Florida school districts face $5.5 million in No Child Left Behind sanctions

So long as school districts fail to meet the adequate yearly progress requirements of No Child Left Behind, they'll continue to face funding sanctions in the use of their federal Title I money.

This year, the Florida Department of Education has determined that districts must reapply for a combined $5.5 million that otherwise would have gone toward administration of programs for low-income students. Instead, the money must be used to help student groups that failed to make AYP.

In the Tampa Bay area, the sanctioned amounts are:

• Hernando, $30,080
• Hillsborough, $388,297
• Pasco, $168,572
• Pinellas, $196,979

To get the money, districts must submit plans detailing the schools they plan to help, the student groups targeted, the planned activities and exactly how the district expects to make AYP using these and other resources. The deadline is Nov. 9.

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National report shows states narrowing achievement gaps

Achievement gaps in most states have narrowed slightly since No Child Left Behind became law, according to a new report out this morning. But in many states, including Florida, the gaps between white and minority students remain massive.

The report from the Center on Education Policy is based on results from state tests between 2002 and 2008. It is somewhat at odds with recent results from the long-term National Assessment of Educational Progress, which showed, at the national level, no significant reduction in gaps between 2004 and 2008.

CEP stresses this finding: Most of the state gaps are narrowing because lower-performing kids are improving – not because higher-performing kids are doing worse.

If you’re a data nut, the way CEP sliced and diced each state’s data – including Florida’s- offers plenty to chew on. For instance, the number of Hispanic students scoring at proficient or above on the math FCAT has grown by an average of 3.2 percentage points a year in grade 8 and 2.7 percentage points a year in grade 10 – in both cases vastly outpacing the average gains for white students.

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Hillsborough details its plan to turn around Middleton High

TAMPA -- The state wanted a shakeup at Middleton High last spring, and the Hillsborough County schools delivered.

That's the bottom line in a report approved last week by the School Board and headed to next week's state Board of Education meeting.

While Middleton posted gains last spring on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, it remained on a state watch list after earning its sixth straight D grade in the state accountability system. That left the district with just a handful of options to block a state takeover or conversion to a charter school.

Hillsborough fairs highlight free tutors under NCLB

TAMPA -- Need a free tutor in Hillsborough County this fall?

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, you might be entitled to one.  And it's time to go shopping.

On Saturday at 1 p.m. at Memorial Middle School in Tampa, the school district will be offering the first of five "provider fairs," featuring a raft of companies that have gone into business to offer free tutoring under the federal law.

To qualify, students must attend a low-income Title 1 school and be eligible for a free or reduced-fee lunch. Their school must also have failed to make adequate yearly progress for two or more consecutive years under NCLB and state guidelines. More than 100 schools fall into that category in Hillsborough.

Poll: Americans want teachers paid more, differently

Most Americans think teachers should earn higher starting salaries, but a strong majority (72 percent) also favor merit pay, according to the results of the latest PDK/Gallup poll, released this morning.

The poll also found Americans have different opinions of teacher tenure, depending on how it is defined. If defined as a “lifetime contract” awarded after a two- to three-year period, 73 percent disapprove. If it’s defined as policy that ensures teachers are given a formal legal review before they can be fired, 66 percent approve.

NCLB Commission aims to refine recommendations with Handy on board

As the Obama administration aims to take education reform in a new direction, the bipartisan Commission on No Child Left Behind is preparing to update its recommendations on how the law can best improve the nation's schools.

To get there, the group has named 13 new members, ones who it says have been active in promoting "innovative, results-oriented reform." You might recognize one of the names.

It's former Florida Board of Education chairman Phil Handy, who led the BOE during the Jeb Bush heyday. Since stepping asideas Charlie Crist assumed the governor's office, Handy has continued to play a role in education circles, including time spent advising John McCain's failed presidential bid.

Can't wait to see where this leads.

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New rating system in place for Florida tutors

Florida tutoring companies providing services under No Child Left Behind will be rated after all, under a bill signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist this week. But instead of A-to-F grades, they’ll be labeled “excellent,” “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory.” And instead of being judged solely on FCAT scores, a suite of factors are in the mix, including provider assessments, student attendance and completion data and surveys that gauge parental and school district satisfaction.

Rating tutoring companies is a big deal. Statewide, tens of millions of federal dollars are being spent on them every year, and tens of thousands of students are using their services.

Evidently, everybody’s on board with the new approach. The bill passed unanimously in the House and Senate. And the tutoring industry is gushing: “This is an example of policymaking at its finest, one we hope other states will follow,” said Steve Pines, executive director of the Education Industry Association.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

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.

No Child Left Behind not shortchanging bright kids, study finds

Or the most struggling kids either, says this morning’s report from the Center on Education Policy. CEP looked at test results in all 50 states between 2002 (the year No Child became law) and 2008, and found that more students are scoring at basic, proficient and advanced levels.

