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« August 2007 | Main | October 2007 »
Monday: Hernando School Board, workshop 1 p.m., meeting 7 p.m.
Tuesday: Pasco School Board, 9:30 a.m.; Hillsborough School Board, 3 p.m.; Senate Education and Higher Education committees, 3:30 p.m.
Wednesday: Legislative special session to begin
Oct. 8: State Board of Education commissioner candidate interviews, 11 a.m., Tampa
Oct. 16: Pinellas School Board, 10 a.m.; Hillsborough School Board, 3 p.m.; Pasco School Board, 6 p.m.; State Board of Education, Tallahassee
EXPERIMENTAL EXPERIENCE: Josh Hammer started his science projects as a toddler. So it's perhaps no surprise that the Zephyrhills High freshman is a finalist for the Discovery Channel's Top Young Scientist of the Year award.
TURN OUT THAT LIGHT: Hillsborough school officials have sent out the energy police to try to save some cash on electricity expenses.
SOUNDING OFF: Parents have begun listing their concerns over the proposed Pinellas student assignment plan. The board plans to listen some more before voting on the plan Oct. 16.
WHITHER THE REFERENDUM: School officials across Florida have worried that a super homestead exemption could crash their budgets. But the vote on the concept doesn't appear a sure thing anymore.
NO TIME FOR NAP TIME: As prekindergarten goes academic, some preschools are turning to brief rest periods instead of the noontime naps, the Sun-Sentinel reports.
JUST LIKE COLLEGE: A new wave of high school career academies has teens feeling like they're in college getting ready for the real world, the Florida Times-Union reports.
BUT CAN THEY USE IT IN SCHOOL? The South Florida Science Museum is developing a program for kids to study for the science FCAT on their iPod or the Internet, the Palm Beach Post reports.
MONEY FOR STUDENTS: Lawmakers continue to say they want to shield students from budget cuts, while school district officials look for ways to ensure that promise, the Naples Daily News and Fort Myers News-Press both report.
LET THEM VOTE: A vocal but small group pushes for single-member School Board districts in Osceola County, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
BATTLE OF THE BOOKS: Let the book banning brouhaha begin. It's annual Banned Books Week, and the number of legal challenges to specific titles is on the rise, the Chicago Tribune reports. Most often, it's parents trying to protect young children. Last year's top title? "And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. (It's a true tale about two male penguins that raise a baby penguin together.)
... Lynne Webb, president of the United School Employees of Pasco. The union recently rejected participation in the state's teacher performance pay plan, becoming the 30th district to do so. Webb spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about performance pay, and why teachers seem so opposed to it.
Why do you think teachers are so opposed to performance pay?
Well, I don't think that teachers are opposed to performance pay, and would not want anyone to misconstrue or interpret this vote as a vote against performance pay. I believe this vote was against the MAP (Merit Award Program) iteration of performance pay.
So what is wrong with MAP?
Well, I think that there were a number of things that teachers had concerns about. First of all, I think part of it has to with timing. It came of the heels of a failed E-Comp plan that the DOE tried to foist upon teachers, which then got turned into STAR, which then got modified again into MAP. So I think it's really hard for teachers to separate MAP from these other plans which had been ill thought out. And MAP truly is very very similar to the components of STAR. It had some modifications and some slight improvements. But it still had very unrealistic time lines. Teachers were being asked to vote on something that would take effect, in a sense, before they had ever even voted on it. Because it applied to this whole school year. And it involved certain types of exams that teachers haven't had any exposure to, the validity of which haven't been tested, and we don't even have those exams in Pasco County yet. So I think there was a concern about rushing headlong into something teachers didn't feel comfortable with. ...
What about the teachers who we heard in public comments saying, 'Don't pit me against my colleagues. Pay me what I'm worth instead.'?
I think that also is an issue for teachers. I do believe that's a broader issue than just with MAP. I think the timing of MAP when we're in a revenue shortfall just exacerbated those concerns. ... We haven't been able to negotiate the pay raise yet because nobody knows what the financial situation is going to be like. So I think teachers may be afraid that the Legislature is going to latch onto this to give some raises, but not provide raises for all teachers.
LOOKING FOR A LEADER: USF-St. Petersburg is hunting for a chief academic officer. It's the first time the school has needed to look for one since becoming a separate entity from the Tampa campus.
RULING REVAMPED: The Florida Supreme Court clarifies its decision on government-issued bonds and whether voters must approve them, saying it didn't mean to include certificates of participation, which school districts rely on, the AP reports.
LET THEIR PARENTS GO: Broward superintendent Jim Notter asks area businesses to give parents of schoolchildren six hours a year so they can spend more time in their kids' schools, the Sun-Sentinel reports.
HARD TO BELIEVE: State university leaders find it hard to swallow that folks who want to set up new medical schools for UCF and FIU didn't know about costly new standards as they began the process, the Palm Beach Post reports.
NO ONE CARES: Lake County is looking for its first appointed superintendent, and the board turned to the public for advice on what kind of leader to pick. Fewer than 30 people spoke out at three forums, though, giving such insights as "It is imperative that the superintendent have degrees ... in education," the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Visit the Gradebook at noon for an interview with Lynne Webb, president of the United School Employees of Pasco. Webb talks about performance pay, in light of her union's rejection of the concept earlier this week.
