Ron's Florida: Where Shakespeare Goes to Die

Under the misleadership of the preening, petulant, charm-free prick, Ron DeSantis, Florida has become the laughingstock among civilized people everywhere on the globe. Today the Tampa Bay Times gives us another reason why, with its report on public schools in Florida that have succumbed to pressure to further Desanti-tize the school curriculum by encouraging teachers to have students read excerpts from literature rather than entire works, thus channeling students away from Shakespeare's insights into any of a growing list of topics that might rankle Moms for Liberty, the right-wing astroturf group that gave motherhood a bad name-- topics like gender, sexuality, romantic love.  

Can bans on the study of power-hungry narcissistic despots be far behind? 

From Tampa Bay Times:

English teachers in Hillsborough County are preparing lessons for the new school year with only excerpts from William Shakespeare’s works.

Students will be assigned pages from the classics, which might include “Macbeth,” “Hamlet” and the time-honored teen favorite, “Romeo and Juliet.” But if they want to read them in their entirety, they will likely have to do it on their own time.

School district officials said they redesigned their instructional guides for teachers because of revised state teaching standards and a new set of state exams that cover a vast array of books and writing styles.

“It was also in consideration of the law,” said school district spokeswoman Tanya Arja, referring to the newly expanded Parental Rights in Education Act. The measure, promoted and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, tells schools to steer clear of content and class discussion that is sexual in nature unless it is related to a standard, such as health class.

Teacher Joseph Cool told the Times, “There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare. Because that’s what sold tickets during his time.”

The district said that, because students need to read more writers, they are no longer required to read the complete books. 

“We need to make sure our students are prepared with enough material during the year so they will be prepared for their assessments,” Arja said. . . .

Read on.

Florida Curriculum Puts Focus on the Sunny Side of Slavery

Under the fascist renegade governor, Ron DeSantis, the State of Florida has become the destination for where decency and truth go to die. The latest example: Florida's public school curriculum now teaches middle school and high school students that enslaved people benefited from valuable skills that they would not have learned had it not been for slavery. 

This kind of rationalization first became part of the school curriculum during the post-Civil War period when Northern philanthropists promoted Hampton Institute's industrial education model as the solution to "the Negro problem." At Hampton and at other black schools inspired by Hampton's dehumanizing approach, white men taught black children and adolescents that slavery had, indeed, saved the black race from complete moral depravity by making sure that enslaved people were taught good Christian values and, thus, rescued from the certainty of eternal damnation that, otherwise, would have been their plight.  

Never mind that the enslaved were worked like mules, sold like cattle, and forced to accept the rape of their women as the legally-inscribed right of white men.

That we would ever see this kind miseducation written into public school curriculum could only have become possible with the rise of white supremacy as the ideological bedrock of the Republican Party. Read it and weep.

DeSantis Delegitimizes Social Studies Teaching in Florida

Ron DeSantis is working overtime in Florida to become the next fascist darling of the white nationalist political movement that was awakened from its John Birch Society crypt and then enabled, emboldened, and set loose by the only president in US history to stage an attempted coup in order to remain in power after being rejected by the nation's voters. 

DeSantis has been a quick study in the dark arts of political thuggery, gangster tactics, and shameless bullying, and he has steadily embraced and codified at the state level much of the John Bircher agenda aimed to maintain political power and social control by the white Protestant capitalist male elite, in charge since Colonial Days. 

With the inevitability of brown and black folks moving to majority status in the U.S. (as they are NOW globally), and with the fact that public school student populations are already majority black and brown, the white nationalist push is urgent to purpose schools with Jim Crow 2.0 agenda of civic indoctrination and historical miseducation.

In order to align Florida's social studies curriculum with proto-fascist standards, DeSantis's henchmen had to look no further than pedagogical antiquarians at Hillsdale College, whose ultra-conservative ideology undergirds every facet of the Hillsdale College curriculum and the K-12 materials they have assembled and are marketing to every red state governor now intent that children should be steered away a factually accurate and inclusive accounts of history and civics instruction grounded in democratic principles and practices.

The Miami Herald has a great piece on DeSantis's indoctrination program now being pushed in professional development sessions across Florida, with some great examples of how the materials obfuscate, warp, and mislead teachers. Below are a few clips:

Teachers who spoke to the Herald/Times said they don’t object to the state’s new standards for civics, but they do take issue with how the state wants them to be taught. “It was very skewed,” said Barbara Segal, a 12th-grade government teacher at Fort Lauderdale High School. “There was a very strong Christian fundamentalist way toward analyzing different quotes and different documents. That was concerning.”

The civics training, which is part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Civics Literacy Excellence Initiative, underscores the tension that has been building around education and how classrooms have become battlegrounds for politically contentious issues. In Florida, DeSantis and the Republican-led Legislature have pushed policies that limit what schools can teach about race, gender identity and certain aspects of history.

Those dynamics came into full view last week, when trainers told Broward teachers the nation’s founders did not desire a strict separation of state and church, downplayed the role the colonies and later the United States had in the history of slavery in America, and pushed a judicial theory, favored by legal conservatives like DeSantis, that requires people to interpret the Constitution as the framers intended it, not as a living, evolving document, according to three educators who attended the training. 

“It is disturbing, really, that through these workshops and through legislation, there is this attempt to both censor and to drive or propagandize particular points of view,” said Richard Judd, 50, a Nova High School social studies teacher with 22 years of experience who attended the state-led training session last week.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article262941378.html#storylink=cpy

 

Ask Rick Scott Why Florida Requires Degrading and Abusive Tests for Severely Disabled

Florida Becomes #4 to Withdraw from Corporate Common Core

First there were Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Missouri.  Now you can add Florida as the latest state to withdraw from PARCC, with bills pending in Michigan and Ohio.  Meanwhile, Arne Duncan creates a straw man and labels it a liar in order to cover his own mendacity.  No one is claiming that ED wrote or mandated the Rotted Common Core, but we are claiming that ED was in total agreement with the contracted work on the Core done by David Coleman and paid for the Oligarchs, and then ED actively bribed states to adopt the Core in order to have a chance at Race to the Top money.  Without the Duncan bribes, most states would have bothered to join this losing and miseducative cause. 

