Voucher expansion

It was pretty much a party-line vote for a measure that Democrats deemed an affront to public education and Republicans called a "good bill" for the good of families and children. HB 7145 would expand the Corporate Income Tax Credit Scholarship and the McKay Scholarship programs to more students than they currently serve. Some say, it's an effort to undermine the state Supreme Court's ruling against vouchers in Florida. Others say, it's a legitimate way to grow school choice while following the court's ruling. Either way, it's moving ahead. The House passed it 84-34, and a similar measure awaits final action in the Senate, where the support is not as strong. 

World-class standards update

The House pushed ahead with its plan to replace the Sunshine State Standards with what it calls "world-class standards," unanimously adopting HB 7151, one of Speaker Marco Rubio's 100 priorities. Education Committee chair Anitere Flores called the legislation, which also requires a social studies FCAT by 2012 and a later date to begin FCAT testing, "possibly one of the most important bills that we will pass." "We are making sure that those students are globally competitive," said Flores, a Miami Republican.

Even though the House finds the measure pressing, it's unclear whether Senate will follow. Its version of this bill, remains stuck in the Education Appropriations committee on a technicality. Senators are said to be looking for a different bill to tack the provisions onto.

Whittling away the achievement gap

The rate at which minority students in Florida have taken Advanced Placement tests has risen rapidly over the past several years. The numbers, however, remain low in comparison to the overall total of students taking the college-level courses and exams. (Hey, it's pretty easy to get high percentage increases when the base is small - just 8,700 Florida minority students took AP tests in 1999, compared to about 26,000 white kids.) To boost participation even higher, lawmakers want the Florida Partnership for Minority and Underrepresented Student Achievement do more to identify and help teens get into the AP program and succeed. The Senate unanimously approved the bill (SB 108) this morning, and the House is to take up the identical lanugage (HB 403) this afternoon. Once participation rises enough, maybe someone will do something about the the success rates the students find on the AP exams. (Want to see how Florida students did on AP exams most recently? Click here for a report from the College Board.)

UPDATE: The House approved the identical bill unanimously Monday afternoon.

Today's news

HELPING HAND: The Pinellas County Juvenile Welfare Board wants to expand a program that offers tutoring and extra aid, sometimes in the home, to needy students and their families throughout the county.

COPS WANTED: Turnover at the University of South Florida police department is alarming officials, especially as they seek to boost campus security in light of the recent massacre at Virginia Tech.

FROM THE OP-ED PAGES: The FCAT reading cut score for high school sophomores is too high and needs to be more in line with the students' real abilities, the editorial board says.

HOW MUCH TO BUILD A SCHOOL? Broward County taxpayers soon might be longing for the days of a $90-million high school. The next one on the books looks to be costing closer to $130-million, the Sun-Sentinel reports. (Remember when folks thought a $40-million high school was extravagant, about four years ago?)

LIFE SKILLS NEEDED: But now that the state has dropped the life management skills health class as a graduation requirement, many students who need to lessons might not get them, the Miami Herald reports.

PLAYING FAVORITES: As lawmakers prepare to let USF, UF and FSU raise their tuition, leaders at other state universities are complaining that they need some love and money, too, the Palm Beach Post reports.

IS IT FANTASY, OR A THREAT? Teachers and school administrators look at more than just words in students' writing assignments when the message on the page causes alarm, the Chicago Tribune reports.

THE 24/7 REPORT CARD: Parents can get immediate updates on their kids' school progress through Edline and programs like it that their schools adopt. Then they can ask lots of questions. Parents like it, but the kids, not so much, the Washington Post reports.

Coming up

Monday: Go Higher Florida Task Force, 10 a.m., Tallahassee; Florida House and Senate are in session all week

Tuesday: Pinellas School Board, workshop, 9 a.m.; Pasco School Board, 9:30 a.m.; Hernando School Board, 7 p.m.

Friday: Department of Education, hearing on educational facilities rules, 2 p.m., Tallahassee

May 7: Commission for Independent Education, workshop on fees and expenses, 1 p.m., Orlando

May 8: Hillsborough School Board, 5 p.m.; Pinellas School Board, 10 a.m.

May 10: Hillsborough School Board, workshop, 10 a.m.; Florida Schools of Excellence Commission, 10 a.m., Aventura

May 11: Charter School Review Panel, 10 a.m., Aventura

May 15: Hillsborough School Board, workshop, 10 a.m., Pasco School Board, 6 p.m.

May 15-16: Commission for Independent Education, Orlando

Today's news

MISSING - ONE GOLF CART: And five lawn mowers, ten sousaphones and a salad bar. Auditors have a long list of property that FAMU can't find, and it totals about $2.7-million. Some suggest that the inability to locate these items points to a larger accountability problem at the university.

NO SODA, BUT STILL NO NUTRITION: When Robinson High in Tampa banned sugary carbonated drinks from campus vending machines, students turned to sugary non-carbonated drinks with even more calories instead.

FROM THE OP-ED PAGES: Pasco County has required seniors to pass the FCAT if they want to walk at graduation since 1998, and there's no good reason to change the policy now, the editorial board says. Some letter writers agree.

CHARACTER COUNTS: Few debate the importance of honesty and ethical behavior. But can kids get that moral compass from school classes? The Broward school district is investing $1.4-million to study whether character education actually works, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Look for results in about three years.

FCAT INFLUENCE: Schools try their best to meet the test's standards, shifting their focus and spending lots of time and energy on little else. Then the results show that their efforts netted no gain. It's got teachers wondering how much the standards should drive the curriculum, the Herald-Tribune reports.