Another year, another round of school recognition money. More than 1,600 Florida schools will get $129.3 million in bonuses based on their school grades, Education Commissioner Jeanine Blomberg announced this afternoon. "It is a pleasure to honor these schools for the superior academic performance and improvement shown by their students last year," she said in a press release. "Through their accomplishments, we can clearly see that hard work, inspirational teaching and a commitment to student achievement are true catalysts for success."
Former Gov. Jeb Bush started the program in 1999, as part of his plan to attach carrots and sticks to school performance. To date, it has doled out $982 million. Schools get an additional $100 per student if they earn A grades or improve a grade. Advisory councils at each school decide how to divvy up the money. To see which schools are getting the money, and how much, click here.
Teacher rejection of the new MAP performance-pay plan in more than two dozen districts is "disappointing, but it's their decision," state Rep. Joe Pickens, chair of the House Education Council, told The Gradebook this morning. He also said while the program is likely to be tweaked during next year's legislative session, it won't be axed. "MAP is here to stay," he said.
Pickens, R-Palatka, was among the legislative leaders who asked teachers and other education stakeholders last spring to give their input into designing a new performance-pay plan to replace the much-hated STAR. The result was MAP, which many observers considered more flexible and which even got an approving nod from the state teachers union. Suddenly, the mass outrage spawned by STAR was gone.
But in recent weeks, it's been deja vu all over again. Nearly 30 districts, including Pinellas and Pasco, have said no to MAP, with many teachers raising the same objections they did with STAR. "I can't account for why," Pickens said. "I'm sure there are all kinds of reasons, from philosophical reasons ... to stubbornness, to everything in between."
Pickens said he expects MAP to be reviewed and revised as part of a natural process to find out what works and what doesn't and adjust accordingly. "I think it's going to evolve over a long period," he said. "We're open to suggestions." But he also said mass rejection of MAP would not lead to a "mad scramble" to overhaul it or "change the resolve of the Legislature to implement a permanent merit award plan statewide."
On a related note, the Legislature as part of its budget-cutting process appears poised next week to time-shift funding for MAP (we hope that's an accurate way to describe it), not delay the program, as The Gradebook wrongly reported yesterday. As one respondent wrote: "This is a misreading of what is being done. The bonuses in the handful of districts that are planning on implementing MAP will not be paid until September of 2008, so the Legislature is cutting the money out of the 2007-2008 FY budget with the intention of funding what needs to be in the 2008-2009 FY budget to pay for bonuses earned this school year." Thanks, sincerely, for the clarification.
It was a quiet summer on the financial aid investigations beat, but as reported in yesterday's Times, there was plenty going on behind the scenes.
Students at the University of Miami learned their school initiated Sallie Mae federal loans on their behalf, even though they never requested a loan or designated a lender. Experts say the school may have violated federal privacy laws, and the lender may have run afoul of the Higher Education Act.
But wait, there's more.
In its second report on student lending practices, a U.S. Senate committee run by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., pointed to questionable activities at two of Florida's larger schools, Florida State University and Nova Southeastern.
Darryl Marshall, director of financial aid at FSU, was given tickets to The Players Championship (TPC) golf tournament, as well as a bunch of golf umbrellas, from lender Sun Trust in 2003.
According to company documents, the company was anxious to get the school's business in the lucrative federal school-as-lender program.
"Darryl advised that Sallie is getting ready to make a push for school as lender. He wanted to make sure we don't get left out of the running," the document said. "Moving ahead on this. Gave Darryl Nelnet's $5,000 scholarship. Gave him TPC tickets for his kids."
Readers may recall Marshall as one of the members of the Student Loan Xpress advisory board who wasn't implicated for accepting cash payments or holding company stock last spring. Half a dozen financial aid administrators -- including those at Columbia University, Johns Hopkins and the University of Texas -- were disciplined or fired for their behavior on the board.
Over at Nova Southeastern, Sallie Mae offered officials a deep discount on call center services as part of a 2005 loan pitch, charging the university $1.20 per call for services the lender valued at $4.40.
"Gap is $3.17 per call," Sallie Mae reported. "Calls excepted for 2006, 146,000. Cost to Sallie Mae, $460,000."
The company also offered a discount on federal loans in exchange for the university's endorsement of its consolidation loans.
"Sallie Mae is willing to provide NSU with an additional .05 percent premium on sales of Stafford loans in exchange for exclusive endorsement and promotion of SAllie Mae's loan consolidation program to NSU students," said a company document.
Under federal law, lenders are barred from offering "points, premiums, payments or other inducements" in exchange for federal loan volume.
Stay tuned.
-- Tom Marshall, Times staff writer
Hillsborough School Board member Jennifer Faliero says she has moved back to Valrico, in the district where she is legally required to reside for a seat representing east Hillsborough.
Her new residence is a townhouse in the SummerGate community. Her two daughters are back in local schools. Faliero initially tried to keep under wraps her summer move to a Davis Islands condo, following a divorce and financial difficulties.
While she briefly enrolled her children in south Tampa schools, Faliero said she intended to get back to east Hillsborough as fast as possible.
“I’m really glad this happened because it gave me time to kind of sort my head out,” she said, noting her enthusiasm to see people again in local stores and feel at home.
In honor of Banned Books Week, which begins Saturday, the Gradebook thought it only fitting to excerpt a passage from "To Kill A Mockingbird," which is not only one of the best novels ever, but one of the most censored.