Lobbyists Making the Rounds In Tallahassee for Bill Offering More in Corporate Welfare Check for Charters

From Miami Herald:

By Kathleen McGrory and Scott Hiaasen
shiaasen@miamiherald.com

 

A legislative plan to give charter schools a cut of local school districts’ construction money would steer millions of additional dollars to large charter-school networks that are already sitting on tens of millions of dollars in cash, records show.

The charter-school industry is lobbying hard in the capital to gain a share of tax dollars raised by school districts to cover the construction and maintenance costs of traditional public schools — tax revenue that has dropped dramatically in recent years with plummeting real-estate values. Currently, school districts are not required to share these tax dollars with charter schools.

School districts say the proposal could cost them as much as $140 million a year statewide and cripple their ability to repair aging school buildings and pay debts for past construction. But charter school operators say the lesser funding for their students is inherently unfair, and argue that withholding construction money has stifled charter schools’ growth.

Earlier this month, Doug Rodriguez, the principal of the Doral Academy Preparatory Middle/High charter school, told a Senate committee that the lack of construction money has “placed a cap on our school. We’re not able to expand.”

But many charter schools, including Rodriguez’s, routinely collect more tax dollars than they spend, and sock away the unspent cash. The Doral Academy charter-school network, comprised of five Miami-Dade schools, had net assets of $13.6 million last year, much of it cash, records show.

The Doral Academy network is one of four large South Florida charter-school chains run by Academica, the state’s largest charter school operator. These four school networks — the Doral, Mater, Somerset and Pinecrest academies — had combined assets of more than $83 million last year, records show. This money is held by nonprofit companies that own the schools, which are managed by Academica, a for-profit company based in South Miami.

These schools could stand to gain millions more every year from the construction tax dollars, which would be distributed on a per-student basis. For example, the Doral, Mater, Somerset and Pinecrest academies — which now have 45 percent of all charter-school students in Miami-Dade County — would receive an additional $14.5 million from the Miami-Dade school district this year alone under the proposal.

Academica’s schools aren’t the only ones with growing reserves. The Keys Gate charter schools in Homestead, managed by Fort Lauderdale-based Charter Schools USA, have about $5 million in cash reserves, and the nearby Charter School at Waterstone, run by Charter School Associates, had $2.6 million in assets last year, most of it cash, records show. . . . .

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/19/v-print/2649278/bill-would-benefit-big-charter.html#storylink=cpy

Scott's Transition Team: Rhee, Bakke, Kirtley, Hage, etc

The ever-perky princess of education deform appeared on the Colbert Report last night, and, unfortunately, Stephen continued to disappoint when it comes to skewering corporate school propagandists.  The interview - neither enlightening nor entertaining - was a great way for Rhee to generate some positive PR in the wake of her ousting from the DC schools.

But Michelle is undoubtedly keeping herself busy.  And it looks like she'll be focusing on Florida now that Gov.-elect Rick Scott has appointed her to his education transition team.  Here's the rest of the list, courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel:

Michelle Rhee – Former Chancellor, Washington, DC Schools

Patricia Levesque – Executive Director, Foundation For Florida’s Future

MaryEllen Elia – Superintendent, Hillsborough County Schools

Ed Moore – President, Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida

J. David Armstrong, Jr. – President, Broward College and Former Chancellor of Community Colleges of Florida

John Kirtley – Chairman, Step Up For Students

Liza McFadden – President, Volunteer USA Foundation

Frank T. Brogan – Chancellor, State University System of Florida

Dr. Fred Lippman – Chancellor, Health Professions Division – Nova Southeastern University

Dennis W. Bakke – President and CEO, Imagine Schools

Dr. Judy Genshaft – President, University of South Florida

Julio Fuentes – President, Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Carlos Curbelo – Miami Dade School Board and State Director for Sen. LeMieux

Mindy Cunningham – Principal, J Strategies

Gary R. Chartrand – Executive Chairman, Acosta Sales & Marketing Company and Board of Directors, KIPP Schools Jacksonville, Florida

Dr. Don Pemberton – Director, Lastinger Center For Learning University of Florida

Mindy Lafevers-Hodge – World History Instructor, Florida Virtual Schools

Jonathan K. Hage – President and CEO, Charter Schools USA

Yes, that's right: Scott appointed Dennis Bakke, CEO of the Imagine Schools, to his transition team.  Maybe he can get Imagine to answer some of the state's lingering questions about his company's nonprofit status, or clarify the confusion about whether or not Imagine is an education service provider (ESP).  Imagine currently operates 17 charters in Florida.

Scott also saved a spot for another for-profit CEO, Charter Schools USA's Jonathan Hage, and the executive director of Jeb's foundation, Patricia Levesque.  Another appointee, John Kirtley, a venture capitalist who also chairs the Florida School Choice Fund, generally donates to Republican candidates, but he made an exception for the folks at Democrats for Education Reform.  Kirtly is also on the board of the Alliance for School Choice.

Keep in mind that Scott's team has reportedly considered Rhee for the state's education commissioner position.

NEPC Review of Heritage Report

It's not difficult to find an edu-pundit or politician pushing reform proposals based on the so-called Florida model.  Jeb Bush pushed it as a governor and continues to push it through his foundation; Colorado Succeeds, the "business voice for education," wrote a policy paper titled, "Proving the Possible: A case study of Florida's K-12 education reforms and lessons for Colorado"; then-gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman boldly claimed "all roads lead to Florida" when it comes to education reform in bigger states; and the Education Equality Project teamed with Education Reform Now to author a review of all recent gubernatorial candidates that favored many of the same proposals.  The common claim is that Florida is closing the achievement gap with this "cocktail of reforms."