FINALLY, A LITTLE GOOD NEWS FOR FAMU: The College of Education wins accreditation, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

IF IT WERE ANY OTHER SCHOOL ... It would be closed down. But English High in Boston is the nation's first public high school, and so the state is working to resolve its problems instead, the Associated Press reports.

A weekend interview with ...

... Jane Gallucci, Pinellas County School Board member and president of the National School Boards Association. She spoke with the Gradebook about the Pinellas school district's policy of naming valedictorians and salutatorians following the Palm Beach  County School Board's recent decision to rethink its policy.

Q. The subject of valedictorians and salutatorians has come up in Pinellas County several times. What's your take on the district's practice of honoring the two students with the highest grade point averages at each school at graduation?

A. There will always be a No. 1 and No. 2 student. You can't take that honor away. But the graduation ceremony shouldn't be centered around those two students. I believe the graduation ceremony should center around all the students who have culminated their careers by walking across the stage. We should make graduation a big deal. But I've felt it's not been a big deal for all the kids. It's not just about who's No. 1. It's not just about the person to whom God has given the extras.

Q. You've advocated honoring a percentage of students at each school rather than the two students with the highest grade point average. Who would give the commencement address?

A. The students could decide. It could be a student who has shown leadership or one who has done something for the community. The class would have the right to choose.

Q. When the subject of doing away with valedictorians and salutatorians has come up in the past, parents have overwhelmingly spoken against it. Is there a way an alternate plan could be introduced that would be more palatable to them?

A. In the past, parents have said, 'It's my year, it's my turn. You're not going to take this away.' I think we could start having this dialogue that says, 'It's not starting with your kid's year, it's going to start with the freshman class.' By the time those students were seniors, people would say, 'This wasn't such a big deal after all.' It wouldn't become an emotional issue at the eleventh hour.

Q. How would such a change be implemented? Would it be up to the school board?

A. It could be the board. We change policy all the time. People could come and speak for it or against it. It could be that simple.

Q. Could a school make the decision to change the policy on its own?

A. Probably. It cold perhaps happen more naturally if a school said, 'This isn't what we're about.'

- Donna Winchester, Pinellas County education reporter

Today's news

PINELLAS JOINS LATEST LANGUAGE TREND: Students at Safety Harbor Middle School soon will be able to take Mandarin Chinese classes, like students in select Duval and Hillsborough county schools. Just three years ago, no Florida schools offered Chinese.

VOUCHER MANEUVER: Lawmakers continue to seek a way to offer students vouchers despite a state Supreme Court ruling that found the program unconstitutional. The bills come up for votes next week.

KIDS PASS A BILL: The Hillsborough high school students started off competing in the Ought To Be A Law contest. Their idea now is poised to actually become a law, as it passed the House and Senate unanimously.

PORTABLES VANDALIZED: Someone spray-painted racial slurs on nine portables at Palm Harbor University High School. The principal tried not to let any kids see what it said.

GOVERNOR'S PE BILL STALLED : Sarasota Sen. Lisa Carlton is holding up Gov. Crist's pet proposal to require all elementary schools to offer 30 minutes of daily physical education. The powerful senator, who serves as budget gatekeeper, says it's too expensive, the Herald-Tribune reports.

TUITION NEWS: The Florida Senate voted to increase the cost of attending the University of South Florida, the University of Florida and Florida State University, the Miami Herald reports. Gov. Crist still says he'll veto the measure. Lawmakers appear less likely to approve a fee to improve university technology offerings, despite widespread support on campuses, the Palm Beach Post reports.

SUMMER SCHOOL WITHOUT BORDERS: Duval County buys up hundreds of licenses for a Web-based program so it can offer remedial classes over the summer without opening its schools, the Florida Times-Union reports.

SOUNDS LIKE A SAC: Parents don't show up in great numbers to participate in New York City's school parent councils. Many say the councils have no authority, no power and no influence, the New York Times reports. Just like so many school advisory councils in Florida.

NEVER TOO LATE: After Nola Ochs graduates from Fort Hays State University in Kansas in May, she hopes to become a story teller on a cruise ship. She's already become a story in herself, because at 95, she's believed to be the oldest person ever to be awarded a degree.

Teens get bill approved

Now the Hillsborough teens can say there is a law. Their proposal from the Ought To Be A Law contest, to create high school internship programs across Florida, won unanimous approval in the House right after lunch, and gained unanimous support in the Senate just after 4 p.m. Senate President Ken Pruitt stopped the breakneck rush through the consent calendar to applaud the students, who were sitting in the gallery, for becoming what appears to be the first group of teenagers to successfully write and lobby for a bill in Florida. " You did an absolutely awesome job," Pruitt told them.

Bloomingdale High freshman Tomas Gacio called the experience "awesome" and said he felt confident Gov. Charlie Crist will sign the bill into law. "It was like watching a baby. I was really proud of it," Tomas said after the final vote. "Every little thing they would say against it I would get ticked off about it. I am extremely pleased that it passed."

He said the hardest part of the process was the give and take. "We actually lobbied each individual representative and senator that was on the committees we presented to," Tomas said. "President Pruitt in the Senate, we met with him and asked him to put it on the agenda. ... He was definitely a key player in this. It was vital that we lobbied him."

Hillsborough district lobbyist Connie Milito said she was impressed with the students' tenacity in a season when only about 5 percent of bills are winning approval. When their bill looked bottled up in a Senate committee, for instance, the kids waited in chairman Don Gaetz's office to ask for movement. When other districts' lobbyists began expressing some concerns, they compromised to amend the bill to the other districts' liking. In other words, Milito said, the students got a real education in government.

Tomas, who wants to work in politics, agreed with that: "I learned more than I would learn in a government classroom," he said.