Fortunately, Harper Lee's classic is no longer near the top of the most-banned list (it was No. 41 in the 1990s, according to this list from the American Library Association, and didn't make last year's Top 10). But "Catcher in the Rye," "Of Mice and Men," and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" still are. Sad and pathetic, but true. How could a book, with writing like this, ever be forbidden?
Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.
- Ron Matus, state education reporter
Tuition Hike: The Board overseeing Florida's universities tests its authority by voting to raise tuition 5 percent beginning in January 2008. Even though they are in a spat with lawmakers over who has the authority to do so, this increase might stick. Legislative leaders agree with the hike.
TALKING SMACK: USF students are ready to give some, for a change, now that their football team is nationally ranked. USF takes on No. 5 West Virginia tonight in a game to be broadcast on ESPN2.
PLAN HURTS: The new student assignment plan frustrated a crowd of mostly black parents, grandparents and teachers in south Pinellas last night. They fear their children's education will be made worse.
MAGNET MONEY: Hillsborough receives $3.12 million for magnet schools in the first year of a three-year grant.
GOOGLE TELLS ALL: South Florida students googled the name of their new band director and discovered a questionable past, including charges of embezzlement. He was fired, the Palm Beach Post reports.
LOAN AID APPROVED: President Bush signed into law a bill that overhauls the national college loan program. The Washington Post details the many changes that include increasing Pell Grants.
DREAM ACT DENIED: In the U.S. Senate, Republicans blocked an effort to grant legal status to illegal immigrants who have graduated high school, the NYT reports.
Florida A&M University comes in at No. 13 in the U.S. News & World Report’s first annual ranking of historically black colleges and universities, according to rankings released this morning. For the most part the magazine used the same factors it employs for its ranking of America’s best colleges, including grad rates, retention rates and student selectivity. But it also considered how head administrators at HBCUs rated other black colleges.
The magazine put Spelman College, Howard University and Hampton University at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. North Carolina Central University, which FAMU President Ammons headed until July, came in at No. 16. None of the other three HBCUs in Florida – Bethune Cookman, Edward Waters and Florida Memorial – made the top tier. To see the complete list and ranking methodology, click here.
In the face of next week's critical visit from an accreditation team, FAMU President James Ammons projected confidence Thursday. "We are ready for this visit," he said in a press release. "I believe we have presented a compelling reason why FAMU should be removed from probation."
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, better known as SACS, put FAMU on probation in June (see the St. Petersburg Times story here) after concluding the university is not complying with 10 accrediting standards, many of them related to financial resources and fiscal controls, and some of them tied to findings in several unflattering state audits. Since then, FAMU, under Ammons' leadership, has put together an action plan to address each of the areas of concern. SACS will decide in December whether FAMU should remain on probation. To see the monitoring report FAMU submitted to SACS three weeks ago, click here.
The U.S. Department of Education announced today that Hillsborough will receive $3.12 million to expand and enhance magnet programs in the first year of a three-year grant.
The district will use the money to fund the newly created elementary-level International Baccalaureate program at Lincoln Elementary. It also will establish pre-AP centers at Ferrell, Sligh and Dowdell middle schools. Additionally, the money will be used to enhance the AP scholars programs at Leto and Lennard high schools, according to grant writer Lynn Fell.
Hillsborough is one of 41 school districts in 17 states to receive the federal award. Other Florida recipients include Duval, Miami, Seminole and Palm Beach counties.
Hillsborough does not yet know exactly how much money it will receive in the second and third year of the grant, but expects similar funding levels, Fell said. The district has received similar magnet grants in recent years.
"Hillsborough has a great reputation at the federal level for implementing magnet programs appropriately, and I think it's a testament to that," Fell said.
Well, we're not sure if Dianne Piche calls herself a liberal, but since she's the executive director of the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights, we suspect many people would put her in that category. So it's worth noting, given that many people also suspect that No Child Left Behind is the brainchild of the right-wing kooks (we know, we've beaten this horse already, but it's definitely not dead yet), that Piche was a big supporter of the law when it passed in 2002 and continues to back it today.
In the most recent issue of Education Next, Piche argues that No Child should be re-authorized. Despite the complaints, she says, No Child "is actually doing some good things for real people, many of them students who historically have been shortchanged in our public schools." She also describes No Child as not just an education law, but a civil rights law. "How long does it take a cutting-edge civil rights law to ‘work'?" she asks in the piece, which you can find here . "Could a credible argument have been made in 1969, five years after passage of the Civil Rights Act, that the ambitious law was ‘not working' and therefore ought to be abandoned?"
- Ron Matus, state education reporter
LOAN SCAM: Some students at the University of Miami discovered that their college shared private information to qualify them for federal loans that they hadn't applied for, possibly violating the law.
STATE PUSHES VACCINE: The board that oversees Florida's universities today considers a recommendation to make the meningitis vaccine mandatory for all incoming students, not just those living on campus, after a fatal case claimed the life of a USF student.
SPEED LIMITS: Hillsborough is using technology to limit the maximum speed to 57-mph on more than half of its school buses.
BETTER OPTIONS WANTED: Parents attending a town hall meeting on the new school assignment plan in Pinellas want to know why all of the county's schools aren't equally good.