There may be some lessons to be learned from the reforms in Florida, but there's also reason to be cautious about the conclusions some have already drawn from the changes.  The Heritage Foundation, for instance, published a report, Closing the Racial Achievement Gap, praising Florida for making dramatic progress and urged other states to follow.  Here's a snippet from the abstract:

One state, Florida, has demonstrated that meaningful academic improvement—for students of all races and economic backgrounds—is possible. In 1999, Florida enacted far-reaching K–12 education reform that includes public and private school choice, charter schools, virtual education, performance-based pay for teachers, grading of schools and districts, annual tests, curbing social promotion, and alternative teacher certification. As a result of parental choice, higher standards, accountability, and flexibility, Florida’s Hispanic students are now outperforming or tied with the overall average for all students in 31 states. It is vital that national and state policymakers take the lessons of Florida’s success to heart. The future of millions of American children depends on it.

But, as you hopefully know, think tank research generally isn't peer-reviewed.  And that can lead to advocacy based on shaky grounds.  Proceed with caution.  It's always handy to keep Bracey's various literature around.  Another great resource is the National Education Policy Center.  Here's a description of Madhabi Chatterji's review of Closing the Racial Achievement Gap:

The Heritage Foundation report, Closing the Racial Achievement Gap: Learning from Florida’s Reforms, endorses a set of policies from Florida: vouchers funded by tax credits, charter schools, online education, performance-based teacher pay, grading of schools and districts primarily based on test scores of students, test-based grade retention, and alternative teacher certification. The report claims that Florida’s student achievement trends improved and gaps were substantially reduced for Black and Hispanic students because of this package of reforms. Based on these purported successes, it recommends adopting these reforms in other states. However, the central analysis compares average test scores of students in the nation versus Florida without considering key group differences, an oversight that leads to erroneous causal interpretations on effects of reforms using purely descriptive data. The report further ignores group differences resulting from the state’s mandatory grade retention policy for the weakest readers in grade 3. This policy-driven increase in grade retention rates spuriously inflated the average scores of grade 4 students on state and national assessments, making racial achievement gaps narrower. The report also fails to examine test score data on all subjects and grade levels, instead relying only on grade 4 reading, which showed the most positive results. Finally, although a great deal is known about the reform policies the report promotes, it neglects this research literature. These serious flaws call into question the report’s conclusions.

Do read the full report.

Perplexed; Imagine in FL

Recently, the state of Indiana released a list of schools that failed to make AYP.  I'm not going to discuss the (de)merits of AYP; instead, I'm going to point out something that, as the title of this post suggests, has me a bit perplexed.  Two of the four Imagine-run schools in the state made the failing APY list.  Here's the summary provided by the Journal Gazette, which also notes the reasons why the school failed to meet AYP:

Imagine MASTer Academy: English performance overall and by black, Hispanic and white students; English and math performance by special education students; English participation by black and special education students.

Imagine Schools on Broadway: English and math performance overall and by black and low-income students.

And here's what has me scratching my head: Imagine's 2010 annual report, recently posted on their website, ranks both schools an A- based on Imagine's internal measurements of student achievement.  Imagine MASTer Academy is described as "Making Unprecedented Gains!" The school, Imagine claims, "exceeded the authorizer's expectations in student growth in Math, Reading, and Language Usage in 2009-2010," and, "Met the exceeding growth category for all subject areas."  The other school, Imagine Schools on Broadway, is described as having a "Laser-like focus on Academics [that] Led to Significant Growth for All Students."  D'oh!

Meanwhile, in the state with the most Imagine-run schools (Florida - 17 schools), the company is receiving more negative publicity for the way one of their schools, Imagine Schools Land O'Lakes, is doing business.  Here's a snippet from a recent article, courtesy of the St. Petersburgh Times:

The school's enrollment has declined by 50 students — down to 485 — since the fourth week of classes. Its waiting list has shrunk to a fraction of what it was when the charter school first opened two years ago, with seats available in almost every grade level. Its governing board has experienced almost a complete turnover.

Pasco County school district officials found several areas of concern in their recent review of Imagine, including problems with financial reporting, governance, non-profit status, teacher certification and monitoring of student progress. The school's delay in filing one set of papers with the state has jeopardized about $75,000 in funding that was expected to pay for textbooks.

And more concerns (my bolds):

Scowcroft [the district's charter school supervisor] harbors a concern that has aired nationally about the non-profit status of Imagine. The state requires charters to be run by non-profit entities, yet Imagine corporate headquarters in Virginia has yet to secure that status from the IRS.

Also mirroring other complaints about Imagine across the country, Scowcroft notes that the local charter sends nearly 40 percent of its state money to the company rather than putting it into the school. The school has run two years of deficits, meanwhile, covered only by Imagine's corporate coffers, she said.

Moreover, the school's board of directors has what Scowcroft called limited power. Most of the members have turned over in the past year, and the decisions they make are largely controlled by the parent company, she said.

It was just a few weeks ago that another FL district approved a charter for Imagine.

SB 6 Vetoed

The Rovian strategy of the neocons is to move policy talk so far right that Bush policies begin to appear mainstream. This is what happened in Florida with SB 6. When corporatists regroup to offer their version of SB 7 for destroying public education and the teaching profession, it will be something that only Margaret Spellings could love, but it will be hailed as a liberal victory and celebrated by Randi Weingarten. From Tampa Bay Online:

TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Charlie Crist has just vetoed SB 6, ending a week of suspense and protests against the controversial teacher tenure bill sponsored by the chairman of Crist's own political party.

Crist's action goes against conservative leaders, including former Gov. Jeb Bush, and will likely spur more speculation that he plans to break from the party and run as an independent for U.S. Senate.

Crist sited "several issues of concern," about the bill, which would have been ended traditional tenure for teachers hired after July 1 and tied teacher salaries and recertification directly to student performances on tests.

It would have also made it easier for districts to freeze pay and even fire experienced teachers deemed to be ineffective.

Crist said among his concerns was that the bill did not accommodate special education students and teachers. "There must be more consideration given to their individual needs than is afforded in this bill."

He also said he was concerned that the state's control in the bill would infringe on the constitutional right of local control and the way the bill went through the legislature, bypassing teachers and others.

