More data linking education colleges to FCAT scores

More data. More questions.

On Friday night, the state released more FCAT-based data rating the effectiveness of Florida's teacher preparation program - and it shows that it was in fact a good idea to take a grain of salt with the first batch of numbers that came out Thursday.

The Friday numbers, based on 2008-09 FCAT scores, shows that 82 percent of rookie teachers from the University of South Florida had 50 percent or more of their students make learning gains - putting it in a 3-way tie at No. 4 (with UF and UCF) among the 10 state university ed schools. In 2007-08, 76 percent of USF's rookie grads reached that bar, putting USF at No. 9 of 10.

On a related measure, USF slid a little. In 2007-08, 15 percent of its rookie graduates were deemed "high performing," because of especially large FCAT gains by their students. That put it at No. 6. In 2008-09, 13 percent earned that designation, putting USF in a tie (with UWF) at No. 8.

Florida "pretty much last in the nation for science"

If the new high-quality-schools lawsuit hinged on Florida science scores alone, it'd probably be a slam dunk.

"Florida students are pretty much last in the nation for science," says a power point presentation that Todd Clark, the Department of Education bureau chief for curriculum and instruction, gave to a statewide education group meeting in Lake Mary this week. (Hat tip to Orlando Sentinel School Zone blog.)

FSU physics professor Paul Cottle, who is a blogging beast when it comes to science instruction in Florida, has already highlighted the sad stats in that power point (go to page 30). But they bear repeating.

* In 2008, Florida students were 49th in average ACT science scores

* In 2008, they ranked 47th in the percentage passing AP science exams

* In 2005, Florida eighth graders ranked 36th on the National Assessment of Educational Progress science test

* In 2009, only 2 percent of fifth graders, 2 percent percent of eighth graders and 1 percent of eleventh graders scored at the highest level on the FCAT science exam

(Image from blogs.discovermagazine.org)

USF near bottom in state analysis of teacher preparation programs

The Florida Department of Education is looking at FCAT scores to help gauge the effectiveness of the state’s teacher preparation programs. And according to its first analysis, the University of South Florida College of Education doesn’t look so good by comparison.

A draft report obtained by the Gradebook shows how rookie teachers from different programs – be they university colleges of education, community college programs or district alternative certification programs – fared in 2007-08, based on how well their students performed on the math and reading FCAT.

The DOE determined what percentage of rookies from each institution had 50 percent or more of their students making learning gains. And then, using “value tables” – which you can read more about here – it determined what percentage were “high performing.”

USF – a huge pipeline for teachers in the Tampa Bay area – had 76 percent of its graduates in the first category, which puts it ninth among the 10 state university programs. Florida International was tops at 85 percent. The University of West Florida was last at 70 percent.

Florida education commissioner: lawsuit "diminishes" student progress

Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith, a defendant in the education lawsuit filed this morning, tonight issued this statement in response:

“It’s unfortunate that this lawsuit diminishes the significant progress that has been made by our children over the last decade and simply ignores the performance of a state that is clearly outpacing the nation. Our African-American and Hispanic students have experienced unprecedented academic improvements and have significantly narrowed the achievement gap in Florida, our graduation rate has steadily improved, and state and national assessments all show tremendous progress. I believe Florida’s education system has achieved incredible results that clearly speak for themselves and are not represented in this complaint.”

Patricia Levesque, executive director of Jeb Bush's Foundation for Florida's Future, also issued a statement a short while ago:

“This lawsuit is based on myths perpetuated by critics of reform who care more about protecting the status quo for adults than improving the quality of education for students. This is the same old cast of characters who have opposed bold, outcome-based reforms for a decade – and continue to stand in the way of progress.

“They can’t win at the ballot box, or in the court of public opinion, so they are taking their losing, misguided battle to the judicial system."

Democrats cheer education lawsuit

Florida Democrats can't get enough of the new lawsuit.

From House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands: "Not only are Florida schools inadequately funded, but the state's school accountability system is in need of serious repair. It's high time for Florida's education accountability system to be updated so that it no longer focuses so much on how students perform on a single day's standardized test. Hopefully, this lawsuit will help us achieve the necessary changes for Florida to truly have the world-class education system that our children deserve."

Lawsuit charges Florida with failing on education

The suit was filed a little bit ago, in Leon County Circuit Court. Read today's St. Petersburg Times story about it here.

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When FCAT and holidays collide

Broward School Board members are making a lot of noise about the FCAT schedule for 2011.

First, they were upset that the Florida Department of Education planned to give the annual test the same week as Passover and Easter. So the DOE changed the dates.

Now the Broward board is complaining that the new schedule interferes with the district's spring break plans, the Miami Herald reports. Break would come before the FCAT and, board member Robin Bartleman says, "After spring break, historically, everyone turns off."