TEEN DRIVER CAUSES FATALITY: Another sad day on the roads involving teen drivers. An Alonso High sophomore lost control of his car and crashed into a scooter, killing a man, then plunged into a pond.
BREAST MILK WINS: Here's an unusual victory for mothers trying to juggle family and careers. The NYT reports that a judge has ruled that a Harvard student must be given extra time during a medical licensing exam to pump breast milk for her 4-month-old daughter. The medical examining board plans to appeal.
WANTED: SUBS: Palm Beach County revises its approach to attracting substitute teachers, hoping to get the 500 to 700 subs needed daily.
The student health directors for Florida's 11 public universities are recommending that all incoming students - not just those moving into dorms or campus Greek houses - be required to get the meningitis vaccine.
And while there should still be exemptions for religious or personal reasons, health directors said Wednesday they believe too many students are being granted waivers. Their recommendations come just days after a 19-year-old USF student died of bacterial meningitis.
USF officials can't disclose whether Rachel Futterman got her vaccine, but USF president Judy Genshaft wants to make it mandatory for all students, starting as early as January if the university has the authority to do so.
A Board of Governors committee is voting on the recommendations this afternoon, and if approved they'll go on to the full board during its meeting in Tallahassee tomorrow.
Want to participate in the YouTube politics revolution, but don't have access to a camera? Let the Times help.
From now until mid-November we will be filming your questions for the Republican presidential candidates and submitting them to YouTube for consideration in the November 28 St. Pete debates. We will be available, camera in hand, at public events across the Tampa Bay area.
Look for our first YouTube question station tonight at Pinellas Park High School just before the county School Board's Community Impact meeting.
When: September, 26 at 5:30 p.m.
Where: Pinellas Park High School, 6305 118th Avenue N, Largo
Two dozen high school seniors from the Tampa Bay area are among the more than 1,600 nationwide named today as semifinalists in the National Achievement Scholarship Program, which recognizes many of the top black students in the country. The list includes one student from Pasco, three from Pinellas and a whopping 20 from Hillsborough (including five from King High alone). To see the complete Florida list, click here.
Hillsborough schools rank tops in Florida for participation in the Duke University Talent Identification Program, recognizing academically gifted students in their late elementary and early middle school years.
The program, which identifies students by their performance on college entrance exams, is one of Superintendent MaryEllen Elia's priorities. Since taking the helm, she has increased the number of seventh-graders identified as qualified to sit for the exams from 150 in 2005 to more than 4,800 this year. The parents of these students soon will receive a letter noting that their children are eligible for SAT and ACT tutoring.
Above this morning's story, the St. Petersburg Times blared this headline across the top of the front page: "Florida test scores up, BUT WHY?" We don't write the headlines, but now that it's out there, let's roll with it. Why did some Florida test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, better known as the Nation's Report Card, rise so dramatically during the Jeb era? Did Jeb's accountability regimen put students on the right track? Is this one area where the former gov deserves credit?
At yesterday's press conference with Department of Education officials, the Gradebook asked Florida education commissioner Jeanine Blomberg how much of a role smaller class sizes might have played in the uptick. "That could be one of the factors, but you can't really isolate that," she said. She went on to say that other "reform efforts" have had a bigger impact, because they were in place before the 2002 class-size amendment really got rolling, and because by then, Florida's NAEP scores were already on the rise. Does that argument hold water?
Meanwhile, state Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat and a leading critic of Jeb's ed agenda, complained that while the state was making progress, it was only in two subjects: reading and math. Is that a fair criticism? Aren't basic reading and basic math the subjects you want students to master first and foremost?
- Ron Matus, state education reporter
TEST SCORES UP: Florida continued to show improvement on the "Nation's Report Card." But as soon as the data came out, so did the spin. Supporters of Jeb Bush's A-Plus plan say it's evidently working, while critics say maybe not. Don't get too dizzy.
OTHER OPTIONS: Veterans for Peace prepares to help Pinellas high school seniors find non-military ways to serve their country. "We want them to know there are pros and cons to many different careers, and that they do have alternatives," spokeswoman Linda Hubner says.
JANUARY VOTE FOR PINELLAS? Activists are urging the Pinellas School Board to call a referendum to renew the district's special property tax at the same time as the presidential primary.
PASCO REJECTS MAP: The Pasco School Board unanimously turns down the state's performance pay program, a day after teachers did the same.
PRE-K MONEY: As we told you yesterday, Pre-K Now blasted Florida's Legislature for cutting funding to the state's Voluntary Prekindergarten program. It's not that simple, House Schools and Learning Council chairman Joe Pickens tells the Palm Beach Post. The Tallahassee Democrat also covered the story.
FIND A WAY: Broward's School Board tells its superintendent that FCAT preparation is taking too much time away from day to day learning, and it has to stop, the Sun-Sentinel reports. The Miami Herald has a similar story.
WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE? The Board of Governors is expected to approve across the board tuition increases, fully pressing its claim that it - not the Legislature - runs the state's universities, the Miami Herald reports.
IS GATORADE JUNK FOOD? The battle over how to categorize sports drinks and vitamin waters could derail a national effort to limit the sale of "junk food" in school vending machines and snack bars, the Washington Post reports.
One day after Pasco's teachers voted down their proposed performance pay plan, their School Board unanimously joined them.
Board members said they like the idea of rewarding teachers for excellence, but deemed the state's Merit Award Program a poor way to accomplish that goal.