This is an important finding, because critics feared that No Child’s emphasis on proficiency would force states to practice educational triage and neglect the lowest- and highest-performing kids in an effort to get middle-of-the-road kids over the bar. It’s also important because the source, CEP, is an independent, left-of-center outfit that hasn’t pulled its punches when it comes to No Child’s flaws.

The CEP report also offers state-by-state findings. In Florida, it concludes after looking at FCAT data that students are making gains in math and reading at all levels, with one exception - the basic level in high school reading, where they’re registering a slight decline. The St. Petersburg Times noted some of those trends in a recent story about bright kids being bored.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Longtime Cox Elementary principal to move on

Leila Mizer, principal of Pasco County's most struggling school for the past 13 years, has decided it's time to give someone else a chance to lead her school.

"I've tried everything I know," Mizer told the Gradebook. "But we just keep toggling between C and D" on the state's accountability system. Cox needs someone with "a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective."

She plans to leave the school at the end of the academic year and move to a new position in the district, perhaps working with Title I schools. She stressed the decision was hers, one she contemplated making before the current school year.

A new name for No Child? Let the snarky comments begin

Like the FCAT here in Florida, No Child Left Behind has become one of the most negative brands in education nationally.

Education secretary Arne Duncan's suggestion?

"Let's rebrand it," Duncan told the NY Times. "Give it a new name."

Almost immediately, the commentary ensued. Among the recommendations (according to the New York Times):

• The All American Children Are Above Average Act
• The Mental Asset Recovery Act
• The Act to Help Children Read Gooder

Eduwonk even is having a contest to rename the law. Nearly 150 people already have responded.

Now it's your turn. Get creative, and post your best. If we get enough good ideas, we might be able to dig up a prize.

Report highlights No Child's flaws in Florida

Is No Child Left Behind working in Florida? Yes and no, according to this wonkiferous new report, which dives into the nitty-gritty of how Florida and federal officials structured the AYP system here.

On the plus side, the system is spotlighting schools where poor and minority students are lagging, says "The Accountability Illusion," a joint effort between the Fordham Institute and the Northwest Evaluation Center. (Hear Fordham president Checker Finn explain the report on the group's blog.)

On the down side, some schools appear to be meeting federal standards simply because they have smaller student populations, or because the size of their poor, minority and/or other subgroups are too small to matter under Florida's definition of AYP.

The report takes fresh aim at a No Child system that has allowed states to set wildly different AYP rules for themselves. Many schools that fail to meet federal standards in one state "would fare better if they were just allowed to move across state lines," the report says.

Florida officials have no love for No Child. Jeb Bush criticized it when he was governor and recently talked up Florida's school grading system as more effective. Last summer, Florida moved to a hybrid accountability system that looks at both grades and AYP to determine what kind of intervention and extra help a school should get.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Fla. tutoring companies won’t get grades after all

Parents, if you’re wondering how good your child’s tutoring company is (assuming you’re getting free tutoring under the No Child Left Behind Act, and you’re not sure), you’ll have to wait a little longer. The state won’t be handing out grades by March 1, as was mandated by the Legislature last year.

In response to questions from the Gradebook, Department of Education spokesman Tom Butler issued this statement late yesterday:

“The Department has currently suspended its efforts towards developing the SES provider grading system. Implementing the law as it was written posed significant challenges, specifically related to the use of a norm-referenced test for grades K-3 and what criteria should be included in the grading formula. We will be working with lawmakers during the upcoming legislative session to address these issues to ensure students are receiving services that result in increased academic performance.”

Statewide, nearly 71,000 students received free No Child tutoring in 2006-07, according to the most recent state figures available.

Steve Pines, executive director of the Education Industry Association, which had been critical of the proposed grading system, called the DOE decision “prudent.” “The methodology, I think everybody agreed, was flawed, and didn’t paint a reliable picture of the tutors,” he said. “Waiting for another year to get it right is better than doing something half-cocked.”

A new group representing Florida tutoring companies has already suggested other measures to use for grading.

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

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Tutors unite

The fledgling tutoring industry spawned by No Child Left Behind is banding together in Florida.

The new Florida Association of SES Providers will work with the Department of Education and local school districts to "create and improve best practices" and "establish a set of standards and measurements for state-approved SES providers that assures programs are of high quality," the Tampa-based group said in a press release.

The statement also said the group is already pursuing legislation that will require the DOE to annually grade providers "through a thorough evaluation process which includes parameters of student academic achievement, parent, student and school district satisfaction and timely delivery of services." Some in the industry haven’t been happy with the current grading system, which stresses test scores.

The first batch of grades under that system are due by March 1.