Give them 15 years

Charter schools where students perform well year after year could get a boost in their efforts to stay alive. The House moved a bill (HB 1569) forward today that would automatically grant charters that earn an A or B grade from the state for three of four years a 15-year contract renewal. Right now, the schools often have to fight for a five-year renewal. The change, if approved, would give the charter schools a more stable financial footing if they seek to build or grow - something that's hard to do now, especially given that the state does not give them money for construction. Several school districts, which serve as the primary sponsors of most charter schools, don't like the provision, saying it's hard enough to control charters as it is. Others note, though, that they would retain the ability to close a charter school down for poor performance. The bill's fate remains uncertain, though, as the Senate companion (SB 2878) is losing traction because of opposition to other parts of the legislation relating to retirement benefits. One week to go.

There ought to be a law

It's do-or-die time this afternoon for the Hillsborough County teens who wrote a bill to create a statewide internship program for high school students. The House will take up the concept first (HB 1161) with  sponsor Rep. Kevin Ambler leading the charge. If it passes there, co-sponsor Sen. Victor Crist will bring the bill (SB 2458) to the Senate for approval. Students have failed to win lawmakers' approval for their ideas in the two previous years that the Ought To Be A Law contest has operated in Hillsborough high schools. Not ones to let the past dampen their enthusiasm, the lawmakers and the kids already have scheduled a press conference at 5 p.m. outside the House chamber, just in case they succeed. "It takes perseverance, patience and tenacity to pass a bill in the Florida Legislature. Sen. Crist and I are optimistic that today's vote on the House and Senate floors reveals that high school students truly need an internship program to successfully compete in the 21st century," Ambler said in a news release.

Today's news

PUSHING FOR NEW STANDARDS: Dissatisfied with the "intellectual incest" of the Florida Sunshine State Standards, GOP lawmakers want to go global, rewriting the standards to "world-class" levels. Detractors call the idea "silly" and say it misses the mark on what's needed in education, the Herald-Tribune reports. Count the Times editorial board among the latter group: "If this is the path to world-class education, maybe Florida can wait," the Times opines.

TO WALK, OR NOT TO WALK: The Pasco School Board has stood nearly alone in Florida in requiring seniors to have passed the exit-level exam if they want to walk at graduation. It's poised to change that rule next week. The advisory council of the county's only D-rated high school is not pleased.

DUMB COLLEGE STUDENTS: The USF freshmen were bored after playing frisbee on a Saturday afternoon. So they set off a dry ice bomb - basicially dry ice and water in a plastic bottle -  in an open field on campus. Their impromptu chemistry experiment, once considered a prank at many colleges, got them suspended from school and now they face five years in prison.

HILLSBOROUGH LOOKS AT BUDGET: The School Board considers cuts to courtesy busing, travel and administrative hiring to keep spending in line.

ALL THIS FOR $9.75 AN HOUR: School crossing guards brave whizzing traffic in some of the more dangerous intersections to get kids to campus safely. No wonder Hillsborough can't fill all the positions.

A DIRTY JOB: A custodian talks about cleaning the bathrooms after classes end at a Tampa-area high school.

WANT LUNCH? HOLD OUT YOUR HAND: And give a fingerprint. The Seminole County school district is testing the fingerprint identification system in one elementary school cafeteria. If it works well, the district is looking to expand the system county-wide, and not just in lunch rooms, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

DON'T CUFF 'EM: The Milwaukee, Wis., school district is rethinking a policy that would have let officers use flexible handcuffs to restrain out-of-control students. The unsurprising reason: Parents complained, the Journal-Sentinel reports.

Making movies

File this under cool school project.

The kids at Progress Village Middle Magnet School for the Arts in Tampa have spent the past two years scripting, scoring and producing a feature film called Unexcused Absence. And unlike so many of these student films, you can even see it. The movie will premiere at Muvico Centro Ybor on May 3 by invitation only, and for general viewing at 7 p.m. May 9, and 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. May 10.

Band director Steve Pfaffman describes the story as "Survivor meets Home Alone x 800." It's the tale of a kid who gets upset because he's kicked out of a school film project. With the help of a student genius, he gets back at the teachers by sending a subliminal message that sends them all as far away from the school as possible. Then the students take over.

Ordinarily, a middle school might not take on such a huge project. But Pfaffman explained that kids and parents were complaining that so many people couldn't get parts in the school's musical productions that they were looking at doing two each year - a major undertaking few wanted to embark upon. He recommended making a movie that everyone could participate in.

"Everybody had some part in the production of the film," Pfaffman said.

To view a trailer, click here. (Be patient, as it takes a few minutes to load.)  Tickets can be purchased in advance at the school, 8113 Zinnia Drive, Tampa. If you really enjoy the show, the school has the soundtrack available for $10, and it will be selling DVDs for $15.

(Movie poster courtesy of Progress Village Middle)

Fixing the Jessica Lunsford Act

In their haste to protect youngsters from predators after the 2005 Jessica Lunsford murder, Florida lawmakers created some headaches for school districts charged with enforcing much of the resulting law. Here's just one example: the Pasco County school district couldn't find dentists willing to pay for the background check the law requires, leaving unused thousands of dollars set aside for poor youngsters to get dental checkups. The districts complained, and now, quietly, a bill is moving through Tallahassee that would fix the glitch (and some others). SB 988, which won unanimous Senate approval today, would exempt contractors who remain under the direct supervision of a district employee who has  gone through the background check. A similar bill in the House (HB 7103) is awaiting final approval, perhaps as early as today.

Today's news

FAMU AUDIT UPDATE: The state auditor releases his final report on the university's finances, and raises more questions than ever.

