Middleton, Edison Senior high schools miss accountability mark, face reconstitution

Last year, 13 Florida schools performed badly enough to fall under the state's most severe sanctions in its new accountability plan if they didn't improve.

One closed. Ten improved this year. And two didn't make it.

Now Hillsborough's Middleton High School and Miami-Dade's Edison Senior High must face the music.

State law requires those two schools to choose from four options - closure, conversion to a charter school, contracting with a private operator or conversion to a district-run turnaround school. Each has chosen to become a turnaround school, deputy chancellor for school improvement and accountability Nikolai Vitti tells the Gradebook.

What does that mean? Vitti explains:

"A lot of the guidelines are similar to what we have already in the list of requirements for the lowest performing schools. For example, you have to really evaluate whether the principal should be there. You might have to remove the principal. You have to really evaluate the gains in math and reading to ensure that teachers have been effective in math and reading. If not, you would have to reassign the teachers to other schools.

"You'd have to provide performance pay to administrators and teachers. You'd have to have instructional coaches in math, science and reading. You would have to offer summer professional development for new teachers that are hired. A report needs to go to your local school board detailing the progress of your school. You need to have a community board that oversees the work of that school throughout the year. Those are just some of the requirements that are put in place for those schools."

And if they fail again next year? They would have to choose from the remaining three options.

The Department of Education plans to release the full list of accountability ratings for all state schools later today. We'll bring you more details as they emerge. And look for a full interview about the differentiated accountability model with Vitti on Saturday.

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Comments

[terminator]

Dan,
actually I'm a very chilly chill kind of guy when not dealing with corrupt school boards and corrupt school district administrations. That's when I turn into the Ahhnold Terminator.
Give me a good smoke, a nice rum and coke, a hot tub, a pretty girl with large yam yams and a FSU/Ohio State FB game and I'm a happy content cyborg!

[barry morse]

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[justathought]

The simple truth is this. Take those "bad" teachers and put them in jobs at Bloomingdale, Newsome, Plant, etc. and they will suddenly become "good" teachers. Didn't anybody read Ashley's commentary a day or two ago about students' not caring about learning? We are teachers, not magicians. Give me the lowest of the low with a sincere desire to learn and improve and I can teach that student. That student will make significant gains on the FCAT. As a result, the state, the district, administrators, and parents will point at me and say -- "There is a really good teacher."(even though it was the student who did the actual perfomance). Give me the brightest of the bright who doesn't give a s**t about school or grades or attendance, and who tanks on his FCAT test, and suddenly I will become the cause of all his problems. Regardless of what side of this debate you're on, you know what I say is the truth.

[Dan]

As much as I hate to agree with someone who appears as angry as Termi (couldn't hang out with him), I must agree there were many things he touched on that were true. As strange as he seems, he cannot be discounted.

[John]

Thank you, Termie. I tried to set a good example for 37 years. Instead of just bellyaching and making up mixed metaphors. It is what we have to work with and I do not want to be like George Orwell's pigs and end up wearing a suit.

[fldumkids]

Why worry??...fl is just the beginning...the new admin. wants a nation of sheeple..dumb as rocks, clones..etc to follow the chosen one and his backers into a wonderful new era of the gov't telling them when to sh#t...love it amerika..ya got it!

[Kat]

"You have to really evaluate the gains in math and reading to ensure that teachers have been effective in math and reading. If not, you would have to reassign the teachers to other schools."

Reassign bad teachers to other schools? Can someone explain the wisdom in that? We are doomed!

[terminator]

John:
I think that went way over your head.

let me translate:
the US needs to adopt a more multi-faceted approach like the Europeans utilize.
Let's face the facts. not all kids are going to college, in fact studies show only about half will and only half of those will actually finish with a Bachelor's degree.
the others need to be trained for jobs they can make a living at.
our economy needs plumbers, carpenters, electricians, contractors, MRI technicians, dental hygenists and thousands of other job classifications.
For those not interested in careers there's always the military and prison system!
I can see you don't mind babysitting them. Great example you set.

[John]

And I'm pretty sure you won't get chicken salad out of Termie's keyboard. Turn the useless kids loose on society instead of teaching them the right ways of doing things? Nobody said teaching was an easy job, just a thankless one.

[terminator]

this (reconstituting) is such a bunch of BS.

let's get serious, there isn't one school in FloriDUH that's been reconstituted in the history of the state going back to when we got it from the Spaniards.

DOE keeps spouting the same threats year after year and nothing ever happens.

Edison has gotten an F about ten years in a row and nothing has been done any differently than reshuffling the playing deck with the same results.

what should be done is these schools should be bulldozed to the ground and the student body divided up into different groups:
a. any with over a 3.0 GPA, good attendance and good discipline will go on the college track
b. those below a 3.0 with spotty attendance will go to either a vocational or technical school
c. those who are younger than 16, under a 2.5 and have attendance and discipline issues will be assigned to alternative school
d. those who are 16 and older below a 2.5 with discipline and attendance issues will be shown the door and will enter the world of hard knocks.

I mean c'mon get real, how much more money can the Florida taxpayers be asked to flush down the toilet on trash that doesn't want to be there or learn?

What's DOE going to do next year, put them on double secret probation?

Termie has always said "you can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t"!