"I find the content of Senate Bill 6 and the manner of its adoption significantly flawed," said Crist.

The issue of merit pay, which he said he supports, is "worthy of future pursuit in a collaborative setting… We must start over. This bill has deeply and negatively affected the morale of our teachers and our parents. They do not believe their voices have been heard." . . . .

Sign the Petition: Veto SB 6 in Florida

by Alex Sink at HuffPo:

Florida's students, parents, teachers and communities are in a knock-down, drag-out fight right now -- and it's a fight we have to win for our kids.

Late last week Florida's Republican-controlled legislature passed a bill dictating a rigid, one-size-fits-all policy that diminishes our local schools' ability to pay and retain strong teachers. Now, it is on Governor Charlie Crist's desk, waiting for his signature, which could happen at any time.

Floridians are standing with me to oppose this harmful bill and making it clear that we don't want Tallahassee politicians making these types of decisions for our local school districts.

That's why so far over 13,000 citizens have signed my petition asking Governor Crist to listen to the parents, students, and teachers he represents -- and oppose this bill before it hurts our schools and students.

This fight is personal for me.

My two children graduated from Florida public schools, and as a proud PTA mom, I know that this bill, Senate Bill 6, is bad for teachers, bad for our kids, and bad for our state's future.

I think testing is an important part of the education process, and that we should bring together our local school districts, teachers, parents and superintendents to determine the best way to reward teachers for student performance. But, a child's education is far more than a couple days of filling in bubbles for multiple choice questions -- yet, this law would make those few days the biggest determinant of our teachers' paychecks.

That's just not right. Florida is a diverse state, and every classroom is different.

To make matters worse, Senate Bill 6 is another unfunded mandate that will simply stretch Florida's overburdened schools further than they are now.

If I were governor right now, vetoing this bill would be a no-brainer. And that's why I hope you will join me to stop it.

The fight to protect Florida's students and schools also shows clearly what's at stake in the race for governor this year.

My opponent, Republican Bill McCollum, is "applauding" Senate Bill 6 and giving it "two thumbs up". McCollum is making it clear that he does not share Floridians priorities -- which is why it's so important to send a strong signal about who is standing up for Florida's interests and who is in it for their own interests.

With Governor Crist poised to make his final decision as early as today, we have to make our voices heard now on this issue. Please join me and speak out.

Sign my petition to Governor Crist now, urging him to veto Senate Bill 6 -- together, we can make sure that Governor Crist gets the message now, before it is too late.

A Teacher in Florida

by Jamee Cagle Miller
2009 Seminole County Teacher of the Year

This poem has reached the office of a Senator and may be read at the next voting of the bill (if it gets back to the senate). It is in the hands of the Orlando Sentinal and could be published there.
She wrote the words many of us want to shout out:-)

I am a Teacher in Florida.

I rise before dawn each day and find myself nestled in my classroom hours before the morning commute is in full swing in downtown Orlando. I scour the web along with countless other resources to create meaningful learning experiences for my 24 students each day. I reflect on the successes of lessons taught and re-work ideas until I feel confident that they will meet the needs of my diverse learners. I have finished my third cup of coffee in my classroom before the business world has stirred. My contracted hours begin at 7:30 and end at 3:00. As the sun sets around me and people are beginning to enjoy their dinner, I lock my classroom door, having worked 4 hours unpaid.

I am a teacher in Florida.

I greet the smiling faces of my students and am reminded anew of their challenges, struggles, successes, failures, quirks, and needs. I review their 504s, their IEPs, their PMPs, their histories trying to reach them from every angle possible. They come in hungry—I feed them. They come in angry—I counsel them. They come in defeated—I encourage them. And this is all before the bell rings.

I am a teacher in Florida.

I am told that every student in my realm must score on or above grade level on the FCAT each year. Never mind their learning discrepancies, their unstable home lives, their prior learning experiences. In the spring, they are all assessed with one measure and if they don’t fit, I have failed. Students walk through my doors reading at a second grade level and by year’s end can independently read and comprehend early 4th grade texts, but this is no matter. One of my students has already missed 30 days of school this year, but this is overlooked. If they don’t show this on ONE the test in early March, their learning gains are irrelevant. They didn’t learn enough. They didn’t grow enough. I failed them. In the three months that remain in the school year after this test, I am expected to begin teaching 5th grade curriculum to my 4th grade students so that they are prepared for next year’s test.

I am a teacher in Florida.

I am expected to create a culture of students who will go on to become the leaders of our world. When they exit my classroom, they should be fully equipped to compete academically on a global scale. They must be exposed to different worldviews and diverse perspectives, and yet, most of my students have never left Sanford, Florida. Field trips are now frivolous. I must provide new learning opportunities for them without leaving the four walls of our classroom. So I plan. I generate new ways to expose them to life beyond their neighborhoods through online exploration and digital field trips. I stay up past The Tonight Show to put together a unit that will allow them to experience St. Augustine without getting on a bus. I spend weekends taking pictures and creating a virtual world for them to experience, since the State has determined it is no longer worthwhile for them to explore reality. Yes. My students must be prepared to work within diverse communities, and yet they are not afforded the right to ever experience life beyond their own town.

I am a teacher in Florida.

I accepted a lower salary with the promise of a small increase for every year taught. I watched my friends with less education than me sign on for six figure jobs while I embraced my $28k starting salary. I was assured as I signed my contract that although it was meager to start, my salary would consistently grow each year. That promise has been broken. I’m still working with a meager salary, and the steps that were contracted to me when I accepted a lower salary are now deemed “unnecessary.”

I am a teacher in Florida.