Four Hernando schools to get new principals

BROOKSVILLE — Central High School will soon have its next principal – and so will three other Hernando schools.

Joe Clifford, currently principal at J.D Floyd K-8 in Spring Hill, will take the empty seat at Central left by Dennis McGeehan, interim superintendent Sonya Jackson announced in an e-mail to district staffers Tuesday.

Jackson last month tapped McGeehan to lead the new, yet-to-be named high school north of Weeki Wachee set to open next fall.

Clifford, 58, is a veteran Hernando schools employee who started as a teacher in 1979. His selection created a chain reaction of administrative moves, also announced by Jackson on Tuesday.

Ray Pinder, in his first year as principal at Explorer K-8 in Spring Hill, will head to Floyd. And John Stratton, in his first year at the STAR Education Center in Brooksville, takes the empty seat at Explorer.

Jackson didn’t announce who would take over at STAR and didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday.

“I’m confident in the leadership abilities of these principals to ensure a smooth transition,” Jackson wrote in Tuesday’s e-mail.

Florida isn't the only state padding its graduation rates

With Florida's latest graduation rates coming out soon, this new report from the Center on Education Policy should make you wonder how many grains of salt to take with any state's grad rates, let alone Florida's.

Florida superintendents discuss tests other than the FCAT

This morning’s conference call between Florida Department of Education officials and superintendents was a reminder that the state really is moving away from the FCAT as the end-all, be-all.

The big topic: The roll-out schedule for end-of-course exams, which you can see in this document that DOE sent to superintendents yesterday. Algebra I and geometry end-of-course exams are being field tested this year, and the plan is for the biology end-of-course exam to be field tested next year, followed by the end-of-course exam for U.S. History the year after that. “Now obviously associated with all of these is a budget that will have to get funded annually in order to be able to do this,” Assistant Deputy Commissioner Kris Ellington told the superintendents.

It’s also DOE’s plan to use the math end-of-course exams instead of the math FCAT in the appropriate grades. But that will require legislative changes. Ellington said the department is talking with lawmakers to craft language to do just that.

What's a cow? Or, how can a student answer a test question about something he knows nothing about?

Standardized tests are, as their very name states, standard. Which means that they'll have questions that go to urban kids and rural kids, rich kids and poor kids.

The notion is that their school will educate them the same, and so no one should be at a disadvantage.

But what about their real life education?

Here in Dade City, we've reported on students who needed to take a trip to Tampa just to learn what an escalator was, after their teachers discovered they had trouble answering an FCAT practice question that included the term.

Now the New York Times offers a story of field study (as opposed to field trips) for Harlem 5-year-olds who don't understand some of the terms about rural life that appear on New York's assessments. The goal: To improve future test scores by visiting a farm.

Explains teacher Abigail Johnson: "They're good at reciting and remembering things, but they can't make the connection unless you show it to them."

Two questions for you. First, is anybody even going on field trips anymore in this economy? And, if so, what kinds of things are our Florida students needing to see on them? Cows?

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National survey: 40 percent of teachers are 'disheartened'

There's a lot of bummed-out teachers in America -- burned out by too much testing, too many unruly kids and too much accountability pressure, according to the results of a nationwide survey released today.

The poll by Public Agenda, based on a nationally representative sample of 890 teachers, shows that 40 percent of teachers are disheartened. Asked about drawbacks to their jobs, 58 percent said there is too much testing, and 50 percent said there are too many kids with discipline problems. Asked what is the most difficult thing about teaching, 32 percent said unreasonable pressure to raise student achievement.

The survey also asked teachers about a host of other issues, with nuanced and sometimes surprising results:

* 75 percent said good teachers can lead all students to learn, even those from poor families or who have uninvolved parents, compared to 24 percent who said it's too hard for even good teachers to overcome those barriers.

Florida scores stall on national math test

After years of steady gains, Florida math scores stalled this year on a respected national test, according to results released this morning. But because scores in other states didn't budge much either, Florida's overall rankings actually improved.

The math component of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, better known as the "nation's report card," is periodically given to a statistically representative sample of fourth- and eighth-graders across the country.

This year, 86 percent of Florida’s fourth-graders scored at the basic level or above, the same percentage that did so when the test was last given in 2007. Back then, Florida's fourth-grade performance put it in a tie with one other state at No. 16. Now it's in a five-way tie at No. 12, with Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and South Dakota.

Tennessee graduation rates climbing the fastest

Okay you snobby Gators who want to make fun of "Rocky Top." Get this: A new report out this morning puts the spotlight on Tennessee for its fast-climbing graduation rate. Between 2002 and 2006, Tennessee’s graduation rate jumped from 60 percent to 71 percent, the biggest jump in the nation, while Florida’s rose to 64 percent, according to one analysis.

