Tuesday, May 31, 2016

FL: Dept of Ed Says, "Don't Blame Us!" (w/Update)

A few Florida districts managed to earn themselves a heaping helping of angry publicity recently by declaring that a Third grader's ability to read was not nearly as important as the Third grader's willingness to knuckle under and compliantly take the state's Big Standardized Test. Students who had opted out of the test were going to be flunked for the grade, regardless of their report cards, teacher recommendations or other clear signs that they could read just fine, thank you very much.



Manatee County in particular signaled that it was going to A) hold the line hard and B) blame the state department of education.

Now comes word courtesy of the Gradebook at the Tampa Bay Times, talking to the Florida Department of Education--

"Our primary guidance to the districts is to follow the law," spokeswoman Meghan Collins said Tuesday. "Obviously, the law says participation on the FSA (Florida Standards Assessment) is mandatory. But we never said you must retain a student who doesn't have an FSA score."

Collins also elaborated that there was no requirement to take the test before an alternative assessment could be used.

Collins also told Jeffrey Solochek at the Times that the department would not be sending out a letter of clarification. "We've already made ourselves plenty damn clear enough for supposedly educated people who can read and speak English," she did not actually say, but I thought I'd paraphrase. "Local decisions are to be made locally, particularly if they are so glaringly dumb that the fallout will be terrible," she only sort of approximately continued. This is, honestly, better than I expected, given that Florida is the state that once insisted a dying child take the Big Standardized Test.

So, Superintendents Diane Greene and Lori White-- the ball's in your court. In fact, you're kind of in your court all alone now. The state has sent a clear message of "Don't lay this foolishness on us!"  My suggestion? make a reasonable, humane, decent decision here-- the kind of decision that one would expect from a professional educator who actually cares about the welfare of children. Take the opening the state has given you, and pass those children.

UPDATE:

After spending the afternoon taking a good hard look at the undercarriage of the bus, Superintendent Greene has announced that "good cause" promotions, including portfolios, will be totally okee dokee for advancing to fourth grade in Manatee Schools. Furthermore...

“The School District of Manatee County’s stance on third-grade retention was not a decision or a conclusion developed in a vacuum,” Greene wrote in a lengthy statement released Tuesday evening. 

 Does that seem a little subtle? Try this one:


To say that I am angry, frustrated and disappointed in the FLDOE’s lack of leadership on this extremely important issue is a massive understatement. To pass this difficult decision off to 67 different school districts is a gross abdication of responsibility.

Also, "I ended up looking like an ass by compromising my principles about assessing and advancing students over your stupid test, which is looking more bogus than ever, and now I'm looking like a big dope both personally and professionally. See if I carry water for those jerks in Tallahassee ever again." I'm paraphrasing on this one.


Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article80950647.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article80950647.html#storylink=cpy

10 comments:

  1. Report cards will be coming out soon in other districts. I hope this allows them to do what they should've already been doing..passing children based on professional standards.
    Thank you for shining the light on this. FLDOE's unspoken policy of no communication is one that warrants correcting.

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  2. And the plot thickens in Florida... To be continued...

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  3. I was just following orders...until she wasn't....

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  4. It's a good thing people protest this sh*t.

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  5. Peter Greene, I could kiss you! We protested in Sarasota County today. We all needed this. I particularly liked the "undercarriage of a bus". Sad thing is, I just told my 2 sisters (one of whom lives in Ohio) that before this is over, the state will throw the districts under the bus. They refuse to hold themselves accountable for any of this education disaster.

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  6. Thank you for covering this story. Parents are doing a great job bringing attention to our broken school systems. Tests with high stakes like pass/fail attached to them are taking presidence over 180 days of hard work and classroom grades. The Florida Standards Assessment Test has a 58% failure rate. All those students are at risk of retention at a cost of $12,000 per student. It is ethically, educationally, financially, and morally wrong to continue failing children over a one time test.

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  7. Thank you for covering this story. Parents are doing a great job bringing attention to our broken school systems. Tests with high stakes like pass/fail attached to them are taking precedence over 180 days of hard work and classroom grades. The Florida Standards Assessment Test has a 58% failure rate. All those students are at risk of retention at a cost of $12,000 per student. It is ethically, educationally, financially, and morally wrong to continue failing children over a one time test.

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  8. All this finger-pointing among these educrats ... I hope they're using just their index fingers ... because the middle fingers have been reserved by parents.

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  9. Dr. Greene was truly thrown under the bus on this one. The FLDOE makes ridiculous rules all the time. She was using the promotion requirements the district has had for several years before she became superintendent - she didn't come up with the criteria the district uses. And as a seasoned teacher in Manatee County, Florida, I can tell you retaining third graders who "fail" the state test was not something Manatee County dreamed up with on their own.

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  10. Ohio, this should be a wake up call to all of the dummies who are still standing by the 3rd grade reading guarantee,which we modeled after Florida.

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