I spent $2500 in my first year alone to outfit an empty room so that it would promote creative thinking and a desire to learn and explore. I now average between $1000-2000 that I pay personally to supplement the learning experiences that take place in my classroom. I print at home on my personal printer and have burned through 12 ink cartridges this school year alone. I purchase the school supplies my students do not have. I buy authentic literature so my students can be exposed to authors and worlds beyond their textbooks. I am required to teach Social Studies and Writing without any curriculum/materials provided, so I purchase them myself. I am required to conduct Science lab without Science materials, so I buy those, too. The budgeting process has determined that copies of classroom materials are too costly, so I resort to paying for my copies at Staples, refusing to compromise my students’ education because high-ranking officials are making inappropriate cuts. It is February, and my entire class is out of glue sticks. Since I have already spent the $74 allotted to me for warehouse supplies, if I don’t buy more, we will not have glue for the remainder of the year. The projects I dream up are limited by the incomprehensible lack of financial support. I am expected to inspire my students to become lifelong learners, and yet we don’t have the resources needed to nurture their natural sense of wonder if I don’t purchase them myself. My meager earning is now pathetic after the expenses that come with teaching effectively.

I am a teacher in Florida.

The government has scolded me for failing to prepare my students to compete in this technologically driven world. Students in Japan are much more equipped to think progressively with regards to technology. Each day, I turn on the two computers afforded me and pray for a miracle. I apply for grants to gain new access to technology and compete with thousands of other teachers who are hoping for the same opportunity. I battle for the right to use the computer lab and feel fortunate if my students get to see it once a week. Why don’t they know how to use technology? The system’s budget refuses to include adequate technology in classrooms; instead, we are continually told that dry erase boards and overhead projectors are more than enough.

I am a teacher in Florida.

I am expected to differentiate my instruction to meet the needs of my 24 learners. Their IQs span 65 points, and I must account for every shade of gray. I must challenge those above grade level, and I must remediate those below. I am but one person within the classroom, but I must meet the needs of every learner. I generate alternate assessments to accommodate for these differences. My higher math students receive challenge work, and my lower math students receive one-on-one instruction. I create most of these resources myself, after-hours and on weekends. I print these resources so that every child in my room has access to the same knowledge, delivered at their specific level. Yesterday, the school printer that I share with another teacher ran out of ink. Now I must either purchase a new ink cartridge for $120, or I cannot print anything from my computer for the remainder of the year. What choice am I left with?

I am a teacher in Florida.

I went to school at one of the best universities in the country and completed undergraduate and graduate programs in Education. I am a master of my craft. I know what effective teaching entails, and I know how to manage the curriculum and needs of the diverse learners in my full inclusion classroom. I graduated at the top of my class and entered my first year of teaching confident and equipped to teach effectively. Sadly, I am now being micro-managed, with my instruction dictated to me. I am expected to mold “out-of-the-box” thinkers while I am forced to stay within the lines of the instructional plans mandated by policy-makers. I am told what I am to teach and when, regardless of the makeup of my students, by decision-makers far away from my classroom or even my school. The message comes in loud and clear that a group of people in business suits can more effectively determine how to provide exemplary instruction than I can. My expertise is waved away, disregarded, and overlooked. I am treated like a day-laborer, required to follow the steps mapped out for me, rather than blaze a trail that I deem more appropriate and effective for my students—students these decision-makers have never met.

I am a teacher in Florida.

I am overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated by most. I spend my weekends, my vacations, and my summers preparing for school, and I constantly work to improve my teaching to meet the needs of my students. I am being required to do more and more, and I’m being compensated less and less.

I am a teacher in Florida, not for the pay or the hardships, the disregard or the disrespect; I am a teacher in Florida because I am given the chance to change lives for the good, to educate and elevate the minds and hearts of my students, and to show them that success comes in all shapes and sizes, both in the classroom and in the community.

I am a teacher in Florida today, but as I watch many of my incredible, devoted coworkers being forced out of the profession as a matter of survival, I wonder: How long will I be able to remain a teacher in Florida?

Ed Deformer Jeb Bush and the Party of Stupid Prevail in the Florida Legislature

It's all up the Governor Charlie Crist now:

• Email the Governor

• Email the Lt. Governor

• Telephone:
  • Citizen Services Hotline: * (850) 488-4441*
  • Executive Office of the Governor Switchboard: * (850) 488-7146* [Office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time]

• Fax: (850) 487-0801

• For individuals with hearing loss or speech disability:
  1-850-922-7795 (TTY)
  OR
  711 (Florida Telecommunication Relay)

• Mailing Address
  • Office of Governor Charlie Crist
    State of Florida
    PL-05 The Capitol
    Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001

• Delivery Address
  • Office of Governor Charlie Crist
    State of Florida
    The Capitol
    400 S. Monroe St.
    Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001

From Valerie Strauss at WaPo:

Already approved by the Senate, the legislation now rests with Crist, who first said he supported it but has been hinting that he may now use his veto because it is so unpopular.

Teachers, parents and students have been loudly protesting the legislation, which, if it becomes law, would:

*Make Florida the first state to eliminate tenure for new teachers, putting them all on one-year contracts for the first five years.

*Eliminate class experience and advanced degrees (in most cases) as factors in teacher evaluations and pay increases.

*Require that at least 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation, and pay increases, be based on standardized test scores. Test experts say this method is faulty because teachers can’t control every factor that affects the test-taking process.

*Require the creation of a slew of new standardized tests for every subject, in every grade that is not already assessed. This must come as good news to companies that create tests and that prepare students for taking tests. There could be a lot of new business for them in Florida [Disclosure: The Washington Post owns Kaplan, an education company with a test prep divison.]

A look at some of the details of the bill passed by the House helps explain why critics say it was not thought out or written with much care.

It requires all school districts in the state to develop end-of-course exams that will determine “learning gains” made by students ( a plan that also would require exams to be given at the beginning of the school year, too, so that student progress can be measured). It doesn't, however, explain what a student “learning gain” -- on which teachers will be judged-- actually is.

Within a few years, Florida second-graders could, perhaps, sit down, with pencil in hand, to take a test on how well they did in art class that year. What kind of test? Nobody knows. The bill doesn’t say.

The new tests will cost millions of dollars. A legislator from Duval County told the House that the state Education Department is developing three end-of course exams right now, at a cost of more than $1 million. The Miami-Dade County school system alone has something like 900 course offerings.