Maine school brags about its ability to skirt FCAT

Back in 2004, Florida education officials complained that the North Atlantic Regional High School in Maine was taking advantage of a loophole by allowing Florida high school students to obtain diplomas without passing the FCAT.

Five years later, it appears the Department of Education has done little to stop the practice.

The school recently put out a press release with the provocative headline, "FCAT Steals High School Diplomas; Students Transfer Credits to Maine, Receive Standard High School Diploma without FCAT."

It continues: "To bypass the FCAT requires five steps." They include:

• Mail in your high school transcript.
• Get a free transcript evaluation.
• If you decide to register at the school, pay $525 in tuition for a year.
• Stay longer if necessary.
• Graduate with a diploma from Maine when you're done.

Simple, huh?  

Are teachers unions warming to tying test scores to performance?

Maybe, if last week's announcement by the American Federation of Teachers is any indication. Two winners of the AFT's new innovation grants -- including the Broward teachers union in South Florida -- will give some weight to standardized test scores when they design new teacher evaluation systems.

As we all know, efforts to tie FCAT scores to performance -- and to performance pay -- has made many a teacher want to hurl. The Broward proposal links test scores (and other factors) and compensation. So, what gives?

"I suspect they want to figure out how to use this data before it's imposed on them," Joe Williams, of Democrats for Education Reform, told Newsweek. (He was not referring to the Broward project specifically.)

USDOE: Don't jump to conclusions on FCAT audit

Last week’s federal audit of the FCAT showed discrepancies with scoring, but it’s not clear from the report how widespread those problems are. Denise Wempe, the regional inspector general for audit at the U.S. Department of Education, told The Gradebook today that auditors only checked enough tests from 2008 to gauge the controls put in place by the Florida Department of Education, not to “statistically project the results.”

"You can’t read more in the report than what’s in the report," said Wempe, who's based in the Atlanta office that oversaw the audit.

Federal auditors find problems with FCAT scoring

Florida has some issues with FCAT scoring, including discrepancies with how scanning machines read some of the answers that students bubble in, according to this new audit by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General.

The auditors say the Florida Department of Education's internal controls for FCAT scoring "provide reasonable assurance that assessment results are reliable." But they also say they found discrepancies in the "gridded responses" on nine of 50 FCAT test booklets they selected at random.

Gridded responses are used on some FCAT math tests and require students to fill in several bubbles with each answer. In most of the cases cited as discrepancies, students changed their answers and appeared to clearly erase their initial responses, but the scanners still recorded something other than the revised answer.

"As a result of the discrepancies identified, students may not be receiving proper credit for their responses based on the intensity, or lack thereof, of an an erasure," the audit report says. "Inaccurate scanning of gridded responses could affect the individual student's overall score and potentially otherwise impact the student given the high-stakes implications of the FCAT."

In light of other issues with FCAT scoring, FCAT critics said, "Here we go again."

"If there are problems with how the test is scored ... it's another reason to broaden our state's assessment formula," Mark Hollis, spokesman for the House Democratic Caucus, told The Gradebook.

Pinellas teachers frustrated with FAIR test, too

It should come as no surprise, but for the record, Pinellas teachers are plenty annoyed with the same, new FAIR test that is causing massive grumbling around the state. Pinellas administrators feel their pain, but they’re also saying, Please be patient.

“Trust the process” is what Pinellas assistant superintendent Pam Moore says she’ll be telling principals and assistant principals this week. “We’re going to remind them … it will be worth it,” Moore told the Gradebook.

Moore is not downplaying the well-documented problems with the system, or widespread concern among teachers. The frustration level has been “intensive,” she said. “Teachers are not trusting the results because they’ve had so many technology issues.”

Florida rapper disses FCAT

Fo shizzle, FCAT bashing has reached a new high.

Trick Daddy, arguably Florida's best rapper, slams the FCAT on his new CD, in a track called "Tears of a Grown Man." (Hat tip to Miami New Times.)

Governor Bush Held the Kids back/ Cuz of the FCAT/ So Mr. Charlie Crist/ How You Gonna Handle This?/ Hope this ain't one of them old promises, promises ...

Jeb, you're not going to take that lying down, are you?!! Good luck getting "NAEP scores" and "narrowing achievement gap" in your battle rap response. (Photo from crocmusic.com)

Heck no, we won't test. Lee schools give up on FAIR

Frustrated with teachers' inability to access Florida's newest online reading assessment, Lee schools have decided to abandon FAIR testing.

"Based upon the testing attempts in our district thus far, we have accumulated invalid assessment data, created a tremendous amount of anxiety and frustration on the part of teachers and students, and have lost valuable instruction time," Lee superintendent Jim Browder wrote to Florida education commissioner Eric J. Smith, as the Fort Myers News-Herald reports.

Sounds like the complaints Gradebook readers aired weeks ago. At least Lee is doing something about it. 

