Erin Kourkounis: ……Col. Scott DeThomas said the charter school still seems the best way to go
The Disappearing Influence of Jeb Bush and His Foundations on Florida Ed Policy
H/T: Jeff Solochek Pensacola News Journal reporter Rhema Thompson reports on yesterday’s meeting between 30 state’s superintendents of schools and education commissioner Pam Stewart: ….district superintendents are reiterating the need for more time and presenting a list of other recommendations to the commissioner, including funding for additional days of instructional training for the new standa
Politicians and Rich Guys Want Common Core; Everyone Else, Not So Much
There’s always been something for everyone to hate about Common Core. Alonzo Weston from the St. Joseph News-Press talked to a Missouri parents group who have a handle on the entire boondoggle. The Common Core learning standard is more than just an initiative to align testing curriculum across state lines — it’s detrimental to education as a whole. That’s the belief of Jill Noble and her group, Co
DEC 19
Deja Vu All Over Again: Charter Schools USA to Appeal Denial of Application to State Board
Baseball legend Yogi Berra’s yummy pleonasm seems appropriate when it comes to the manner that Charter Schools USA takes advantage of a system they helped game themselves. No for-profit charter school has appealed local school board more rejections than has Jonathan Hage’s CSUSA. Their appeals have always been granted by Hage’s cronies on the state board. Here we go again. From Tama Bay Times repo
Bullying as a Misdemeanor in Florida?
SaintPetersblog sent this interesting little blurb out in his invaluable Sunburn email alert: An effort to fight bullying would go beyond school lines in Florida law, under a measure (SB 548) filed Wednesday by Sen. David Simmons. The proposal says the offense of bullying would involve “a person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly harasses or cyberbullies another.” The term excludes consti
DEC 18
Controversial Maverick’s Charter School Earns an F for 2012
From Palm Beach Post writer Jason Schultz: In all, about 60 percent of all public high schools including traditional, charter and alternative programs got A or B grades. The grades are based in large part on Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results as well as things such as graduation, participation in advanced placement classes and scores on other tests such as the ACT. One traditional distr
Common Core’s Not the Problem; It’s the “Other Stuff”
New York is a step ahead of Florida. They have implemented Common Core and administered the state-wide tests that go with them. The roll-out proved to be a disaster. Politicians develop education policy after listening to lobbyists and folks who are paid by the testing industry. Lynne Erdle, the superintendent of schools in Canandaigua, New York does a good job explaining where educators are com
DEC 17
To Plug Common Core, Michelle Rhee’s Florida Rep Says Florida Schools Are “Failing Our Kids”
Following the lead of her boss to use the recent release of PISA scores to promote Common Core, Michelle Rhee’s Florida representative Nikki Lowrey wrote an opinion piece for the Tallahassee Democrat: When I was a youth, parents, teachers, even television programs indoctrinated me with the belief that I could be anything I wanted to be, that if I worked hard and did well in school I could live the
DEC 16
Pearson and Tony Bennett’s Employer Among Five Firms Want Contract to Make Florida’s New FCAT
Orlando Sentinel reporter Leslie Postal has the details on the upcoming food fight: Five standardized test makers are vying to help create FCAT’s replacement by 2015. They include Pearson, the testing company that has the FCAT contract, and ACT, best known for its namesake college admissions tests, shows the list released today by the Florida Department of Education. The most notable name may be o
Jeb Bush: the New Status Quo
Jeb Bush and his top dollar mouthpieces have become the gift that keeps on giving. Let’s call them on two of their recent public statements. Last week, top policy wonk Matt Ladner touted Florida’ s record at narrowing the achievement gap between black and white students and concluded with this bit of hyperbole: Florida achieved this progress on achievement gaps the best way possible: strong gains
DEC 15
Florida’s F on Early Childhood Education
In this morning’s Ocala Star-Banner, Amanda Ostrander from Florida Children’s Campaign and Roy Miller, the president and founder of the Children’s Campaign point to Florida policymakers poor record on early childhood education is hurting the state’s children. …..the education debate goes on about the next silver bullet, funding and the quality elements Florida’s pre-K needs continue to be passed o
Does Pearson’s NY Common Core $7.7 Million Settlement Implicate Jeb Bush’s Foundation?
From Washington Post reporter Lyndsey Layton: Pearson Charitable Foundation, the nonprofit arm of educational publishing giant Pearson Inc., has agreed to pay a $7.7 million settlement to New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman after he determined that the foundation had created Common Core products to generate “tens of millions of dollars” for its corporate sister. “The law on this is cle
CATO Slams Michelle Rhee’s “Common Core Crud”
H/T to Russ Walsh. CATO Institute scholar Neal McCluskey takes Michelle Rhee to the woodshed: I don’t dislike the oft-attacked Michelle Rhee. I don’t even know her. But I do dislike disingenuous or empirically anemic arguments about the Common Core, and she offers too many of both in a new Politico op-ed. Let’s start with the most aggravating thing she does in her piece: imply that anyone who oppo
Florida Teacher Evaluations Are “Pseudo Science”
Dan Bennett is vice president of the Brevard Teachers Union. The following is a letter to the editor he penned to FloridaToday: Anyone confused by the teacher evaluation system? For decades, school reformers have mined FCAT data in different ways to get different results. To figure school grades, the state looks at a percentage of students on grade level or making learning gains. But then to figur
DEC 14
Study: High Standardized Test Scores Don’t Translate to Better Cognition….Can’t Wait for those Bush Foundation Talking Points
From US News & World Report writer Allie Bidwell: Even when students improve their scores on standardized tests, they don’t always improve their cognitive abilities, such as memory, attention and speed, according to a new study released Thursday. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Brown University tracked nearly 1,400 eighth grade students in the B
Jeb Bush’s Rhetoric Proves Hypocritical When His Allies Seek to Defend Florida Charter Schools
Writing in redifinED, Step Up for Student’s Patrick Gibbons took exception to the Palm Beach Post’s report that charter schools were to blame for the county’ low graduation rates. Gibbon’s admitted it was because of poverty. He really did. As it turns out, 57 percent of charter school students eligible for graduation in Palm Beach County appeared to be attending schools that identify themselves a