To pay for the course development and performance pay for teachers and other parts of the legislation, 5 percent of federal, state and local Florida Education Finance Program funds are to be set aside beginning in 2011. That’s about $900 million.

But here’s the catch: It’s not new money. It would come out of the already stretched budgets of county school systems. School officials say they can't possibly afford this.

The bill also doesn’t mention how special-needs students should be factored in, although Crist said this week he was concerned about this omission.

The backers of the bill say these are details that can be worked out later in rules by the Department of Education.

That’s the same thing they said when former Florida governor Jeb Bush pushed through a statewide standardized testing program called the FCAT. The legislation had few details, which had to be worked out over years. The adults fiddled while students had to suffer taking tests that had no meaning.

The bill has been hailed by some conservatives outside the state, including Stanford University economist Eric Hanusek, who praised Florida in the April edition of Education Next magazine for being "poised to lead the nation in crafting student policies."

Hanusek was a big supporter of then-president George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind education reform, once writing that it was "raising overall student performance." Bush's own administration issued reports showing that it did not, in fact, raise overall student performance.

Education historian Diane Ravitch, a former official in the administration of president George H.W. Bush who once supported NCLB, has looked at data and changed her mind, saying it actually harmed education, in part by emphasizing high-stakes standardized tests. The New York University professor wrote an open letter to the Florida legislature expressing her opposition to the state's reform approach.

The legislation's supporters have repeatedly said that its reforms will improve schools and encourage good teachers to stay in the profession because they will be paid more for their good work. Supporters may indeed believe this. But good teachers know that they can't fairly be judged by test scores alone. It isn't surprising that no teachers were involved in the drafting of the legislation.

Certainly there are teachers in every school system who should not be in the classroom, and certainly principals should have the flexibility to remove ineffective teachers. In fact, in some counties, they do already. Nobody wants bad teachers to be forced out better than good teachers. But taking away job security, linking pay to test scores and forcing kids to take more tests is going to hurt the good teachers as least as much as the bad.

Opponents of the bill accuse its sponsors of disliking teachers and trying to tear down public education. Sen. John Thrasher, sponsor the Senate bill on teacher tenure and testing, who was recently installed as chairman of Florida’s Republican Party with the help of former governor Jeb Bush, denied this. Incidentally, he didn't ask any educators for their input on the reform.

During a recent debate on the Senate floor, Thrasher pointed to his daughter who was sitting in the gallery. She’s a former teacher, according to this piece from WUSF, Tampa Bay’s public broadcasting station.

“She’s told me she’s not fearful of this bill. Because she thinks that when this bill passes, it’s gonna inspire teachers to get into the classroom, and do a better job than they’ve been doing, even now,” Thrasher said.

Of course she's not fearful. She doesn’t teach anymore.

Florida Teachers, Parents, Students Organize to Stop SB6

Today's event is listed here, and below is Valerie Strauss's latest piece on the war against teaching in Florida:

Type:

Causes - Protest

Date:	Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Time:	5:00pm - 7:00pm
Location:	Outside Spanish River High School- Boca Raton
Street:	5100 Jog Road
City/Town:	Boca Raton, FL
	View Map

Let's show Governor Crist that we mean business... Wear RED... Show up at the corner of Yamato Road and Jog Road in Boca Raton (outside Spanish River High School)! Bring your signs... We need to let our legislators and Governor Crist that we will not stop until this bill is gone... SHOW UP AND HELP US KEEP UP THE PRESSURE....

With the bill on the fast track, it is more IMPERATIVE than ever that we show up and let our voices be heard!! Tallahassee in NOT in TOUCH with the people they serve. We MUST let them know that NOW and in NOVEMBER!!!! Show up tomorrow... Our children need you!!!

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=110807662275554&ref=nf

From WaPo:

Florida’s teachers are already up in arms about the likelihood that state lawmakers are about to end teacher tenure, require the creation of standardized tests for every single grade, and link teacher pay to student test scores.

Now there’s another doozy of a bill that the Republican-led legislature is working on that has teachers, parent, and even school superintendents aghast.

It’s SB 2126, which would expand a program that allows corporations in Florida to contribute to a fund that provides scholarships, or vouchers, for private schools. The corporations can then deduct the amount from their corporate income and insurance premium taxes.

In other words, millions tax dollars that could go to the state to help out in this difficult financial downturn would instead go to send kids to private schools, most of them Christian, Muslim and Jewish.

[Added at 9 p.m.: This is an expansion of a program already in place, and there are varying estimates of how much money is involved. Supporters of the fund say it saves money for the state; opponents, and some school districts, say the opposite.]

Never mind that the state is cutting public education (and other) funding and raising tuition at public colleges and universities. Somehow, Florida has money to help corporations help kids go to private religious schools.

Broward County Schools Superintendent James Notter, in an interview with my colleague Nick Anderson said: "I’m adamantly opposed to it. It’s draining off dollars in the Great Recession that aren’t there."

Schools in Florida, he said, have enough trouble already getting funding for what they need, including in his 250,000-student system.

Sadly, big trouble is where the Florida public school system is headed.

Yesterday, the House Education Policy Council held an hours-long hearing about legislation that would end teacher tenure--which would make Florida the first state to do so--and tie teacher pay to standardized test scores. It would also negate the importance of teacher experience, credentials or advanced degrees, and require the creation of standardized tests for every grade in every subject already not assessed by the state’s accountability system.

In Florida, kids will first learn to walk, then talk and then jump right into test-prep.

The Senate has already passed its version, SB6, and the House is expected to pass HB7189 this week. Monday, teachers packed the chamber where the hearing was being held, hoping to get a chance to speak against it during time set aside for public speeches. Most of the people permitted to speak were, of course, supporters of the bill.

After one of a series of amendments to improve the bill was rejected by the council, a few teachers got up and left, sobbing.

There was nothing left for them to do, because the legislators seem intent on making this law, and Gov. Charlie Crist (R) has said he will sign it.