After all, FAIR testing — which cost about $9 million to develop — is optional to districts. At least seven have chosen not to use it, according to DOE officials. Is your district still on the bandwagon?

Florida education commissioner in Finland

Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith is in Helsinki, Finland this week, attending a global education summit as a member of the Council of Chief State School Officers.

The second annual Pearson International Education Summit, sponsored by the Pearson Foundation and the council, is hosting more than 40 international education leaders, says this write-up from Pearson. It is "focused specifically on teacher quality and international best practices for identifying, training, and supporting great teachers." And it is being held in Finland "in the hope that this worldwide delegation can learn from Finland’s own success in preparing its K-12 and university educators to meet the demands of an increasingly inter-connected and technologically advanced workforce."

The Florida Department of Education awarded a 5-year FCAT contract to Pearson - worth up to $254 million - in May.

DOE officials tell the Gradebook the council is picking up the tab for Smith. They said no other DOE officials are attending.

FDOE: Florida education system getting a bad rap

The Florida Department of Education needs to do a better job highlighting Florida’s “staggering” education successes and combating misinformation, says the department’s communications plan, which was on the Board of Education agenda this week.

“Even with Florida’s climbing student achievement and nationally recognized reform efforts, constant misrepresentations of Florida’s educational successes remain,” the plan says.

As proof of those successes, it lists statistics from Advanced Placement exams, the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the FCAT. (No mention of graduation rates.)

The plan’s goal: “Position Florida’s education system and the Florida Department of Education as the premiere administrative education entity in the country.”

Among the strategies to get there: “Develop and strengthen relationships with top education bloggers and online communities.”

School reform and the health care debate

Chester E. Finn Jr. from the Fordham Institute links the two in this piece for National Review Online. Keep Florida schools and the FCAT in mind as you read it.

As is obvious, history, civics, and economics converge here. If you don’t possess a good amount of background knowledge in these fields, how could you expect to be even a knowledgeable observer of the health-care debate, much less an active participant in it? And if you are not knowledgeable yourself, what are the consequences? In the end, you could end up with some unpleasant (or perhaps pleasant) surprises. More immediately, you are — just as the elites say — vulnerable to rhetorical tricks, scare tactics, and propaganda, and you are apt to abdicate your civic role to others, whether you like it or not. Those others may be elected officials, or they may be interest groups and lobbyists. Perhaps they will serve you well. But you’re not likely to be able to determine whether that’s so, because you simply don’t know enough.

Perhaps you don’t need to know these sorts of things to succeed in college or the workplace (which seems to be the litmus test for today’s standards-writers and education reformers). But you really do need to know them to be a constructive participant in modern American life. Who is going to ensure that our schools teach them?

Budget cuts keep nibbling away at FCAT

The latest involves changes to the FCAT writing test. Here's what Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith told superintendents in this memo out today:

Beginning this spring, there will be only one prompt at all grade levels (4,8, and 10). The writing mode of the prompt will be either narrative or expository at grade 4 and persuasive or expository at grades 8 and 10. In order to ensure the continuance of instruction using all writing modes, we will not announce in advance which mode will be tested at each grade level. By using one prompt for all students at each grade level, we will accrue cost savings and still maintain the integrity of the assessments. All members of the FCAT writing content advisory committee reviewed this proposal and unanimously supported it.

Eliminating one prompt at each grade level will save $334,538 through 2012, the Department of Education tells The Gradebook. A related change - dramatically reducing the number of 10th grade tests that get second reads by scorers - will save $703,815 through 2012. Today's memo says 20 percent of all tests will get a second read "for quality control."

 

FAIR test causing bandwidth headaches

Last week I told you about the new state reading assessment called Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading, or FAIR. The pieces focused on the move toward testing to inform teaching.

Your comments on my story and blog post had a different perspective. Mostly, they blasted away at my failure to talk to enough teachers to realize that it has been a nightmare to implement. Things like, "FAIR doesn't even work!" And, "a fiasco-I brought my 140 students to the computer lab on Tues and Weds to take the test. 24 students logged on 1st hr - it crashed/no one finished the test."

Turns out these complaints were neither few nor far between.

Race to the Top suggestions are in

Should Florida extend the FCAT to kindergarten and first and second grades? Develop a performance pay program for principals? Invest in more guidance counselors?

Those ideas are among the recommendations sent to the Department of Education in recent weeks in response to Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith’s call for input on the state’s Race to the Top application. In total, 47 people responded by the Friday deadline – which seems underwhelming in light of the good the state might be able to do if handed oh, tens or even hundreds of millions of Race to the Top dollars by the feds (who have $4.35 billion to divvy up).

The Florida House Democratic Caucus offered one of the most detailed proposals (line 49), suggesting less reliance on the FCAT, more reliance on end-of-course exams and – maybe less predictably -- “incentives” for teachers working in high-poverty schools.