"I do believe in merit pay. But that pay has to encourage collaboration and lift our teachers up in a way different than this," vice chairwoman Kathryn Starkey said. "I don't think that this plan is it. I didn't have one teacher come up to me and say, 'This is a good plan, please vote for it.' I had the opposite."
The board did ask the administration and teachers to consider returning to the bargaining table, to try to find a way to claim the state's bonus money - about $3.6-million was allocated for the county this year - in coming years.
"It's coming," board member Allen Altman said of teacher performance pay. "There needs to be a set plan to work together in good faith ... so our employees can get those dollars."
To see yesterday's post on the teachers' vote, click here.
A citizens group is urging the Pinellas School Board to use the Jan. 29 ballot to ask voters to renew a four-year-old special property tax on education. Eighty percent of the tax proceeds are used to enhance salaries for Pinellas' 8,000 teachers, who get an average salary of about $46,000. The other 20 percent goes to modernize classroom technology and beef up art, music and reading programs.
Beth Rawlins, a political consultant and chairman of Citizens for Pinellas Schools, formally asked superintendent Clayton Wilcox today to put the topic on the board's agenda in October. She also called for the referendum to be held in January.
Four years ago, the tax initially passed during the November general election. In interviews today, Rawlins and Jade Moore, executive director of the Pinellas teachers union, said they favored January over November because the January ballot looks like it could be cleaner. They were referring to a judge's decision this week to throw out a proposed amendment establishing a "super exemption" for homeowners. Another factor, Moore said, is that January will be the last time the state uses touch screen voting machines, which strongly encourage voters to consider the whole ballot, unlike other voting systems.
Ever wanted to run a university? The Board of Governors might need you.
Ten of the system's 11 universities have vacancies on their boards, and they want to have someone in place no later than Jan. 6, 2008. They are:
Want to apply? Have the perfect candidate in mind? Find the application here and send it completed to: Office of the Chancellor, Board of Governors, Attn: Bob Donley, 325 W. Gaines Street, #1614, Tallahassee, FL 32399. Everything is due by 5 p.m. Oct. 22.
Got questions? Contact Mr. Donley at (850) 245-0466, or via e-mail to trustee@flbog.org.
While other states are boosting their early education investments, Florida is heading in the opposite direction, national prekindergarten advocacy group Pre-K Now notes in its latest report, issued earlier today.
Listing Florida under the tag "Dubious Distinction," the organization calls out the state as the only one since 2006 to actually decrease pre-k funding, by 4 percent. It says:
The decreased appropriation promises to undermine both the quality and availability of critical early education programs. Legislators in Florida have damaged the prospects for their state's future fiscal health and economic competitiveness as well as the foundation for success for tens of thousands of young children.
What makes this move particularly disturbing, the group says, is that Florida was supposed to be a national model of how to do things right. Voters did, after all, mandate "high quality" prekindergarten for all the state's 4-year-olds.
Florida students are making strong and persistent gains in reading and math in the early grades, according to the results of a widely respected national test released this morning.
Results from the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called "the nation's report card," show Florida's elementary school students made sizeable jumps in reading and math since the last time the test was given in 2005. The results also show that after years of stagnation, Florida middle schoolers finally gained ground, with a 5-percent increase in the number who can read at or above a basic level. Only Maryland showed a bigger, short-term gain in that area.
In the long term, Florida's results are more dramatic. In 1998, Florida scored five percentage points below the national average, and was wedged between South Carolina and Alabama near the bottom of the state-by-state standings. Only 53 percent of Florida's fourth graders could read at or above a basic level.
This year, according to the latest results, 70 percent of Florida fourth graders can read at basic or above. That puts Florida four points above the national average, and in a tie at No. 19 with Idaho, Colorado, Wisconsin and Washington.
ANOTHER MOM BOARDS THE BUS: Maybe there's something in the water around here that has parents climbing onto school buses to pick fights with others' kids. But it happened again, this time in St. Petersburg, where a mom climbed aboard and slapped a boy for punching her son. It's called trespassing and battery, folks.
SEGREGATION? SO WHAT? Black parents have remained mum as the Pinellas school district crafts a new student assignment plan that cuts racial and socioeconomic diversity. District leaders say they're abiding parent wishes to send their children closer to home. (Times photo, Cherie Diez)
USF MOURNS: Sophomore Rachel Futterman died just two days after coming down with flu-like symptoms. Now the school is remembering her life, and scrambling to deal with bacterial meningitis, which claimed it.
GOOD ADVICE: Fed chairman Ben Bernanke tells folks seeking investment advice to put their money into education, the AP reports. It benefits you individually while also helping the economy. And you were thinking Google stock.
DO THEY HAVE TO DO IT? Pasco teachers and district administrators ask the Public Employees Relations Commission to decide whether the superintendent can require workers to be on-call to staff emergency shelters, even during their days off, without negotiating it first.
"MISLEADING AND CONFUSING": A judge says Florida's pending referendum for a super homestead exemption, which many school district leaders worry could gut education, doesn't meet constitutional muster. His ruling might not last long, though.
MORE SEX ED CHANGES: Broward is set to become the next Florida school district to expand its AIDS/HIV curriculum, the Sun-Sentinel reports.