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

(Times file photo)

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Jeb wants school grades to go national

In a slap at No Child Left Behind, Jeb Bush argues in today’s National Review Online that the feds should drop NCLB’s pass-or-fail system and adopt something more nuanced. You guessed it. Something like Florida’s A-to-F scale. “Such a system will remove the deterrent to rigorous academic standards, reward schools that are great but not perfect, and acknowledge that improvement is worthy of recognition, even if students are not yet performing on grade level."

Group gives Florida's A-Plus plan top grade

The conservative Heritage Foundation has put out an interesting paper suggesting that Jeb Bush's Florida A-Plus plan and the fixes that followed - and not George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind - contains the right ingredients for positive school improvement.

In fact, as the paper's title states, the writers see NCLB as a threat to Florida's "successful education reforms," as well as the efforts of every other state. Authors Matthew Ladner and Dan Lips write:

"After seven years, evidence suggests that No Child Left Behind, like previous federal interventions, has failed to yield meaningful improvements in students' learning. NCLB has also highlighted the limits and unintended consequences of federal intervention. ...

Florida's experience with implementing aggressive education reforms over the past decade suggests that states can improve student learning. Before No Child Left Behind was enacted, Florida implemented reforms to establish academic standards, test students annually in core subjects, measure student progress, and hold public schools and students accountable for results. These systemic reforms also included creating new public and private school-choice options, implementing instructional reforms and intervention strategies to improve learning in core subjects, and enacting new strategies designed to hire and retain effective school teachers.

After implementing these education reforms, Florida's students have made dramatic progress on the annual National Assessment of Educational Progress. ... "

The writers have plugged Florida's plan before. Maybe they're itching to see Jeb's methods on the national stage (Jeb in '12?). But they make some interesting arguments that Florida's improvement in student progress, including minority groups, are worth repeating while the inefficiencies, high costs and unintended consequences of NCLB are not.

Check it out. Let us know what you think.

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Just because it's funny

Don't know how many of you are King of the Hill fans. Having spent eight years in Texas, I find it a laugh riot. And this past week, while watching it I thought of you.

Think of the Gradebook readers while watching Sunday evening cartoons? Absolutely. Because this one poked fun - and not so gently - at your favorite federal law, No Child Left Behind.

In this episode, called "No Bobby Left Behind," young Bobby Hill (shown at left) and other low performers at Tom Landry Middle get shepherded into special ed by the school's hapless principal, who comes to realize his school faces sanctions if it can't get a passing mark on the upcoming state annual assessment. Let's just say the kids aren't so dumb as to not understand what's going on, and they take full advantage.

See for yourself. Visit Fox on Demand here. It's just 22 minutes long. Then chime in. Funny, right?

Where should the Obama girls go to school?

Now that they're moving to D.C., should Sasha and Malia Obama go to public school or private school? Does it matter? Is it any of our business?

Plenty of folks are weighing in on this one, so hey, shouldn't you? For background, check out this story in the New York Times, this post from the Eduwonkette blog and this juicy nugget from Politico.

Ron Matus, state education reporter (AP photo)

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Grading No Child tutors

The grades aren’t even out yet. But some in the tutoring industry are anxious about a new Florida law that requires the state to rate the private tutoring companies that are offering their services through No Child Left Behind.

The law, based on SB 1414, requires the Department of Education to issue A-F grades based on standardized test scores. Some in the industry say that’s not right, given what they say is difficulty in accurately teasing out a tutor’s contribution. “We remain skeptical that the data system is adequate to support this type of high stakes evaluation,” Steve Pines, executive director of the Education Industry Association, told The Gradebook.

DOE officials say they’re still working on a formual to calculate the grades, which are due by March 1 (they’ll reflect providers' effectiveness last year). But the law doesn’t seem to offer much wiggle room: It says the DOE shall grade based on “a combination of student learning gains and student proficiency levels,” using the FCAT or DOE-approved norm-referenced tests.

The law doesn’t spell out penalties. And DOE says it hasn’t figured that out yet, either. But No Child requires states to withdraw approval for providers who fail to help students two years in a row.

For more on this story, see Sunday’s St. Petersburg Times. For more background on No Child tutoring, see this Times story from 2005.

And the next U.S. education secretary might be ...

As the presidential campaigns began to wind down, Inside Higher Ed turned to a panel of education experts "of a variety of political persuasions" and asked who should make the short list for education secretary under an Obama or McCain administration.

Among the panelists was Sherman Dorn, who teaches education policy at the University of South Florida and blogs about education policy.

Dorn suggested four former governors for the post: Bob Graham of Florida or Jim Hunt of North Carolina for a Democratic administration and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey for a Republican administration. (shown above, L-R)

NCLB to target dropout rates

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is in South Carolina today to announce the latest changes to No Child Left Behind. The new twist is that schools now will have to improve their dropout rates in order to attain adequate yearly progress, or AYP, under the federal law.