USF professor Sherman Dorn (line 8) hit on development of end-of-course exams, too, specifically in science.

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

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Gov. Charlie Crist delivers check to Frost Elementary

Gov. Charlie Crist will drop by Hillsborough's Frost Elementary at 1:15 p.m. today to deliver $56,222 to the school. Frost earned the recognition funds by increasing its state grade from a C to a B, based on spring 2009  FCAT results.

School district spokesman Stephen Hegarty said he expects Crist will have a few words to say to students, most likely congratulatory in nature for a job well done. The district won't be asking parental permission for children to spend time with the governor.

Frost is one of 2,103 schools that will be getting school recognition funds this year.

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Another test? That's FAIR

Sure, it's just a few days into the new school year. That doesn't mean that kids are immune from tests.

Already, several schools have launched the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading, a new voluntary state-sponsored test of children's reading ability. (Some schools skipped President Obama's speech on Tuesday in order to administer the assessment.)

Officials like to say FAIR is a low-stakes exam that's more about reading instruction than outcomes. Contrast that to the high-stakes FCAT, which comes only at the end of the year when most teaching is complete.

The first round of FAIR assessments began on the sixth day of classes and runs through mid-October. In its first three days, 8,619 Pasco students went through the system, compared to 503 in Hernando, 109 in Pinellas and 57 in Hillsborough.

A weekend interview with Pinellas writing instructor Holly Slaughter

In the past month, we've heard a lot about student writing  -- but not the positive news. Stories about template writing and why it's bad came out of the Florida Department of Education as FCAT scorers reviewed student writing exams for similarities. Pinellas writing instructor Holly Slaughter says she can understand the pressure to perform on the test, but writing education should not rely on stock phrasing to get the best results. Slaughter, who recently published her first book on K-5 writing instruction, spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the best way to get kids to write well.

What do you think is the most important part about getting kids to write as we enter this new school year? Do we need to start right away? Or is it something that can come over time?

We believe writing Day 1. Day 1 of kindergarten we introduce the concept of writing. I think the most important thing that we can do for kids is to get them to understand that their lives are significant and things happen to us all the time, and we can write about them ...

Kids first and foremost should choose their own topics. We know that the writing is better when we care about what we are writing about. So we start the school year, whatever grade you are talking about (K-5) ... with personal narratives. ... They've just come in from summer. They've had a lot of things happen to them. The other thing is that writing is a community builder. When kids tell the true stories of their life and then share that writing, they get to know one another ... and grow together as a community that way.

It sounds like the complete opposite of the template writing issue we heard about just a month ago. Because it sounds like you're saying kids should not be given pat things to say.

I've read about the template writing. ... I don't know exactly what the issues are. ... But to go back, our whole writing curriculum K-5, we really push teaching kids to write in different genres. We're pushing cross lessons. Again, kids are choosing their own topics. That's first and foremost.

Then we have this idea of the state. They have to develop an assessment. They have to have a measuring stick. They've developed a 45-minute timed test and they give kids a prompt. So we have to respond by not just teaching good writing all year long, K, first grade, second grade, third grade. But once they get to fourth grade, we have to then sort of address this. You've learned all these good strategies. You've learned these structures and cross lessons. You've learned about being focused and organized in your writing. You've learned about support and conventions. But now we're going to look closely at how to take all of those lessons and apply them to situation where you have a deadline ... and you are given a prompt. You are given the topic.

That sounds hard for some adults.

Rep. Fresen proposes new HS degree, FCAT standards

Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, is proposing new credit and course requirements for Florida high schoolers seeking a diploma. The first-term lawmaker, already vying for a House speakership down the road, has filed proposed legislation (HB61) that lays out more stringently how students must fulfill their credit requirements in math and science.

The four math credits, for example, would have to include Algebra I starting with freshmen in the 2011-12 year. By 2013-14, the math courses would have to include Algebra I and II and geometry "or a series of course equivalent." And for science, two of the three required classes would have to include a lab component. And starting in 2011-12, one of the science classes would have to be Biology I. Two years later, high schoolers would be required to take Biology I, chemistry and a "higher-level science course."

The law also would require that schools advise students about Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and career academy coursework that leads to national industry certification -- plus the availability of dual enrollment classes and the Florida Virtual School. And starting in 2013-14, the Board of Education would have to develop grade 10 passing FCAT scores that must "at a minimum meet grade-level proficiency."

In Pinellas, Lakeview Fundamental Elementary is No. 1

And Tarpon Springs Fundamental Elementary is No. 2, at least according to the number of points they received under the state's grading system, which is based on scores and gains on the FCAT.