ELECTED CHAIRMAN: Most school boards pick their own leader from their membership. Orange County is thinking about letting the people decide, the Orlando Sentinel education blog reports.
UNFUNDED MANDATE: Gadsden County is doing what it can to improve its two F-rated schools, but no thanks to the state, which has not put any money into the effort, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
Once again, Pasco's classroom teachers have turned down the opportunity to claim bonuses of about $2,100 from the state. The United School Employees of Pasco has joined a growing number of colleagues across Florida in refusing to participate in the Merit Award Plan, which would give extra pay to 25 percent of teachers based on their students' performance and their job evaluations. (To see the plan, see this past post.)
Two-thirds of the union's nearly 5,000 teachers cast ballots on the proposed agreement. Of those, 76 percent rejected the deal. Pasco teachers voted down participation in the Special Teachers Are Rewarded plan that preceded MAP, too.
"What's remarkable is that during a time when the district is facing funding cutbacks and teacher raises are on hold, the teachers put their principles ahead of their pocketbooks and said, 'We can't be bought,'" USEP president Lynne Webb said in a news release. She added that the vote affirms teachers' opinion that performance pay is no substitute for adequate pay. (To read the full release, click here.)
The Pasco School Board is scheduled to vote on the performance pay agreement tomorrow. It could impose the deal on the teachers if it wants to claim the $3.5-million the state has set aside for the bonuses. Board vice chairwoman Kathryn Starkey, who led the charge to reject the STAR plan, told the Gradebook that she hasn't decided what to do this time.
"In my opinion, Sen. Gaetz and the Legislature made great improvements with the MAP plan," Starkey said, noting teachers can be evaluated in teams, and administrators are included. "I have to look into this."
Did they know? Did it matter? FAMU officials would not say whether they were aware of Victoria Siplin's role in controversies involving her husband, state Sen. Gary Siplin, before she was hired at the law school (see Saturday's St. Petersburg Times story here). But given the amount of news coverage, it's hard to see how anybody in Orlando who owns a TV or gets a newspaper in the driveway could not know. For stories about Gary Siplin's campaign spending, all of which mention Victoria Siplin, click here, here and here. For stories about Gary Siplin's rent payments to Victoria Siplin, click here, here and here.
The bigger issue: Is there a pattern of questionable hiring at FAMU? If so, how deep does it go, and how far back? And, is there enough evidence yet (given Kiah Edwards, Shirley Cunningham, Bill Proctor, Victoria Dawson … see stories here, here and here), for President Ammons, the FAMU trustees, or the Florida Board of Governors to at least ask a few questions?
-Ron Matus, state education reporter
(Photo credit: City of Ocoee, 2005, shows the Siplins in the center at a road dedication)
It's not every day that principals get to enjoy a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game from the Owner's Suite, overlooking the 50-yard-line at Raymond James Stadium. For 15 principals, Sunday was a lucky day.
The Glazer family invited a handful of principals from schools across Central Florida to view yesterday's home game from their private suite. The event recognized the impact of educators in the community. An added treat: The Bucs won!
Below are the local principals invited to the game:
Arlene Cestelli, Giunta Middle, Hillsborough
Brenda Nolte, Burns Middle, Hillsborough
Jackie Haynes, Blake High, Hillsborough
Robert Nelson, Plant High, Hillsborough
Tanly Cabrera, Cahoon Elementary, Hillsborough
Ray Bonti, Wiregrass Ranch High, Pasco
Shae Davis, Weightman Middle, Pasco
Fred Ulrich, Largo Middle, Pinellas
Keith Mastorides, Clearwater High, Pinellas
The University of Florida's efforts at sustainability and 'green' living have already garnered attention in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Now Kiwi, a magazine dedicated to healthy, organic living for families, says UF is among the nation's 50 most notable university when it comes to sustainability and its aggressive attempts to develop alternative energies.
The magazine notes that "since the early 1970s, UF students, faculty and staff have helped cultivate the school’s organic gardens (now located in 75 plots across campus)." UF also has many "green" buildings on campus, and president Bernie Machen plans to reduce its solid waste to nearly zero by 2015. UF is developing an alternative energy institute, and offers more than 100 sustainability-related courses - including organic farming.
Read more about UF's efforts here.
Democrats in Congress are talking about
changing the federal education law's name, because it's too closely
tied to unpopular President Bush, the Washington Post reports. That's particularly evident with all the alternate versions that detractors cast about so easily - No Child Left Untested, No Public School Left Standing, No Child's Behind Left. You get the picture.
Already, folks have been offering new ideas. University of Miami president Donna Shalala has recommended Children First! (complete with exclamation point). Others soon will follow as lawmakers consider other more substantive alterations to the act, as well.
Any suggestions?
LEARNING IN CHINESE: Families from China have sent their Americanized children to the Tampa Bay Chinese School at USF for years, to get them speaking their native tongue. Now the school has added courses for adults, too, to meet a growing demand for language instruction in the wider community. (Times photo, Ken Helle)
SHOTS ALL AROUND: USF braces for an influx of students seeking vaccinations after being exposed to another student diagnosed with bacterial meningitis.
PRIVACY'S PRICE: National leaders need to better balance private student rights with public safety concerns when it comes to university students' mental health records, as the spring Virginia Tech massacre indicates, the Times editorializes.
READY TO DRIVE? Even some teens question whether they have what it takes to get behind the wheel, especially after seeing other kids lose control and die.