And it's not just a school's overall rate that must decline, the AP reports (via USA Today). The new regulations will apply to all demographic subgroups, so Hispanic students, for example, do not fall behind while the rest of the student body shows gains. And for the first time, all states will be required to measure dropouts using the same formula.

"We haven't really tackled high school accountability, and this is a giant step toward doing that," Spellings told the AP.

NCLB remains controversial, with some groups calling for even bigger changes and others pushing for its demise. Congress has yet to renew the legislation, and the Bush administration is on its way out. Who knows where this really is headed.

Spellings plans to make her formal announcement at noon. Interested? You can catch the Web cast live by clicking here at noon. To see the DOE's press release on the new rules, click here. To read an interesting take from the Fordham Foundation, click here.

What's the rush on graduation rates?

It might be tempting to slam Florida for setting the bar too low when it comes to improvement goals for its anemic graduation rates. But compared to the vast majority of other states, Florida's goal of a 1-percent-per-year increase looks downright muscular.

The No Child Left Behind Act requires the improvement targets, but also allows each state to set its own. As this new report from Education Trust points out, most states responded by setting what amounts to no target at all.

North Carolina set an improvement target of 0.1 percent, which means if it meets the minimum increase every year it'll reach its goal of an 80 percent graduation rate in just under a century. Maryland, meanwhile, set an improvement target of 0.01 percent. At that rate, assuming minimal increases, Maryland will reach its goal of a 90 percent grad rate in the year 2463.

Florida reports a 70 percent grad rate to the feds. Its goal is 85 percent.

Ed Trust singles out Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi as states that have set more ambitious targets -– and taken aggressive steps to meet them.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Make No Child more like Florida model?

Want to fix No Child Left Behind? Then copy what Florida is doing, suggest a couple of highly regarded education researchers in this recent commentary in Education Week.

Thomas Toch, co-director of Education Sector, and Douglas N. Harris (left), a former FSU professor now at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, write that No Child has led states to lower their standards because it doesn't give schools enough credit for improvement.

A better way, they say, would be giving schools credit for how many students reach proficiency and for how many students made gains, whether they reached proficiency or not. That's exactly what Florida does with its school grading formula.

"Holding schools accountable for both types of performance would preserve the law's commitment to getting low performers up to proficiency, while giving schools meaningful incentives to improve the achievement of all students," they write.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Whole lotta restructurin' going on

We've kept you abreast of some of the No Child-mandated "restructuring" going on in Florida and around Tampa Bay (see here and here.) But today's report from the Center on Education Policy offers national context and one think tank's perspective.

Nationally, the number of high-poverty schools placed into restructuring jumped 56 percent last year, from 2,302 to 3,599. But while the numbers are up, federal guidance is lacking, the report finds. Looking closely at five states (Florida not among them), CEP found only 19 percent of schools in restructuring made enough progress to satisfy federal requirements.

"This report shows that current restructuring policies and practices are flawed," CEP President and CEO Jack Jennings said in a press release. "Many restructuring schools have done everything the law requires but still haven't raised achievement enough to exit restructuring. It's time to revamp the sanctions and supports for these struggling schools."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Spellings promotes "leading education indicators"

Facing her final months in office, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today called for additional accountability in education, setting forth five measures she said would - along with No Child Left Behind - help the nation determine whether it's achieving educational success. During her remarks at the Aspen Institute Summit, she said:

For years, we've measured our economy with the Leading Economic Indicators. So what are the Leading Education Indicators? Do kids know how to read and do math? Are minority students lagging behind their classmates? Are kids graduating from high school on time? Are they prepared for college work? And have they earned a degree? 

The country has seen improvement in these areas since 2000, Spellings said, but more work remains. "And the American people need to know it." (Even if NCLB can't get reauthorized and the very term has truly negative brand recognition - sort of like FCAT, right?)

Spellings also gave an interview on No Child Left Behind to the Associated Press. See the story here.

Two Hillsborough schools get blue ribbons

Sixteen Florida schools, including two in Hillsborough County, have received NCLB-Blue Ribbon awards from the U.S. Department of Education. They are Bevis Elementary in Lithia (shown left) and Hillel School of Tampa.

"These Blue Ribbon Schools are an example of what teachers and students can achieve," U.S. education secretary Margaret Spellings said in a press release. "Now our challenge is to help other schools follow their lead by continuing to measure progress through No Child Left Behind, and by using the knowledge we've gained to replicate effective strategies and help every student improve."

Schools that receive the honor meet one of the two following criteria:

• At least 40 percent of their students are from disadvantaged backgrounds that dramatically improve student performance to high levels on state tests; or,
• Students, regardless of background, achieve in the top 10 percent of their state on state tests or, in the case of private schools, in the top 10 percent of the nation on nationally normed tests.