FCAT REPORT: The state released the FCAT writing results on Wednesday. Here are the stories from Hernando County, Pasco County, Hillsborough County and Pinellas County.

SCHOOL GETS IB: Students and teachers at Gulf High had participated in a pre-International Baccalaureate program with hopes of getting the organization's nod to offer the diploma program. Their wish has come true.

FROM THE OP-ED PAGES: University students support higher tuition and fees to improve their schools, and lawmakers should too, the editorial board says.

WORLD-CLASS STANDARDS: The Florida House moves ahead with a bill to overhaul state education standards, but the proposal's future remains uncertain in the Senate, the Palm Beach Post reports.

DIGITAL DIVIDE: Parents at a St. Johns County elementary school complain about a new policy that would put third-, fourth- and fifth-graders with their own laptop computers into separate classes from those kids who have to use school-issued ones, the Florida Times-Union reports.

JUST SAY NO ... TO CHIPS AND CHOCOLATES: The Institute of Medicine urges Congress to ban junk food and sugary drinks from schools, the Washington Post reports. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, a lead sponsor of a bill toward that end, calls the ideas "just common sense."

BOG: Castell's right

In her presentation last week to the Board of Governors task force, interim Florida A&M President Castell Bryant took a swipe at the crown jewel from FAMU's glory days: Its recruitment of National Achievement scholars. Sure, FAMU used to get 'em, Bryant said, as many stories have pointed out, including this one from the St. Petersburg Times. But it didn't keep as many as you'd think, she said.

The less-than-stellar stats she flashed to task force members were pretty much backed up this week by the BOG. Only 45 percent of the 1997 cohort of National Achievement finalists and semi-finalists at FAMU, for example, had graduated in four years, according to BOG data requested by The Gradebook. Only 59 percent had graduated in five years. Not atrocious, maybe. But considering National Achievement scholars are among the smartest kids in the country, not exactly rockin' either.

Even more worrisome: The grad rates for everybody else. Only 16 percent of the rest of the 1997 freshman class had graduated in four years; less than a third had graduated in five years. Some might be led to wonder: Were FAMU's glory days really that glorious?

To see the BOG stats, click here. To see Castell's report to the task force, which includes some slightly different stats, click here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

FCAT - the press conference

In a nutshell, commissioner Jeanine Blomberg praised teachers and students for continuing to do well on the essay section, while reporters asked lots of pointed questions about students' overall poor performance on the multiple choice section. Sixty percent of fourth graders scored at or above grade level on the latter part, as did 45 percent of eighth graders and 49 percent of tenth graders. Miami Herald reporter Nirvi Shah tried to get to the heart of the matter, asking how much students' reading ability (or lack of it) translates into their scores on the multiple choice questions. But DOE folks didn't go there. "This is only the second year that students and teachers have been preparing themselves to take a multiple choice exam," assessment administrator Cornelia Orr responded at one point. "I think that this performance will continue to increase." We'll see when the reading scores start to come out later in the spring. Maybe kids will care more in a couple of years, too, when the tenth grade writing score counts toward graduation. (That's for the Class of 2010, if you're keeping tabs on it.) For more information on the FCAT Writing results, click here.

Florida students still write well

By now it should come as no surprise that the state's fourth-, eighth- and tenth-graders perform quite well on Florida's oldest section of the FCAT, the writing part. The latest figures, released this morning, show that two-thirds of fourth graders and sophomores, and three-fourths of the eighth graders, are earning a score of 4 or better on a six-point scale. (The passing score is 3.5, raised from 3.0 after just about everyone in the state was attaining that level.) Those rates are about the same as last year for fourth-graders and sophomores, but 8 percentage points better for the eighth graders. It remains an open question of whether these students can write anything other than the narrative, expository and persuasive styles their teachers teach them for the test. But at least they have the basics down. To review the 58-page report of state and district averages, click here. Education commissioner Jeanine Blomberg has scheduled a conference call with reporters to talk about the results later this morning. We'll give you an update if she says anything interesting.

UPDATE: To read the DOE press release on the scores, click here. To read the prompts that the students had to write about, click here.

Today's news

NEW TUITION PLAN: Lawmakers agree to let Florida's three national research universities - UF, USF and FSU - increase their rates by as much as 40 percent, marking a major change in the way they have looked at tuition and the universities' financial needs. Gov. Charlie Crist has vowed to veto anything that makes college cost more.

THE SURVEY SAYS ... Pinellas County school employees have a much higher opinion of the superintendent and School Board. They also say the climate has improved at many schools where morale had been low.

TEACHERS PICKET: Hillsborough high school teachers continue to protest the administration's plan to make them teach six periods a day instead of five. The School Board and superintendent show no sign of budging. This issue looms over pending contract negotiations. (link to come)

BOARD CLOSES CHARTER: The Language Academy in New Port Richey had staved off attempts to shutter its doors for months, promising to fix its financial problems. School Board members finally pulled the plug Tuesday.

KIDS HELPING KIDS: Peer mediation started as a trial in a handful of middle schools in 1991. Now it's in just about every school in Pinellas County.

FAMU AUDIT OUT: The university's explanations about missing money and questionable transactions failed to convince the state auditor, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

SCHOOLS BUDGET: Lawmakers appear set to let school districts take advantage of continued growth in local property values, even as they criticize other local governments for wanting to do the same thing, the Palm Beach Post reports.

CLASS SIZE SCANDAL (UPDATE): We've been keeping tabs on the story of the Santa Ana, Calif., school district that lied about class size figures to claim state funding. Well, the state has finally caught up with the district, and it looks like the district will lose $2-million, the LA Times reports.