Mr. Fundamental, Bud Zimmer, notes the rankings in his most recent "fundamentalgram." It shows how Lakeview, Tarpon Springs and the other fundamental schools rank against other schools statewide. It also shows how those rankings have fluctuated over the past four years.

We annually report school grades, but we don't often report on the points behind them. Maybe we should. If you want to see how the rest of the schools in Pinellas rank against each other, click here. (We plucked the info from the Department of Education's school grade site.)

Tampa Bay private school makes pitch to FCAT haters

Posted on a sign outside Tampa Bay Christian Academy in Tampa: "Tired of the FCAT? Call us."

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What's so bad about template writing, anyway?

Whether you're writing a presentation for work, an e-mail to a friend, or even an article for the newspaper, you probably use a common organizational structure and some stock phrases to make yourself understood.

So when the Florida Department of Education started alerting school districts about concerns over student "template writing" on this year's FCAT exam, you perhaps had the same thought that we and others had  — isn't that what works?

Monica Miller of Venice had a letter in the Herald-Tribune that cut to the core of the matter. "All writing is formulaic," Miller wrote:

"If in the tests they use some of the 'sparkle words' that were suggested to them in class to make their similes and metaphors strong, that too is a plus — at least they were listening and remembered. 'A potpourri of iridescent colors' and 'as nervous as a marshmallow in a bonfire' — that's good writing.

Perhaps the phrases were created by the teachers and memorized by the students, but we learn from the examples and suggestions of others and by putting that newfound knowledge to use.

I see great things ahead of these students in the writing world. They are learning the 'craft' of writing. So, my sparkling advice to the state Department of Education — 'cool it.'"

FCAT template-gate hits Pinellas County

Pinellas is the latest district (we're up to 13 now) to be tagged for "template writing," with the Florida Department of Education saying in this letter that it has issues with some of the FCAT essays from Ozona and Ponce De Leon elementary schools.

Pasco testing officials look into accusations of template writing at Schrader Elementary

Pasco testing officials expressed surprise that A-rated Schrader Elementary School stands accused by the state of gaming the FCAT Writing exam through the use of memorized catch phrases and patterns that turn writing into a fill-in-the-blank effort.

Test scorers found suspicious patterns in the essays completed by the school's fourth-graders in the spring, prompting a letter to the district last week signaling the official concerns. The state did not provide examples of what the template (not to be confused with well-worn structure) might be.

That has left district officials scratching their heads, knowing that Schrader employs "really good curriculum models" and has worked on writing lessons that are anything but formulaic.

"We are looking at the student writing samples to see what we find," Pasco testing director Peggy Jones told the Gradebook. "We plan to figure out what happened so it doesn't happen again, anywhere."

Florida education department steps in to force reform of Gadsden schools

They've failed for six straight years. Reforms put in place have helped Gadsden County's high schools make some progress, but not nearly enough.

Now the Florida Department of Education is saying enough is enough. It has sent a team in to press for a sweeping overhaul of the way East Gadsden and West Gadsden high schools are run.

"We both agree, myself and the district, that there needed to be changes at both schools," deputy chancellor Nikolai Vitti told the Tallahassee Democrat.

New principals and assistant principals already have been appointed. Talk abounds of a transformation, from the way students view their school to the way teachers teach them. The superintendent sports a "No Excuses" button and says he means it.

"I think all kids can learn," superintendent Reginald James (above) told the Democrat. "The bottom line is, if you're teaching them, they will learn."

The big question, though, is whether a poor community that has gotten no new funding can dig itself out of its hole. The schools involved here have had trouble getting certified teachers, among all its other problems. We've got to wonder whether a leadership change will be enough. Stay tuned.

DOE calls out nine districts for "template writing"

Update at 2:52 p.m.: Yikes! Template-gate grows! It turns out 12 districts got letters from DOE, including Pasco, where template writing was spotted at Schrader Elementary. Here's the letter to Pasco.

A fresh post from the Orlando Sentinel’s School Zone blog: The Florida Department of Education sent letters this week to nine school districts telling administrators that examples of "template writing" -- where students memorize phrases and sentences to use on the test -- had been discovered on FCAT exams from one or more of their schools. As we reported previously, DOE last year flagged four schools for this problem and then in the fall reminded district curriculum leaders that they wanted the practice to end. DOE folks said they were seeing too many instances where students at the same schools wrote similar sounding essays, often using phrases like "Poof! I'm in dragon land" or "one supersonic day."

Pinellas, Hillsborough and Hernando did not receive DOE letters.

Maybe dentists can boost FCAT scores, too

For many students, a decent teacher is all they need to make it. But for some, a dentist might be pretty important, too. Or an optometrist. Or a family counselor.

The summer edition of American Educator, the magazine published by the American Federation of Teachers, is devoted to partnerships between schools and other social service providers.