To see the full list of 320 winners, click here.

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ENLACE likes new accountability system

The state's new approach to helping the state's most struggling schools is getting a thumbs up from ENLACE Florida, a group seeking to increase educational opportunities for Latinos and other under-represented students.

The new approach, which blends the state accountability system with the federal system mandated by No Child Left Behind, "could make Florida a national leader in efforts to evaluate and improve school performance," ENLACE wrote in a policy research brief released today.

The brief takes a closer look at the 13 schools that the state says need the most help under the new system, including Middleton High, Franklin Middle Magnet and Sulphur Springs Elementary in Hillsborough. The brief contains a barrage of depressing statistics about each school, including the percentage of newly hired (and probably less effective) teachers that are brought on board every year.

Click here for a recent St. Petersburg Times story on the woes at Middleton.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Parents split on standardized testing

Forty-four percent of parents say there is too much emphasis on standardized testing in public schools, while 12 percent say there's not enough and 42 percent say it’s about right, according to a national poll released today.

The 2008 PDK/Gallup poll also shows the percentage of parents who say there is too much dropped from 52 percent last year. Hmmm. Can that be right given all the FCAT mania?

In other findings:

• 46 percent  of respondents said they prefer Barack Obama on education issues, while 29 percent picked John McCain.
• 22 percent gave American schools an A or B, compared to 48 percent for European schools and 52 percent for Asian schools.
• 70 percent said teachers should be paid higher salaries to teach in schools that are in need of improvement.
• 44 percent said they favor allowing students to attend private school at public expense, while 50 percent were opposed.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Keeping up with John Winn

Former Florida education commissioner John Winn has turned up in the news again.

This time, President Bush has appointed Winn to the board of directors of the National Board of Education Sciences. That's a federal agency aimed at conducting education research and using statistics and data to improve public schooling.

Winn has stayed out of the limelight but not out of the picture since his resignation in February. He turned up as an education adviser to then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and he also joined a group consulting on how to get more kids to take math and science Advanced Placement exams. Winn remains with the National Math + Science Initiative.

Upon further review …

This report on high-achieving kids being short-changed by No Child Left Behind got a lot of ink when it came out in June, including this write-up on The Gradebook. But how solid were its conclusions? A Think Twice review found some flaws, including other national test score data that showed "much less convincing results."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

The hammer is coming

It's do or die for three Hillsborough County schools.

Middleton High, Franklin Middle Magnet and Sulphur Springs Elementary could all be shut down or converted into charter schools if they don't show substantial improvements in FCAT scores, and soon, according to the details of a state plan announced this afternoon.

The heavy sanctions stem from a new "differentiated accountability" system that meshes Florida's grading system with federal requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Who's tutoring the kids?

Now that Florida's adequate yearly progress ratings are out, parents should soon learn whether their children qualify for free after school tutoring under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The Title I schools that didn't make the mark will hold fairs where parents can meet the providers who are offering to work on their kids' skills after the school day ends. But how will they know whether they're choosing an effective tutor?

Florida has yet to comply with the NCLB rule that directs states to bar tutoring firms that fail for two consecutive years to increase the academic performance of the students they serve from participating in the program. The providers, in other words, don't get the same kind of report cards that the schools get.

That should change soon, though, thanks to the passage of SB 1414, which Gov. Crist signed into law a month ago. That law requires the Department of Education to grade all participating tutors on an A-F scale just like the schools.

A department spokeswoman tells the Gradebook that officials are working on the system and will report tutors' grades in March 2009, as required.

Florida gets flexibility

Florida is one of six states that will get to deviate from No Child Left Behind's accountability regimen – and perhaps become a model in the process. U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced this morning that she had approved a Florida pilot project that will allow the state to differentiate between which schools need the most help, and adjust remedies accordingly.

Florida's accountability system and No Child both use FCAT scores to determine if schools are falling short, but No Child casts a wider net and calls for a different series of escalating consequences. Under No Child, nearly 450 Florida schools could be forced to "restructure" because they continue to fall short of federal standards.

The other states that got the federal okay are Indiana, Illinois, Georgia, Ohio and Maryland.

"The plans these states submitted speak to the fact that many were among the first to embrace data-based decision making and accountability," Spellings said in a speech today. "I'm hopeful that they will build on this progress by creating effective new strategies that we can share and take to scale."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

A Southern frame of mind

Want to know how Florida stacks up next to its 15 Southern neighbors and the rest of the country? The latest progress report from the Southern Regional Education Board is out this morning, and it is always good for context. You'll find, for example, that Florida's average SAT scores are below national and regional averages. But that its college graduation rates are higher.