TEACH HOW, THEN WHY: A Chicago teacher offers his views in the Chicago Tribune on why so many kids can't do advanced math.

Tattoo and piercing policy moves ahead

A couple of teachers stepped forward to question the wisdom of the Pasco School Board's proposal to restrict visible tattoos and piercings that violate the community standard. "What I'm concerned is, is this the camel's nose under the tent?" said Land O'Lakes High teacher Robert Marsh. He wondered if hair length, or shoe selection, might get policed next. "I don't know where this is going," he said, suggesting the policy might scare away good teachers. Union vice president Frank Roder noted that many employees work across the county, and might be subject to several different standards. "What is acceptable? What is offensive? And where do we draw the line?" Roder asked.

Board members didn't harbor such concerns about the idea, which neighboring school districts do not follow. "I don't think what we have added here is real restrictive," vice chairwoman Kathryn Starkey said. "I do think it is important to have some type of boundary. I'm real comfortable with it." Moments later, the board unanimously approved the policy, which would take effect upon a second reading next month.

FAMU law students: Crist! Help!

Cars are being repossessed. Landlords are threatening evictions. Bill collectors are sending nasty letters. Deadbeats getting what they deserve? In this case the deadbeats are FAMU law students waiting on financial aid checks. A couple of them got so frustrated they fired off notes to Gov. Charlie Crist last month, according to e-mails obtained by The Gradebook this week through a records request.

One student says he was writing from home, where he was marooned after waking up to find his truck had been repossessed: "After learning that my truck had indeed been repossessed, and not stolen, I called Sallie Mae, the loan servicing company, and they informed me that the money should have been sent to me six weeks ago, when they dispersed it to the school. I have met with the financial aid officer day after day to reconcile any problems there may have been on my end of the disbursement and have done everything I can to ensure I received payments in time to meet my obligations and debts. Instead I sit writing you instead of sitting in class where I should be because of FAMU’s inaction, ineptitude, and complacency."

"This is my career, my potential, and my future the FAMU Law administrators have taken so lightly and I, along with many of my fellow classmates, fear that this lethargy will be the end of our dreams."

WFTV in Orlando covered the story here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Anti-bullying bill dies

A bill that would have required school districts to create anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies won broad support in the House today, but suffered a fatal blow in the Senate, the Tallahassee Democrat is reporting. The Democrat quotes Sen. Stephen Wise, chairman of the Senate Education Appropriations Committee, as saying, "I don't want to talk about it any more. It's dead. These people are bullying me." To read the full story, click here.

Impostor alert

Parents beware. There's at least one fake FCAT web site popping up in some Internet browsers, and its main goal is commercial, not educational. (These false sites take advantage of typos, like fact instead of fcat, so take great care in how you type in the site name.) The Florida Department of Education is sending a letter home to parents (through the local schools) today warning everyone about the impostor, in advance of tomorrow's release of FCAT Writing scores. The correct web site to review your child's results is www.fcatparentnetwork.com, and parents should use the log-in and password provided by their schools. For additional information, you can also visit the department web site by clicking here.

The FCAT is coming

It's that much anticipated, or dreaded, time of year when the results to our FCAT begin to trickle in. Tomorrow come the writing scores for the fourth-, eighth- and tenth-graders who took the exam. The next set due out should tell how many third graders face retention and how many seniors still haven't passed the sophomore-level exit test. School grades aren't far behind. School districts obviously care, as they're already preparing to answer reporters' and parents' usual questions. At least one district has told its principals to start looking for trends in the past years' stats so they can be ready. Question for you: Do you care, too? Your answers could help guide reporting for days to come.

Today's news

SON BENCHED, PRINCIPAL HOWLS: Coaches say they're harassed, now they cry foul. The decision to sit the son of Countryside High's principal was based on his inability to hit the ball, say the coaches, who have resigned and filed a complaint with the Pinellas school district against the man. The principal denies any wrongdoing.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE? With a little guidance, Florida eighth graders are trying to figure out what major to choose for high school. A visit to one Tampa middle school reveals that they're treating the task like, well, middle school kids. To read the story, click here.

GIVE IT BACK: Nearly 350 Palm Beach teachers have to write their school district a check after the district payroll department makes a $900,000 error, paying them too much. The average amount: $2,600. The new payroll system has made other mistakes, too, since going into effect in July, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Here's the Palm Beach Post version.

GIFTED FUNDING FROZEN: Lawmakers appear settled on capping, rather than eliminating, funding for high school gifted programs. Parents and students are relieved, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

MORE EDUCATION BUDGET NEWS: There's not any more money for teacher performance pay, the Miami Herald reports, but there is some extra for raises. University and college tuition will rise 5 percent, despite the governor's wish to keep the amount the same.

NO MORE VALS AND SALS: The Palm Beach school district would give college-style honors, like magna cum laude,  rather than focus on No. 1 and No. 2 under a proposal from superintendent Art Johnson. The battle for the top spot has gotten too intense for Johnson's taste, the Palm Beach Post reports.

SENIORITIS SETS IN: They were supposed to be in class. Instead, they decided to party at a friend's house. The 22 D.C.-area seniors, and a couple of underclassmen, got suspended, the Washington Post reports.

The numbers of the week are ...

... 124 and 2. That's the number of bills dealing with education that remain unresolved in the Florida Legislature, and the number of weeks left to either approve or forget them.

Some bills, such as the budgets, are certain to pass. Others have a less known fate. Will  charter school staff members be allowed to participate in the state retirement program known as DROP? Will a virtual high school for science and technology get to open in Brevard County? What's going to happen to the idea of a star rating system for prekindergarten providers? How about the governor's idea that all elementary students have 30 minutes of daily physical activity and education? Those are just a handful of the ideas still lingering, none of which offers a simple solution.