ACT FOR ALL: The Brevard school district might mandate that all high school juniors take the test, as a way to determine the best classes for their senior year, Florida Today reports.
MAKE IT RELEVANT: Florida's schools need to find a way to teach students civics in a realistic, meaningful way so they can make informed decisions about democracy, UF professor emeritus John P. Lustrum writes in the Tallahassee Democrat. That doesn't mean indoctrination or information regurgitation. It means looking at the underside of government, too.
TEACHERS WIN: The Palm Beach teachers union gets about $190,000 in back pay for some middle school teachers required to work an extra class period without pay, the Sun-Sentinel reports.
BEATING THE ODDS: The poor and predominantly minority school in West Palm Beach was destined to earn an F from the state, according to the trends. But it turned things around to receive an A, instead, one of just six Florida schools to make such progress. The principal of Pleasant City Elementary credits people, not programs, the Palm Beach Post reports.
MORE TROUBLE FOR FAMU: The school is struggling with its finances. Its law school might lose accreditation. Now the nursing school is under investigation after a student complained to a national nursing accrediting agency about its policies, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
LANGUAGE LESSONS: A study of Denver students who are still learning English finds that the district's main program, which allows the children to get some instruction in Spanish, doesn't work well - especially for poor children, the Rocky Mountain News reports. The researchers won't say English immersion is the answer, but they are taking a closer look.
Monday: Charter Schools Appeals Commission, 11 a.m., Tallahassee
Tuesday: Hillsborough School Board, workshop, 10 a.m.; Pasco School Board, special meeting, 4 p.m., Pinellas School Board, 5 p.m.
Wednesday: Pinellas community input meeting, 6:30 p.m., Pinellas Park High
Wednesday-Thursday: State University System Board of Governors, Tallahassee
Thursday: Pinellas community input meeting, 6:30 p.m., John Hopkins Middle; Senate Education and Higher Education Appropriations committees, 9 a.m.
Friday: Senate Education Appropriations and Higher Education Appropriations committee, 9 a.m.
Oct. 1: Hernando School Board, workshop 1 p.m., meeting 7 p.m.
Oct. 2: Pasco School Board, 9:30 a.m.; Hillsborough School Board, 3 p.m.; Senate Education and Higher Education committees, 3:30 p.m.
Oct. 3: Legislative special session to begin
Oct. 8: State Board of Education commissioner candidate interviews, 11 a.m., Tampa
Oct. 16: Pinellas School Board, 10 a.m.; Hillsborough School Board, 3 p.m.; Pasco School Board, 6 p.m.; State Board of Education, Tallahassee
ENVIRONMENTAL EATING: Food can travel around the world before it hits your plate. But not at Eckerd College, where the cafeterias are trying to buy nearby.
JUST LIKE ANY OTHER KID: Artur Jordan Chabowski grew up in Poland, where he still lives when not attending school in Pasco County. Sure, the fourth-grader speaks four languages and takes sixth-grade math. But he fits right in, in the increasingly diverse school system. (Times photo, Stephen J. Coddington)
PROFITING WITH ESE: Educational Services of America, which recently came to Tampa, makes money while making life easier for kids with disabilities, the AP reports. Critics say it's wrong to turn a profit on the backs of the disabled, but the CEO says he didn't want to have to beg to meet the kids' needs.
ENJOY THE RIDE: FAMU president James Ammons hands out six scholarship packages worth about $40,000 each to Tampa Bay area students. While in town, he also seeks to reassure folks that the school is repairing its problems.
DO YOUR JOB: The Hernando school district's failure to do a proper background check on a woman who turned out not to be a nurse was "unacceptable and avoidable" - and it shouldn't happen again, the Times editorializes.
UNIVERSITY UNCERTAINTY: Florida's state universities need more money to remain competitive, but leaders aren't sure exactly how to make it happen, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.
LARGELY UNUSED: Few families take advantage of the state's McKay scholarships, which allow children with special needs to attend schools that can help them, the Fort Myers News Press reports. Meanwhile, the News Press reports, the Lee school district doesn't seem able to help some of its special education students.
BEYOND BAKE SALES: PTA's are moving past fund-raisers and classroom volunteering to advocate more aggressively for their children's - and their schools' - needs at the district, state and sometimes national levels, the Sun-Sentinel reports.
ACCREDITED, BUT FAILED: The Lake County school district has gained national accreditation, but it can't seem to make adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The disconnect has prompted another round of questions over NCLB, which is up for reauthorization.
HOLD THAT TRANSCRIPT: Collier stops issuing transcripts for current and former high school students while investigating whether teachers gave credit for honors courses that didn't exist, the Naples Daily News reports.
NO ROOM FOR YOU: Dozens of Providence, R.I., high school students were sent home for the first two weeks of school while the district looked for classrooms and teachers to serve them, the Providence Journal reports. Apparently, they take their class-size limits seriously over there. Tampa Bay locals might recognize the superintendent, former Hillsborough administrator Donnie Evans, who says of the situation, "It's normal for youngsters to come in and wait a few days."
Senate Pre-K-12 Education Committee chairman Don Gaetz. As the legislature's special session approaches, Gaetz, a former Okaloosa County superintendent, has heard talk from school district leaders about the need to protect their resources. That message also has come through in their comments about the pending Jan. 29 referendum to increase the homestead exemption - something opponents have said could strip billions from education coffers.