Much of this data can be found elsewhere (like NAEP scores and grad rates) and much has been reported. But SREB puts it all in one tidy package. It also includes a number of indicators that don't make the papers often, like college enrollment rates (Florida suffers by comparison) and participation in adult education classes (Florida shines by comparison).

Bottom line, according to SREB: "Florida is making solid progress in education, but just as in every state, much work remains to be done," SREB President Dave Spence said in a press release.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Updated look at No Child

Test scores are still rising, and achievement gaps are still narrowing, since No Child Left Behind became law in 2002, according to the latest report on the subject from the Center on Education Policy.

But echoing last year's conclusions, the report also says it remains unclear how much No Child can be credited for the trend lines. Or how much the gains are due to real learning versus other factors, such as more test prep or narrowing curriculum.

To see the full report, click here. To see the section on Florida, click here. To see a St. Petersburg Times story that looked some of the same national test data last fall, click here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Which students are left behind? The brightest

No Child Left Behind has moved the needle for struggling students. But it hasn't done much for those who excel, says a report released today by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The think tank found while the bottom 10 percent of students have made solid academic gains in recent years, the gains for the top 10 percent have been minimal.

Fordham isn't alone in raising troubling questions about this potential downside to accountability. Teachers worry about it all the time, as this 2006 St. Petersburg Times poll story showed. But the new report is sure to put more of a spotlight on an issue that hasn't gotten enough attention. Both the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act and Florida's accountability system force schools to focus more on the students at the bottom, who are disproportionately poor and minority. But is there a tradeoff?

The wonks boil it down to this: Can schools be excellent and equitable at the same time?

Special treatment not likely for Florida

Florida appears an unlikely candidate for one of 10 slots to participate in the USDOE's "differentiated accountability" program, posits a former FDOE program director who's launched her own web site to give state educators some greater insight into how national education policies affect Florida.

The reason is simple, says Cheryl Sattler, the FDOE's former bureau chief for student assistance, in her new newsletter on Ethica.com - Florida doesn't meet the federal criteria. For instance, she says, a state must have a fully approved standards and assessment system in place. Florida's is only conditionally approved.

Also, Florida lacks a statewide system for supporting schools in need of assistance - another requirement for the program, she writes.

Sattler, who also has worked for Bob Slavin's Success for All Foundation, tells the Gradebook that she left the state Education department hoping to have more influence over policy than she could on the inside. "I started writing the newsletter to give Florida schools and districts insight on how national policy decisions are likely to affect them directly," she says. "Between the national headlines and state news, there's a big gap - a need for a state-specific analysis, and that's what Ethica provides." 

Seeking the best euphemism for failure

Educators in Massachusetts don't seem to like that their state board of education deems some schools as "underperforming" or, worse, "chronically underperforming." It makes the public think that the students aren't learning and the teachers aren't teaching.

So the teachers and superintendents are pushing for new phrases, such as "priority one," for the schools that need the most attention, the AP reports. Maybe that would help morale, they suggest.

Many see the debate as ridiculous. Said former board chairman John Silber, "Changing the name doesn't change the reality."

A similar concept has gained little traction in Florida. Sen. Frederica Wilson, a Miami-Dade educator, has pushed for five years to eliminate the state's A-F school grading system for like reasons. Her bill failed to make it out of committee, again, earlier this month.

It remains unclear where the idea is headed in Massachusetts. "We generally agree that this is not hugely consequential," board chairman Paul Reville told the AP. "It's a symbolic action."

More No Child relief coming?

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings (left) offered states more flexibility under No Child Left Behind today, and Florida officials say they are watching closely. Spellings said up to 10 states will be invited to participate in a "differentiated accountability" program that will allow them to "create more nuanced ways of distinguishing between schools in need of dramatic intervention, and those that are closer to meting goals."

Florida already does that (though hardly to everyone's liking, of course) with its school grading system. Under No Child, by contrast, schools either meet "adequate yearly progress" or they don't. And every year they don't, another in a series of increasingly heavy consequences (or sanctions, depending on your perspective) kicks in.

Spellings said the feds will give more weight to applications from states with lots of schools falling short. Which would seem to be a nod to Florida. Last year, 67 percent of Florida schools failed to meet the No Child bar, even though many of them earned A's and B's under the state system. Under No Child, more than 400 of them were targeted for "restructuring." (To read more, see last year's St. Petersburg Times story here.)

Florida DOE spokesman Tom Butler said the department is waiting for details on the program from U.S. DOE, "but this is definitely something that we are very interested in." To read Spellings' remarks in full, click here. To read more wonky detail about differentiated accountability, click here. To read analysis from the Eduwonk blog, click here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

More on narrowing curriculum

In this report released yesterday, the Center on Education Policy offers a more detailed look at how much curriculum has narrowed because of No Child Left Behind. And if you think kids should be learning science and social studies as much as math and language arts, you’re not going to like the results.

