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Monday, April 16, 2012

Rick Scott and Gerard Robinson’s Transparent Attempt to Promote Charter Schools | Scathing Purple Musings

Rick Scott and Gerard Robinson’s Transparent Attempt to Promote Charter Schools | Scathing Purple Musings:


Rick Scott and Gerard Robinson’s Transparent Attempt to Promote Charter Schools

January’s news that school districts would be ranked by FCAT data makes sense now doesn’t it? Ricks Scott and Gerard Robinson knew they could skew the numbers to make their charter schools look good. From Robinson of last week’s release of data which purports to demonstrate the superiority of charter schools:
“This report clearly demonstrates that charter schools are a viable option for parents,” said Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson. “Charter schools offer a wide range of educational environments to meet the needs of students and their families.”
Robinson long ago demonstrated he wasn’t going to be an honest broker when it came to charter schools. Last October  he said that a charter school’s past performance doesn’t matter and shouldn’t be a consideration when they apply to open another. He was a feature speaker at a charter school pep rally  held in Tallahassee during the last session. Desperate to create good news for his charter school allies, Robinson’s baked data  from schools who cherry-pick their students isn’t fooling many.
Miami-Dade officials questioned whether the new report had statistically significant results or fairly