He suggests their worries might be misplaced.
Gaetz talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about education funding, both in the short and long term, for nearly an hour. He offered some intriguing ideas, perhaps most interesting of which was the notion of scaling back the full effect of the 2002 class-size reduction amendment to offset the revenue loss that many expect if the super homestead exemption wins approval.
First, though, he focused on the October special session. Lawmakers postponed the session, which was supposed to occur in September, because they couldn't agree on whether to make across-the-board or targeted cuts to cope with a $1.1-billion revenue shortfall. Gaetz suggested the Senate might be moving toward the more nuanced House approach, at least where education is concerned.
"My hope and my belief is that there will be disproportionate cuts in some places and softer cuts in others," Gaetz said, stressing that nothing is settled yet. "I have pushed for deeper cuts in the State Board of Education and the Department of Education, deeper and disproportionate. There are 2,500 people in the state Department of Education, and none of them have contact with students every day. So while many of them might do interesting and important things, they are not in the most important circle, and that is the circle of teachers around students."
He also wants to end funding for state-level programs that don't seem to warrant the money. He specifically mentioned a line item that gives grants to local corporations that seek to start schools within their walls.
"My sense of it is that, by the time the cuts reach the local school districts, they will be disproportionately shallower cuts," Gaetz said. "And I don't think the cuts will be across the board, in that everyone will get a haircut to the same length."
STUDENT ABUSE: Two Pinellas teachers face child abuse charges for encouraging them to fight, and their principal faces obstruction charges for standing in the way of an arrest. All three are suspended pending the outcome of an investigation.
ANOTHER BUS ACCIDENT: Nineteen children are treated for minor injuries after two buses crash into one another in the parking lot of Frost Elementary in Hillsborough. (Times photo, Skip O'Rourke)
MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT FAMU LAW: The struggling school has hired the wife of an embattled state senator, and she's apparently tied to his troubles. FAMU defends the pick, even as students flee and the school's accreditation is at risk.
"THE PATH TO TYRANNY": The UF student who rudely questioned U.S. Sen. John Kerry might have been a loudmouth, but since when it that a crime?, wonders guest columnist Ron Sachs in an op-ed piece. The police reaction, though, represents a step away from freedom.
TUITION HIKE LOOMS: Lawmakers are considering a 2.5 percent increase to help offset a state revenue shortfall, a move both administrators and students seem to support, the Florida Times-Union reports. If only the governor would sign the bill when it comes his way. And that's if the Board of Governors doesn't wrest control away from lawmakers altogether.
NO LUNCH FOR YOU: Broward's poorest students won't get free school meals after Monday unless their parents re-register them for the federal program, the Sun-Sentinel reports. It seems the feds only reimburse a district for kids who are signed up, and the district has been losing money. Seminole County is doing the a similar thing, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
NO RAISE FOR ME: Florida Atlantic University president Frank Brogan turns down a pay raise, saying it would be bad form to take one as the state endures economic hard times, the Palm Beach Post reports. Surely, it doesn't hurt that he already makes more than $350,000 a year.
CHECK THEM AGAIN: Broward officials might have to reinspect hundreds of new classrooms after learning the contractors hired initially to evaluate the work didn't have proper licenses, the Miami Herald reports.
JUST ONE WORD - SPUTNIK: Fifty years ago, the space satellite launched the United States into the world of scientific competition. Some people argue we need another jolt to jump start an education system that lags behind in almost every international measure, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Visit the Gradebook at noon for an interview with Senate Education Committee chairman Don Gaetz, who talks about education funding, class size and the upcoming super-homestead exemption referendum.
Democratic Sen. Frederica Wilson of Miami doesn't give up. She has already filed a proposed bill (SB 292) for the 2008 legislative session that would remove letter grades for schools.
Wilson, a former Miami-Dade school board member, tried and failed to get the legislation passed this spring, and also failed in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Friendly advice, or an ominous threat? At least a couple of FAMU law professors have recently told students not to talk to the media about problems at the College of Law, saying they should instead "keep it in the family," several students told The Gradebook. One student used the word "berated" to describe the suggestion. Another said the suggestion came with a cryptic warning that students interpreted this way: If we catch you, we'll boot you.
It's unclear whether the professors were acting on directives from higher-ups. But regardless, the don't-air-our-dirty-laundry talks have added to what many students have described as an atmosphere of fear in Orlando. Only a handful of the more than 20 students who have talked to The Gradebook in recent months would agree to talk "on the record," not only because most of them care about the school so much (and only went to the media as a last resort), but because they feared reprisal. Some even fretted about sending e-mails to reporters, saying if excerpts were published, professors and administrators might clue in on who's speaking out – and then punish accordingly. "All the students," one said, "worry about retaliation."
Interestingly, the keep-it-in-the-family rhetoric seems to be escalating just as some students see cause for optimism, not only because the school finally has a permanent dean again, but because of other, real changes on the ground. One student told The Gradebook that financial aid arrived sooner this fall, and noted increased communication from administrators. "It's getting better," said the student – the same one who objected to being "berated." So, what gives? If things really are getting better, can't the changes speak for themselves?
What do you think? Are a few students blowing friendly advice out of proportion? Or is there a concerted effort to get frustrated law students to zip it?
- Ron Matus, state education reporter