If you listen to the sponsor of the Senate version, new Florida Republican Party chief Sen. John Thrasher, which I did on a video that I can no longer find on YouTube, you learn that he doesn’t know some basics about the bill’s impact.

For example, when asked by a colleague how many tests would have to be created, he said he didn’t know. When asked how much it would cost, he said he didn’t know. When asked whether there was any marker in the bill that would show its true cost, he hedged.

I also listened to a video in which Thrasher introduced the bill, and some of the language seemed oddly familiar. Then I realized that I had read it before, in a position paper on the Web site of former governor Jeb Bush's Foundation for Florida’s Future.

Well, Bush was interested in education as governor; he pushed through the legislature the statewide assessment test known as FCAT. And Bush did strongly boost Thrasher’s ascension to the Republican party chairmanship in February, after Jim Greer was ousted from the post. Now Greer is suing the Republican Party of Florida, claiming it hasn’t abided by a secret pact that it made to get him out of office involving a job that would pay Greer tens of thousands of dollars plus health benefits until his tenure would have been up in 2011, according to this Florida Today story.

Oh. Wait. This is an education blog and that sounds a lot like politics, doesn’t it?

Exactly.

That’s what we’ve got: politicians telling educators what to do, even though the politicians have no idea what works in a classroom and what doesn’t.

It shouldn’t be surprising to learn that no teachers were involved in the drafting of this legislation. Anybody who knows the first thing about education knows that the measures in this bill will make it harder for Florida’s children to get a decent education. Effective teachers will bristle at working under these conditions.

Notter has said it would be harder to attract qualified teachers, which is something of supreme importance to a superintendent. Florida’s Republicans leaders, of course, don’t care. They don’t have to hire the teachers--or get paid according to student test scores.

All of this helps explain why teachers in Florida think public education is under attack, a reaction made quite clear at the Teaching is Not Testing Facebook Page. Parents and other nonpartisan Floridians are involved, too, at Fund Education Now.

They are all busy getting ready for the next offensive.

Florida: Crazy as Texas?

The above ad is paid for by Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education. SB6 and HB7189, the Senate and House bills in Florida that would eliminate any form of tenure (one year contracts for all teachers) and "evaluate" teachers almost exclusively with test scores (including hiring and firing). Currently, the Florida legislature is holding a hearing about the bill (streamed lived here), and a rep from the US Chamber of Commerce is babbling on and on about the test-test-test-punish-punish-punish strategy of NCLB and RttT. Citing support from the "progressive" Center for American Progress ("progressive" in name only, of course) and the "Leaders and Laggards" report, the Chamber rep is expressing firm support for RttT and SB6/HB7189.

Jennie Smith at the Examiner provides some great coverage of teachers and other educators trying to convince politicians to pull their heads out of the sand (or other places) and do what's best for kids AND teachers: don't pass SB6/HB7189.

You can follow NoTallahasseeTakeover and No SB 6 for some great Twitter updates, including photos of teachers and parents protesting the shoddy education "reform".

Quality teachers like Jamee Cagle Miller will be fleeing Florida in droves if this bill becomes law.

Florida Test and Punish Policy Shifts Focus to Teachers

With the Jeb Bush brain trust now rushing through a Senate bill in Florida that would make teachers' jobs dependent upon test scores, Arne Duncan and his philanthro-capitalist cabal at ED must be second-guessing their RTTT contest picks last week. What an opportunity missed to make starving states understand what Arne and the Oligarchs are looking for! Oh well, by the time this Bill becomes law, the second round of RTTT will be upon us, and the Florida message can be hammered home in even a more convincing fashion, i.e., with hundreds of millions of dollars.

But what is that, that rumbling? Oh, I see, it is students, teachers, and parents all together twittering, signing petitions, marching and emailing and calling their representatives to shut down this most insidious Republocratic effort yet to crush the teaching profession and to bring harm to the children who depend upon teachers to teach them more than how to take a test.



From Valerie Strauss yesterday at WaPo:

Teachers fighting back in Florida

Even if you don’t live in Florida, you should pay attention to what is going on there.

Teachers, parents and even students in the Sunshine State call it the “Education Debacle.” And they are no longer sitting quietly, hoping that common sense will magically prevail with state legislators seemingly intent on passing legislation affectionately called a “hammer” on the teaching profession by its sponsor.

They are taking to the streets, literally and digitally, to transmit their horror over legislation that would end teacher job security, increase student testing and tie teacher pay to student test scores. It also prohibits school districts from taking into account experience, professional credentials or advanced degrees in teacher evaluation and pay.

Protests are planned around the state this week, including one Thursday afternoon that will bring people onto U.S. Highway 1 from Jacksonville in the northern part of the state to Miami in the south.

They also plan to bring their protest to Washington D.C. soon, to let their representatives in Congress and federal officials know that they don’t want what they consider an assault on their livelihood and on public education.

A growing coalition of teachers, students, parents, school administrators and others are publicly protesting what is probably the most heavy-handed attack on teachers in the country at the moment.

Thousands of people have signed petitions being sent to Florida’s governor, Charlie Crist, demanding that he veto the bill if it passes the legislature. He's indicated that he supports the legislation but is coming under more pressure than he probably expected.

The protesters had hoped the Obama administration would end the high-stakes standardized testing culture and pseudo-accountability regime of No Child Left Behind; after all, Barack Obama bashed NCLB when he campaigned for president.

But now, President Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, are finding new ways to continue some of its egregious features. Just this week, Duncan announced the first two winners (Delaware and Tennessee) in his “Race to the Top” competition, a chance for states to win federal funds to enact school reform in the form that Duncan likes: more tests, more charter schools, etc. Sounds a lot like NCLB.

Unfortunately, part of the criteria for winning Race to the Top money is a scheme that links teacher pay to standardized scores, which is part of the legislation that Florida’s teachers are protesting. Known as Senate Bill 6 and House Bill 7189, the legislation would require:

*School systems to evaluate and pay teachers primarily on the basis of student test scores. (Testing experts say this is unfair and unworkable.)