So then comes into play that second number, 2. Can lawmakers really give all these ideas the attention they deserve as they rush to the end of session - especially given that few of these topics are at the top of the collective agenda? If not, is it better for them to approve the concepts or let them die? What's a legislator to do with so many bills, so little time?

Will they get what they pay for?

The State Board of Education is poised to hire Proact Search Inc. of Milwaukee to find Florida's next education commissioner. The firm boasts a nationwide network of candidates and a track record that includes finding a chief executive of Baltimore public schools and superintendents for Seattle, Cincinnati and Hillsborough County schools. But can the firm provide the two things that the State Board has said it wants most: top-notch candidates and a transparent process? Look to the past as prelude.

The Hillsborough School Board got promises in 2005 of "diamonds in the rough," those candidates who might not consider a superintendent's job but for the prodding of Proact. Instead, board members complained, they got retreads from the firm's past searches and lots of ex-superintendents on their way out of their old jobs. "I expected more," board member Jennifer Faliero said at the time. Hillsborough ended up hiring an insider for the top position. Asked about the dearth of top-notch candidates, Proact president Nancy Noeske told the board it would have been easier if the district did not insist on some of the pesky open records rules that Florida has, like releasing the names of applicants as they came in.

Which brings up issue No. 2. Proact likes stealth, as detailed in this article about its 2002 Cincinnati superintendent search. To quote one relevant part: "'We simply didn't create a record,' Noeske says about the Cincinnati search, in which she interviewed the candidates by phone and took notes, not by surnames, but by code names, such as: 'Candidate One' and 'Candidate Two.' Indeed, it was a process similar to that used by her company ... in New Orleans in 1998, in which the search materials were, as Noeske puts it, 'sanitized.'" In Hillsborough, the School Board had to remind Noeske several times that the state has the Sunshine Law and the district, and by extension the search firm, needed to heed it.

Negotiations are under way to see whether Proact's bid to be the State Board's search firm will win the day. The board set a pretty detailed description of what it wants in a commissioner. It will be interesting to see what it winds up with in its headhunter.

Today's news

IS THAT A GUN IN YOUR BOOK BAG? Gun advocates have started the argument that if more Virginia Tech students were packing heat, the death count from last week's massacre might be lower. Others suggest that's a ludicrous thought. But it appears time for the debate on concealed weapons laws for colleges and universities. Only Utah allows it now.

LIFE LESSONS: To eighth graders, $7 an hour might seem like a lot of money. A new program in Hernando County teaches them how quickly that money is gone in the real world. The goal is to show the kids - especially those thinking about dropping out - the value of an education vs. that of the low pay they'd get in a low-end job.

MORE GREEN SCHOOLS: Pasco County also is building more environmentally sensitive schools (yesterday we told you about Pinellas County's effort), with one elementary going green when it opens in January and another on the books.

TABOO TATTOOS: Pasco teachers will have to meet a community standard for their visible tattoos and piercings, if the School Board adopts a proposed policy on professional appearance. Leaders in other districts say they wouldn't follow that lead - especially without negotiating with the teachers union.

STUDENT FUNDING TO RISE: House and Senate budget makers agree in principle to increase the per-student funding level by $457, the Associated Press reports. The Orlando Sentinel reports that most of the new money will come from local property taxes.

STILL NOT ENOUGH: Students might get more funding, but is there enough money for teacher raises? Broward County is finding the answer to be "no" as it enters a new round of contract negotiations, the Sun-Sentinel reports. The union frets that after all this time, only a handful of its 37,000 teachers have surpassed the $100,000 pay level.

FROM THE OP-ED PAGES: Florida needs an education commissioner who "does not burn incense and chant every time the FCAT is mentioned," the Palm Beach Post says.

What standard would that be?

Many school districts wouldn't even try it. Too controversial and difficult to enforce, they'd say. But the Pasco County School Board is about to consider adoption of this policy for teachers and other district employees: "Visible body piercings and tattoos that are offensive to community standards will be restricted." Which prompted Lynne Webb, president of the United School Employees of Pasco, to pointedly remark: "I'm not quite sure what the community standard is here in Pasco, given that we have more nudist colonies than anywhere in the United States." Read the full story in Monday's St. Petersburg Times.

Coming up

Tuesday: Hillsborough School Board, 5 p.m.; Pinellas School Board, 5 p.m.; Pasco School Board, 6 p.m.; Senate Pre-K-12 Education and Higher Education appropriations, 8:15 a.m.; Senate Higher Education, 12:30 p.m.

Thursday: Hillsborough School Board workshop, 9 a.m.

April 30: Go Higher Florida Task Force, 10 a.m., Tallahassee

May 4: Department of Education, hearing on educational facilities rules, 2 p.m., Tallahassee

May 7: Commission for Independent Education, workshop on fees and expenses, 1 p.m., Orlando

Today's news

PINELLAS SCHOOLS GOING GREEN: It's not something you can see, but the district is making its new construction environmentally friendly.

CHEATING SCANDAL: More than half the nursing students at St. Petersburg College scored above 90 percent on one of the final exams they take before graduating. At first, officials were elated with the results. Now they doubt them, and are taking a closer look.

STRUGGLING WITH MENTAL ILLNESS: Colleges and universities report a growing number of students with mental problems. They need to be careful with how they treat them, even if they think the students pose a threat. Here's a Seattle Times story on the same subject.

FROM THE OP-ED PAGES: Thirteen half-days are way too many for Hernando County schools, unnecessarily burdening families, the editorial board says. Over in Pasco, the board longs for a return to the days when the student part of student-athlete came first.