The findings are based on a deeper look at data the center gathered from a national survey of school districts in 2006-07. Districts that reported increases in instructional time averaged 47 percent more time on English/language arts and 37 percent more time on math (the two subjects No Child has pushed to the forefront). Meanwhile, districts that also reported decreases in instruction time averaged 32 percent less time on social studies, 33 percent less time on science and 35 percent less time on art, music and PE.

Unfortunately, there is no state-by-state breakdown, so the state of things in Florida remains unclear. For an informed take on all this, check out the Eduwonk blog here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Do or die

No two ways about it, this year is a make or break one for dozens of schools around Florida and the country. It's the fifth year of No Child Left Behind sanctions, meaning a huge number of schools that don't make "adequate yearly progress" for the fifth straight year under the law could face "restructuring" in 2008-09.

What does that mean? If kids don't do well enough on the FCAT, their schools could lose their staff, get taken over by the state or be converted to less heavily regulated charter schools, among the tougher options. And it doesn't matter if the state rates the schools an A or an F, or if they met 97 percent of the criteria for AYP.

"It just shows the total misalignment of (Florida's) A-plus and No Child Left Behind," Palm Beach superintendent Art Johnson told the Palm Beach Post.

Florida has created rules that would impose less stringent penalties on the A and B schools. But penalties still would go into effect.

A second Palm Beach Post story today suggests that the state's poorest schools are the ones that face the most significant changes.

Perhaps most important is how schools react to this information. Some districts, like Palm Beach, have "turned off" their curriculum for test prep leading to the FCAT. Others, like Broward, have forsaken "FCAT frenzy" in favor of a more low key approach. It's a question, one Pasco principal told the Gradebook, of whether you want to teach kids testing skills or academic skills.

It will be enlightening to see which philosophy leads to better results.

The FCAT writing exam begins Feb. 12, and the rest of the test starts March 12.

No more testing

They have classroom tests, diagnostics and state accountability exams, too.

So when parents at two New York City schools learned that their children would be guinea pigs for a set of questions that might appear on future state exams, they balked.

The NY Times reports that the parents have called for a boycott of the additional round of testing, saying their children don't need it.

"We're using tests to figure out how kids will test on tests," said Jane Hirschmann, the founder and co-chairwoman of Time Out From Testing, an anti-testing group.

Of course, field testing exams is a long established practice used to determine the accuracy of questions and to establish norm reference scores. It's probably happened in a school near you. But maybe there's a backlash now, especially as the number of tests that kids take has risen under No Child Left Behind accountability mandates.

As parent Anne Daniel, one of the boycotters, told the NY Times, "I don't think it's going to be a strain on any particular child, but it replaces classroom teaching, and it's a waste of everybody's time."

Spellings: Florida rocks!

In an effort to steady an increasingly wobbly No Child Left Behind, U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings made Florida the first stop today on a national tour, telling lawmakers in Tallahassee that the Sunshine State deserves credit for being ahead of the curve on accountability. "States like Florida elevated this movement from an ideal into reality, pioneering the use of data, standards, and accountability systems," she said. "Not because Washington said so, but because it was the right thing for students in Florida and for the state of Florida."

No Child may have passed Congress in 2002 with overwhelming, bipartisan support, but today there is widespread discontent. Maybe it's fitting, then, that in Tally Spellings took a dig from a key Republican and a dart from a leading Democrat.

"I feel as though Florida in some ways is penalized because we set our standards higher than other states," said Rep. Joe Pickens, R-Palatka, the chair of the House Education Council, according to the Orlando Sentinel's political blog. Under No Child's rating system - which uses each state's own standardized test as a measuring stick - a majority of Florida schools are annually dubbed in need of improvement.

Meanwhile, House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, issued a written statement calling No Child a "huge unfunded mandate" that forces states to waste school money on "incessant testing." "If it isn't dramatically overhauled to give states more flexibility, and to provide funding for its mandated tests," he said, "it should be allowed to fade into the sunset."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Spellings in Tally

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will be in Florida's capital city tomorrow, slated to testify before state lawmakers on No Child Left Behind. Given the big disconnect between the state and federal accountability systems, the reception she gets before a bevy of House education committees will be worth watching.

Under Florida's FCAT-based system, a majority of Florida schools earn A's and B's, and are rewarded with modest pots of "school recognition money." But under No Child, a majority is deemed in need of improvement, and some of them are subject to what some consider to be sanctions, such as giving students access to free, private tutoring. The two systems might be apples and oranges, but that doesn't make the perception any less confusing to parents and teachers. Even Jeb Bush was irked (see St. Petersburg Times story here).

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

What matters most?

Hoping to improve students' academic performance, Congress implemented No Child Left Behind with strict outcomes-focused requirements places on schools.