Poor student performance on FCAT leads to teacher, principal removal

As the drumbeat for evaluating educators' performance based on student outcomes grows louder (L.A. Times), two Florida school districts have already gone there this week.

Orange has removed 38 teachers from low-performing schools, saying their students didn't see enough gains on this year's FCAT exam. They'll still have jobs, but they'll be replaced with teachers who get better results from their students, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

"Every teacher can't teach every student at every school," the principal of one of the schools told the Sentinel. "Teachers are not cut from cookie cutters."

Alachua, meanwhile, has dumped the principals of two F-rated schools in hopes of bringing in leaders who can help the schools to significant gains, the Gainesville Sun reports.

Of course we'll hear the refrain that if schools are going to hold teachers accountable for student results, then society needs to hold parents responsible for students, too. But the arguments are growing, even among traditionally pro-teacher groups, that education is about helping kids, not keeping adults employed. And if the kids aren't getting what they need to succeed, maybe some other adult can make it happen.

With money tight and raises unlikely for another year, we can't help but wonder whether this tension will lead to an exodus of educators, or a compromise of some sort. What do you think?

Jeff Solochek, Times Staff Writer

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A weekend interview about Florida's school accountability with deputy chancellor Nikolai Vitti

For years, Florida has tried to explain to the general public how its schools could earn an A grade from the state and then not meet federal No Child Left Behind progress standards. This week, the Florida Department of Education rolled out a new accountability model aimed at merging the two systems into one. Nikolai Vitti, deputy chancellor of school improvement and student achievement, spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the new endeavor.

What exactly are you telling us about?

As you know, last year we unveiled differentiated accountability but only as a pilot. And we only included Title I schools that were included in schools in need of improvement status under NCLB and non-Title I D and F schools. So the list of schools will be expanded because we will be including non-Title I A, B and C schools. ...

So you're talking about every school in Florida?

Every school in Florida could be included in differentiated accountability, but that doesn't mean all schools will be in one of the categories, the categories being Prevent I, Prevent II, Correct I, Correct II and Intervene. Because in order to actually go in one of the cells ... you have to have missed AYP for two consecutive years, and many schools don't fit that criteria.

Let's start off with the schools that are going to be appearing on the list for the first time this year. What will be the things that they have to do?

Most of the new schools will be non-Title I A, B and C schools that have missed AYP for two consecutive years. And this is going by to 02-03 when No Child Left Behind began. What will be new for these schools is a required list of support systems and interventions that will have to be applied at the school site among students and subgroups that have not made AYP. So there will be a requirement for additional professional development. There will be requirements around how schools and districts put together their improvement plans to specifically address the subgroups that have not been making AYP. ...

So this is for schools that have not made AYP for two years in a row.

Two Hillsborough schools among worst in Florida accountability ratings

Just days after Gov. Charlie Crist extended Florida's academic accountability rules to all schools, and not just those that get federal Title I funds, the Department of Education has released a list of 2,445 schools that fall under some level of sanctions.

Two Hillsborough schools - Middleton High and Franklin Middle - join 15 others in the most critical status, that of Intervene. Congrats to Sulphur Springs Elementary, which jumped off that list to Correct I status. Because Middleton didn't improve from last year's Intervene status, it now faces reconstitution under the state "differentiated accountability" law.

Hillsborough district officials acknowledged Middleton's poor result, but focused on the positive. "While most high schools around the state lost ground this year, Middleton showed improvement. It wasn’t enough improvement, but it’s a sign that the school is headed in the right direction," spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said. "There was significant improvement among students in the lower quartile."

Crist applauded the broadened accountability effort, saying it would bring improved academic offerings to all Florida schools. “After a successful first year we are already seeing tremendous results and I’m excited that every school can now benefit from this increased level of assistance,” he said in a news release.

To see a breakdown of the rankings by Tampa Bay area school district, read on.

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.

Six Tampa area schools in elite group earning A's for 11 straight years

For 11 years now, the state of Florida has graded its schools according to their students' achievement and gains on the FCAT. More than 1,100 have made A's for three consecutive years.

Look back all the way to the beginning, though, and that list of all-A schools drops to just 33. That's no small feat when you know that some schools have dropped a grade because of the results of a single student.

Six Tampa area schools sit on that list of the most consistently high-rated schools. They are:

Hillsborough: Alafia Elementary and Claywell Elementary
Pasco: Lake Myrtle Elementary
Pinellas: Garrison-Jones Elementary, Highland Lakes Elementary and McMullen-Booth Elementary

Sarasota's Pine View School for the Gifted logged in the top score in points (740) among the 33 all-A schools. It had (not surprisingly) 100 percent of its students meeting high standards in math, 99 percent of its students meeting high standards in reading and writing, and 96 percent of students meeting high standards in science.

Locally, the top performer among the all-A crowd was Highland Lakes, tallying up 647 points (good for 13th on the list).