DROPPING OUT: It's not just a high school problem. Community colleges also must come to grips with their low graduation rates, the Miami Herald reports.

MORE THAN JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM: History is not just a jumble of names, dates and places. It's a way of looking at how people and social trends and fit together to make the world as it is. So a group of history scholars say, and they're raising concerns about a 2006 Florida law that doesn't leave room for interpretation in the state's classrooms, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

AS IF IT DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT: FAMU interim president Castell Bryant warned trustees that the school has two more payroll problems, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

A weekend interview with ...

... Tracy Schatzberg, supervisor of psychological services for Hillsborough County schools. Schatzberg, who has held the post for two years, has worked in schools and at the district level dealing with crises large and small. She has a doctorate in school psychology from the University of Sarasota. She spoke with the Gradebook about how families and schools can cope with April 16-20, the week that has come to be associated with school violence.

Q: Talk about how we as school, students, teachers principals and parents need to steel ourselves ...

A: ... from all this. I wish I had these really great answers to say. We can talk about some tips and things to keep in mind. But it's hard to predict what every child will ask. So I would encourage adults, first off, to really take time to listen to their children's questions, or for teachers to listen to their students' questions and comments, and really try not to say things like, 'Don't feel that way.' We need to validate what they're feeling and reassure them about their safety. I think it's important to keep in mind that violence isn't really specifically a school problem. It's more of a problem that we have in society. And while we've had these things like Columbine and Virginia Tech close together (by date), some of the safest places for kids to be are at school. We have to really make sure that our children know they should feel safe at school and that our schools are taking a lot of steps to ensure their safety.

Q: What kinds of things are schools doing? And how can we feel confident knowing that these things have happened in schools?

A: Here in Hillsborough County ... we have a comprehensive emergency management plan. ... Each school has a CEMP and in that CEMP we have contingencies for just about anything you can think of. So schools know step by step, should an emergency arise, here's the plan. And we practice those plans. ...

Q: In addition to practicing all those steps, I'm sure you talk to all the school guidance counselors, psychologists and so forth and make sure they have a plan in place, too. I've heard a lot about the SWAT teams ...

A: Each school does have its own crisis team set up. It depends on what the crisis is. I'm thinking back to when I used to work at an elementary school I was part of the crisis team. And when we had a drill for a bomb scare ... we would each take a role and so we had that planned ahead of time. That could be searching a location, it could be getting students to a specific location. All of that is delineated ahead of time, so each person at school knows what their role is. And then we have back up people, so if the person is not there that day, we know who takes up that role.

Q: So then what do you say to a parent or child who says, 'I'm afraid of school. I'm afraid of what's going on in the community. I can't trust the person sitting next to me'?

A: It's important for parents to voice those concerns to the school administrator or the people in the school system rather than to their children. There's no sense saying to their children, 'I'm not sure if you should be in school.' I think that might not help. It's better to get answers to the questions that parents have. So if they really want to know what procedures their school has in place to keep things from happening, I encourage them to talk with the principal at that site, to ask those questions. And as far as students go, we talk with them and let them know that they are safe. And they see signs at school, visitors signing in at the office. ... In general, schools have put a lot of safety features in place. We have gate systems at most schools. ... And doors where you can get out if you need to but outsiders can't necessarily come in. When children have questions, we have to really listen to the specific question that they have and be as honest as we can. To let them know we're taking every step we can to keep them safe.

Q: And so your recommendation to parents is not to necessarily tell their children 'I'm scared for you,' but to do something about it?

A: Yes. To get answers to their questions, so they can reassure their children that school is a safe place and here's what they are doing. And when they come across a safety feature, that's a great time to say, 'See this fence. This is what the school is doing to keep you safe.'...

Q: Now that you have all these things that are becoming this week of nasty remembrances, how do get to the point where it just becomes something that you're mindful of but it doesn't become overwhelming?

A: I really think parents probably ought to turn off the TV. That's one thing. I'm not saying we ought to not let children know what's going on. But I think there is a tendency in the media to play these images over and over again. I think we should turn off the TV. Because television coverage can reinforce or stimulate the fear that the children are having. Even at hurricane time. There's no sense in having the TV on 24/7. Get the information you need and shut it off. I also encourage routine. There may be crisis situations going on, loss out there in the world. But we still need to stick with our routines, so our kids are still getting up at the same time, going to bed at the same time, eating at the same time, so our kids feel structure. Structure helps them feel secure.

Today's news

LIVING IN A BOX: A group of Carrollwood Day School fifth graders tried it to raise attention on the plight of the homeless. It wasn't that much fun. And then the police showed up.

ONE LAST THING BEFORE YOU GO: Pasco County high school 12th graders complete their senior projects, yearlong research efforts on topics of their choice. The subject matter at Land O'Lakes High ranged from the history of hip-hop to how to build a cabinet.

PLAGIARISM PENALTY FOR PRINCIPAL: You're reading that right. The principal of Springstead High in Hernando County claimed as her own a well known Chicago Tribune column for her speech to graduates. And the Education Practices Commission says ... $1,500 fine and a reprimand.

'PEOPLE WHO WILL DIE': That's not exactly the message folks in a school want to see these days, especially when it's written with names next to a drawn stick figure hanging in a noose. So a Pasco County teen who reportedly has been picked on is now in juvenile detention on felony charges of making written threats.

BB'S SHOT AT BUS: If threats don't make you nervous enough, how about BB-gun shots shattering a school bus window as it drives elementary students home. That's what happened in Clearwater, freaking out the 12 children aboard. No one was injured or arrested.