But maybe that's not what parents really care about.

A new report out of Brigham Young University suggests that parents want their schools treat their children right more than they worry about whether their children's test scores rise, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

"While achievement is important, what we're trying to produce in schools and what parents want schools to produce is much broader than test score gains," study co-author and BYU associate professor Lars Lefgren told the paper.

Perhaps this is borne out as close to home as Pinellas County, where parents repeatedly have said that having a neighborhood school trumps so many other concerns, including diversity of the student body. That suggests that comfort, rather than the myriad other social issues, comes first.

But should it? Educators and community leaders continually tell us that American kids are lagging behind their peers internationally. Is that a signal that maybe parents don't know best? Or did schools actually do better when they had true local control, with parents playing a key role? Thoughts, anyone?

SAT, FCAT, PISA, OOPS

Last year, it was the SAT. In the spring, it was the FCAT. Now it’s the PISA. Another standardized test, another flub.

As both the New York Times and the Washington Post reported today (see stories here and here), reading scores on the Program for International Student Assessment test (which is important because it allows researchers to compare the academic skills of students around the planet) had to be thrown out because of a printing error that wasn’t caught by the contractor, RTI International, or by the U.S. Department of Education.

Even people who think standardized testing is a good thing (or at least a necessary evil) aren't surprised that another big-time test has been botched. For some perspective, read this 2006 report from Thomas Toch at Education Sector. If the testing infrastructure behind No Child Left Behind isn’t improved, Toch writes, “teachers and principals will lose valuable tools to improve instruction, and both NCLB’s work on behalf of public education’s neediest students and standards-based reform itself will be increasingly at risk. Statewide testing, envisioned under NCLB as a key part of the solution to what ails public schools, is fast becoming part of the problem in public education.”

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

What's the passing score?

When talking about state standardized tests like the FCAT, educators often talk about "cut scores." Here in Florida, a special committee advising the Department of Education has focused its attention on how the 10th-grade FCAT "cut scores" seem unfairly high.

But as this Washington Post story indicates, kids and parents don't know much about that phrase. They want to know what it takes to pass the test. As in, how many questions do they have to get right.

And that answer isn't always so clear. Each state can set up its own rules, as this Post sidebar shows. Many don't make those rules readily accessible or understandable, either.

Now the Congress is revising No Child Left Behind, and to resolve some of this confusion, a call is rising in support of national standards and a national test. But others are suggesting that since states pay the bulk of the education bill, that's not appropriate.

It seems clear something needs to be done. Should be interesting to see what happens.

No Child smoke 'n mirrors

By letting states set their own standards for academic proficiency, No Child Left Behind has also allowed many of them to pull off a scam, says a study out this morning by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Northwest Evaluation Association. Why? Because too many states end up setting the bar too low, especially in reading and in early grades.

"NCLB is based on a great illusion: The illusion that it is providing greater transparency about the performance of students, teachers, and schools," institute president Chester E. Finn Jr. said in a press release. "In fact, the very opposite is happening … parents cannot trust that they are getting an accurate, objective and fair assessment of how their children are really doing in school."

The study looked at test score data in 26 states, but Florida, unfortunately, was not one of them. Other observers have raised similar questions about the often big disconnect between progress on many state tests, and the lack of progress on other yardsticks like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (see here and here). In Florida, the trend lines with FCAT scores have largely paralleled NAEP scores (see St. Petersburg Times story here). In fact, the complaint from many districts right now is that the FCAT may be too hard, not too easy (see yesterday's Times story here).

The Fordham folks posit that many states are buckling to pressure to meet No Child's goal of getting all kids proficient by 2014. There's no evidence of a "race to the bottom," the report says, but there is a "walk to the middle." The sad bottom line: When states set the bar too low, the report says, they're "setting elementary students up to fail as they progress through their academic careers." To see the full report, click here. And to read today's Washington Post story on the report, click here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

No Child Left Inside

Here, here. Even if people can't agree on whether No Child Left Behind is a worthy law, we can agree, can't we, that our kids don't go outside near enough, and that environmental ed doesn't receive the attention it deserves. Well, thank our lucky stars (and our green clovers), there's a movement afoot to change that, with proposed federal legislation that would make No Child a little more grounded in the real world.

Among other things, the No Child Left Inside Act (click here to see the House version and here for the Senate's) would provide new money for states to make sure kids know why things like global warming and Brazilian pepper matter, and hopefully loose them to stomp down a creek now and then. More than 100 organizations representing 14 million members back the bill, including the National Wildlife Federation and the National Education Association.

If 197 Democrats and 184 Republicans in the U.S. House and 42 D's and 44 R's in the U.S. Senate could find enough common ground in 2001 to vote for No Child Left Behind, then putting a little green into the law now should be a snap, no?

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Why a liberal likes No Child

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