Love or hate the FCAT and school grades, at least take the time to give these top schools their due.

Florida school grades bring plenty of good news, too

It would be easy to focus on the crashing scores of Florida's high schools in our coverage of today's school grades release. But that hardly would be fair to the huge number of schools in the Tampa area and around Florida that got great news today.

Here's just a sample of the good stuff:

• Pinellas had eight schools improve two grade levels, including seven from C to A and one from D to B. Overall, 18 schools improved their grades, with 73 schools making A's.
• Hillsborough logged in its highest number of A schools -- 120 -- while the number of its B and C schools dropped, and it got no F's. Sulphur Springs Elementary rose from an F to a B.
• Pasco also had a record number of A's -- 49 -- including seven schools that improved from a C to an A.
• Hernando saw 16 of 21 schools maintain their grade, and three improved from B to A.

Look for more details in our coverage later tonight and tomorrow.

Tampa Bay high school grades follow state's downward trend

The state has released its school grades, which you can now find on the FLDOE web site and also tampabay.com's new school grades site.

The results show that high school grades tanked all over Tampa Bay, following a statewide trend.

In Pinellas, Gibbs High earned an F – the first for a high school in Pinellas and only the second ever for any Pinellas school.

Nine Pinellas high schools earned D’s, up from six last year: Boca Ciega, Countryside, Dixie Hollins, Dunedin, Lakewood, Largo, Northeast, Pinellas Park and Tarpon Springs. All in all, seven Pinellas schools maintained their grades from last year, while 10 dropped.

In Hillsborough, a similar story – 9 D’s, up from three last year (Armwood, Blake, Brooks-Debartolo, Chamberlain, East Bay, King, Leto, Middleton and Spoto.) Seven schools maintained their grades, while 18 fell, including three that dropped two letter grades (Freedom and Hillsborough, from A to C; and King, from B to D).

The only Hillsborough school that improved was Lennard, from D to C.

In Pasco, eight of 11 high schools saw their grade drop. Four - Gulf, Hudson, Ridgewood and Wesley Chapel - received D's. Only one high school, Wiregrass Ranch, improved its mark, from a C to a B, while Sunlake and Land O'Lakes held steady with B's.

In Hernando, both Central and Hernando high schools maintained their D's. Nature Coast Technical dropped from a B to a C, and Springstead remained a B.

Ron Matus and Jeff Solochek

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Florida public school grades: high schools decline; other levels improve

Florida saw a dramatic increase in the number of public schools earning A's this year. But the improvement can't be credited to the state's high schools.

Over all grade levels, 1,822 schools earned an A, compared to 1,585 a year ago, FLDOE evaluation and reporting bureau chief Juan Copa told superintendents during a conference call this morning.

For high schools, though, the number of A's was a dismal 68 - down nearly 50 percent from last year. The number of high schools earning D's, meanwhile, went up to 116 (from 70 in 2007-08). And that's before the state's new grading system goes into effect.

Full district and school results went live on the FLDOE Web site at 10 a.m. For an overview of the Tampa area's high school grades, see this blog post.

Chancellor Frances Haithcock told superintendents that the results were expected.

"In the four areas that were tested, there were three that declined," she said. Only math results went up slightly. "So it was anticipated that these high school grades would not be as strong as they have been historically."

Florida school grades to come Thursday

They can't tell us at what time, but the public information officers at the Florida Department of Education can tell us that school grades and adequate yearly progress reports for all our schools will be released Thursday.

Many school officials have been trying to figure out their ratings based on the reams of FCAT data already released over the past several weeks. Now they'll know whether they're destined to get recognition funds (less per student than last year) or more oversight.

We'll bring you the info as soon as we get it.

Another school garden sprouts in Tampa Bay

Maybe this is a way to boost anemic FCAT science scores.

The Sustainability Club at St. Petersburg College is teaming up with educators at High Point Elementary in Clearwater next week to prep ground for a garden that will teach kids about nutrition and give them hands-on botany and biology lessons to boot.

High Point is just the freshest bud in a growing school garden movement, which includes a handful of schools around Tampa Bay. If the garden at Lakewood Elementary in St. Petersburg is any indication, High Point can expect engaged kids - and happily packed PTA meetings.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

District employee: Consider chaotic conditions when reporting FCAT scores

C. Roberts, a Hillsborough School District employee, shares observations on student discipline problems from working in schools  in a letter published on ItsYourTimes.com.

Roberts describes lunchtime as a "chaotic, social hour with mishaps just waiting to happen."

And the students ignore any nutritious food that is served in the cafeteria, Roberts writes. "Schools cook enough vegetables to feed just one grade, and still have several portions left over daily."

Then, after lunch, "students return to class with a sugar high, cell phones, i-Pods, and a bad attitude."

Read Roberts' letter, share your views.