PARTNERSHIP FOR USF: The International Ocean Institute chooses USF-St. Petersburg for its first center in the United States.

GEORGIA LOOKS TO FLORIDA: Our neighbor to the north likes the state's McKay Scholarship voucher program for students with special needs so much it adopts one of its own, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Of course, they're not likely to name their initiative after the former Florida Senate president.

ALL THIS FOR $40,000: The ride - a stretch hummer. The dinner - chicken cordon bleu. The location - the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota. No, not the wedding of your life. It's prom time in southwest Florida, as described by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

The adults just wouldn't understand

The Senate K-12 education committee this week rendered "unfavorable" a plan that would allow school districts with more than 45,000 students to divide into two or more districts. Why? Ask Sen. Larcenia J. Bullard, a Miami Democrat. Bullard argued against the measure, saying that if it were put before voters, they likely would misunderstand its outcome. Rather than reducing class sizes, Bullard said, the measure actually could create a climate where some districts were given advantages over others. Go figure.

- Donna Winchester, Pinellas County education reporter

Castell Bryant: 'FAMU must overcome its chronic weaknesses'

FAMU's embattled interim president offered her most extensive remarks yet on the university's status Friday, while a special state task force overseeing FAMU finances took aim at a school-hired auditing firm.

Despite widespread public perception, FAMU has made progress and "is on sturdier footing than it was when I arrived 28 months ago," interim President Castell Bryant told the task force, which was formed by the Board of Governors last month and met in person for the first time Friday. In a weary but still resolute voice, Bryant said she accepts "some of the responsibility" for the bitter factionalism that has engulfed FAMU during her watch. But she also blamed critics for fighting change and, in the process, spreading "untruths" that have damaged FAMU's reputation. The bottom line: "FAMU must overcome its chronic weaknesses and reconfirm its place on solid ground as one of the proudest institutions of higher learning in Florida."

The BOG formed the task force last month, after another scathing state audit angered lawmakers and seemed to suggest that three years after FAMU's financial problems reached crisis proportions, the university still had not turned a corner. Bryant told the task force that under her watch, the university has made progress on many fronts, "despite the loud and angry comments by dissenters." She also took a stab at the perception that FAMU's glory days were behind it, noting that despite the school's successful and much-publicized recruiting of National Achievement scholars in the 1990s, many of those students did not stick around to graduate. "They came to us," Bryant said. "But we let them down."

After Bryant's presentation, task force members began wading into the highly technical details of FAMU's fiscal health, including a dysfunctional financial software system that has also plagued other state universities. They got frank assessments from some of FAMU's top administrators, including Grace Ali, the school's chief financial officer. She told members that at one point, it took three CPA's to reconcile a single bank account. "We're going to give you the raw truth," she said. "We have a lot of unexplained, system-generated errors."

Task force members also honed in on FAMU's contracts with KPMG, the accounting firm it hired in 2005 to help it get on firmer financial footing. Since then, the university has spent at least $4.7 million, according to task force member Joelen Merkel, who directed pointed questions to KPMG partner Paul Stepusin, who is overseeing the firm's work at FAMU. It was clear that several task force members, notably Merkel and former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Leander Shaw, were skeptical about whether FAMU got its money's worth. More discussion of KPMG is expected at future task force meetings.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Voucher activity

In case you haven't been paying attention, legislation that would expand the state's corporate tax credit scholarship program - that's vouchers to most of us - is moving quickly through the Senate (SB 1212) and is ready for a vote on the House floor (HB 465). What hasn't escaped the notice of some watchers is the divide among Democrats on the issue, which often claims wide support among low-income and minority communities that want better education options for their children. Dems on the Senate Children and Families Committee unanimously approved the idea, while those on the House Policy and Budget Council all voted no. "After last week, when 4,000 traveled from as far away as Miami to show support for school choice in a march led by civil right icon Rev. HK Matthews, perhaps the D's in the House are spending too much time in the ivory tower and not enough time listening to their constituents!" suggests Denise Lasher of Step Up for Students, an initiative of the scholarship program.

Tampa's aspiring journalists

Looks like if you want to become a reporter - the Gradebook says that's a good thing, but you can judge for yourself - Hillsborough County high schools offer a great place to start. Just ask the Florida Scholastic Press Association. The organization named Wharton High senior Karl Golombisky, editor of the school's Predator newspaper, as the state's top high school journalist for 2006-07. The judges noted his strong body of work across many beats, including sports and features. But don't look back when seeking that job, Karl, because Chamberlain High's Daylina Miller, editor in chief of the school's Chieftain newspaper, was the strong runner-up. And no, you can't have our jobs yet.

Today's news

TOUGHER THAN THE STREETS: Dan Hansen spent 31 years patrolling Pinellas Park. Now his beat is the 185-student Sanders School for the severely emotionally disturbed. It's a job that Hansen acknowledges many cops would never take. But he finds it rewarding.

$3.5-MILLION REQUEST: The state university system Board of Governors asks for money to improve communication systems and to add police officers on campuses, as an immediate response to the Virginia Tech massacre. Lawmakers are expected to take up the issue during budget negotiations.

SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER? Those kids sure do know a lot as they prepare to enter middle school, contestants in a local version of the television contest find at Macfarlane Park School for International Studies  in Tampa.

ACTING UP: Student actors from across Florida fill the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center for the state thespian festival.

COUNTING ON A SCHOLARSHIP: A Sarasota girl fulfilled all the requirements for a tuition and books scholarship offered by a local karate expert. But when she asked for the funds to help pay for the University of Central Florida, she found the donor had changed the rules and would not pay, Herald-Tribune columnist Tom Lyons reports.