*School systems to ignore a teacher’s experience, advanced degrees or professional credentials in any evaluation or pay.

*School systems to put newly hired teachers on probation for five years and then give them annual contracts for the rest of their careers.

*The creation of more standardized tests for students, to cover subjects not already assessed.

The Senate has passed its version of the bill; the House may take it up Thursday.

Teachers and their supporters in Palm Beach County are communicating about the bill on Facebook at a page called Testing is Not Teaching, and in response, someone apparently connected to Republican legislators launched a counter page deceptively called “Support Florida’s Teachers.”

The folks running that page write in support of the legislation, and then delete posts from people who oppose it. Now that’s right in the spirit of the openness of the web, isn’t it?

The Senate bill was sponsored by state Sen. John Thrasher, the new head of Florida’s Republican Party. He calls the bill “the hammer,” which he says is necessary to force the Florida teachers union to end its opposition to merit pay for teachers.

I will say this for Thrasher: He doesn’t make any pretense about the heavy hand he believes should be used with Florida teachers.

This approach could easily spread beyond the borders of Florida. It’s everybody’s business.

Florida Shenanigans

I sometimes wonder if the conservatives in Florida and the wingnuts in Texas are secretly trying to out-do each other with awful education reforms.

A lot of attention has been focused on Texas (for good reason), but two potential reforms in Florida deserve a mention.

Looks like tuition tax credits will expand in Florida:

Florida voucher expansion bill advancing

By BILL KACZOR

Sellers of beer, wine and liquor would be added to the list of businesses that can get tax credits for donating to a private school program for low-income children as part of a Florida bill that also increases the value of the vouchers.

The measure that easily cleared the Senate Finance and Tax Committee on Tuesday pits a couple old adversaries: former Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union.

The union was part of a lawsuit that overturned a voucher program Bush started for students from what the state deemed to be failing public schools. The Florida Supreme Court struck down the "opportunity scholarships" that allowed those students to attend private schools at taxpayer expense.

...

The bill also would raise a $118 million cap on the program to $140 million during the budget year starting July 1 and allow for automatic increases after that if the program raises at least 90 percent of the capped amount in a given year.

[Continued here]

Florida is also pushing a merit-pay bill that would use FCAT scores for pay and staffing issues (and these scores would account for over 50% of a teacher's evaluation). Sherman Dorn asks about constitutionality issues; a summary of the bill is available here.

ACLU vs Florida, Or Brown vs Board of Education--the Sequel?

The Jeb legacy of herding poor kids into segregated charter chain gangs and segregated fundamentalist voucher madrasas seems to be having some consequences beyond the total social control that these racist policies intended. When leaving school becomes the only recourse for preserving one's dignity and some sense of personal freedom, then you might say schools don't matter anymore. The hemorrhaging of black high school students in Florida and elsewhere has resulted in a long overdue lawsuit. From the NYTimes:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing state officials in Florida of failing to ensure that students in Palm Beach County receive a high quality education, as evidenced by their poor graduation rates.

The state court suit, filed in West Palm Beach, names Gov. Charlie Crist, the Board of Education and several political leaders and asserts that they are violating a requirement in the Florida Constitution to provide a “uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality” education.

“Palm Beach County is clearly not upholding its responsibility to provide a quality education to all of its students when so many of them are not graduating,” Chris Hansen, senior staff lawyer with the A.C.L.U., said Thursday in a statement.

Mr. Hansen added that the issues in Palm Beach County reflected a national problem.

A spokesman for Mr. Crist, a Republican, did not have immediate comment. . . .

FCAT Three Times a Year

The testing hysteria has reached a high pitch in Florida, where even the best school systems are falling prey to the ticking performance targets that each year blow up more public schools there. Now the insistence on a year's worth of growth has led the testing geniuses in the land of Disney to administer the disruptive, time-consuming FCAT not once, or twice, but three times during the year. From the Orlando Sentinel:

New state requirements that Florida school districts test hundreds of thousands of students this fall to develop a baseline for academic improvement is a huge, costly, time consuming exercise, Seminole school district officials complain.

Under the state’s new differentiated accountability system, the state wants school districts to show that schools are doing better by year’s ended. Targeted are schools that did not meet performance standards of No Child Left Behind, the federal education reform law.

Of course, because - as is widely accepted now - Florida shot itself in the left foot when it originally set up its tough performance standards for NCLB several years ago, few schools actually can meet the standards.

That means a district such as Seminole, which is one of the top academic performers in the state, has two-thirds of its schools on a list of underperforming schools.

They are divided into groups, based on deficiencies, with titles such as "Prevent I" and "Correct I." That makes school district officials wince, and you are unlikely to see a banner hanging outside Lake Mary Elementary proclaiming "We Are a Prevent I School."

Local officials had probably logically presumed they could use last year's FCAT test as the baseline for student perfomance. But they say the state Department of Education told them no dice, and set an impossible mid-September deadline for completion of the testing, too.

Seminole and probably other districts as well got an extension through October. But they say it will be a huge waste of teacher and student time and effort to take tests in several subjects. The tests have to be repeated at mid-year and year end as well.

Florida's Corporate Welfare Charters Want Ads on School Buses

From the Orlando Sentinel's blog:

This post comes from ace Sentinel reporter Mary Shanklin:

Charter-school accountability bills that passed the Florida Senate unanimously now face a number of House amendments, including one by Rep. Bryan Nelson, R-Apopka, to allow advertising on school buses.

The add-ons may be enough to sink any opportunity for the two legislative bodies to come together on making the publicly funded schools face similar regulations as traditional schools, said an aide to Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville. The senator has championed the reforms for the last two sessions following an Orlando Sentinel investigation into Florida’s 350-plus charter schools.

As approved in the Senate, the bill would prohibit nepotism and increase financial reporting among the schools, which are privately operated, often by management companies.

Nelson recently commented on the legislation, saying he was working with other representatives to strengthen the bill and “ensure that we have the strong safeguards necessary to ensure accountability of our charter schools."