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

Florida scores up

Florida students are making strong and persistent gains in reading and math in the early grades, according to the results of a widely respected national test released this morning.

Results from the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called "the nation's report card," show Florida's elementary school students made sizeable jumps in reading and math since the last time the test was given in 2005. The results also show that after years of stagnation, Florida middle schoolers finally gained ground, with a 5-percent increase in the number who can read at or above a basic level. Only Maryland showed a bigger, short-term gain in that area.

In the long term, Florida's results are more dramatic. In 1998, Florida scored five percentage points below the national average, and was wedged between South Carolina and Alabama near the bottom of the state-by-state standings. Only 53 percent of Florida's fourth graders could read at or above a basic level.

This year, according to the latest results, 70 percent of Florida fourth graders can read at basic or above. That puts Florida four points above  the national average, and in a tie at No. 19 with Idaho, Colorado, Wisconsin and Washington.

No Child, left behind?

Democrats in Congress are talking about changing the federal education law's name, because it's too closely tied to unpopular President Bush, the Washington Post reports. That's particularly evident with all the alternate versions that detractors cast about so easily - No Child Left Untested, No Public School Left Standing, No Child's Behind Left. You get the picture.

Already, folks have been offering new ideas. University of Miami president Donna Shalala has recommended Children First! (complete with exclamation point). Others soon will follow as lawmakers consider other more substantive alterations to the act, as well.

Any suggestions?

Bill Gates, accountability champ?

In a Parade magazine story coming out Sunday, Microsoft billionaire and big-time ed philanthropist Bill Gates posits that standardized testing "is the only objective measurement of our students" and dismisses the argument that it will snuff creativity: "If you don't know how to read, it doesn't matter how creative you are," he says. Gates also says the nation's schools are not doing a good enough job teaching the basics of reading, and that rewarding quality teachers – isn't that another way of saying merit pay? – is a top priority. Alas, the Parade piece (click here) is too short to get at the devilish details that really matter, but on the face of it, doesn't Gates sound like … Jeb? What do you think? Has Gates lost his mind? Or is he on to something?

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Spellings, HBCUs, No Child and 9/11

Speaking on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings offered praise for historically black colleges and universities this week at the annual HBCU Week conference in D.C.

"Education remains our single greatest safeguard against the ignorance that led to those terrible acts and the source of the freedom and progress that allows us to persevere," she said, according to a press release. "HBCUs have always known how important education is to preserving our freedom … From Langston Hughes to Oprah Winfrey, former students of HBCUs have made an historic mark on this nation, and continue to do so today."

Spellings said federal funding for HBCUs has increased 29 percent since 2001, but the press release didn't break down the numbers for individual HBCUs, including the four in Florida (FAMU, Bethune-Cookman, Edward Waters and Florida Memorial). The secretary also threw in a plug for No Child Left Behind, the sweeping 2002 law that's now in the midst of a heated re-authorization. The law's accountability provisions are needed, she said, "so no African American student, or any child, can be shuffled along without acquiring the skills they need to succeed."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

A weekend interview with ...

... members of Congress George Miller, D-California, and Kathy Castor, D-Tampa. Miller and Castor recently visited with area school leaders and teachers to talk about  proposed changes to the No Child Left Behind Act, which Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, helped write. They talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about the legislation.

I want to make sure people understand the importance of the No Child Left Behind law and what it means to the people here in Florida. Because Florida has a dichotomous system right now, where people have a feeling that it does one thing and then it does another. Why are you here in Florida to talk to these people about this?

GM: One of the reasons is you have had this constant back and forth between the state accountability system and the federal accountability system. And that’s created a whole lot of tension very similar to the situation in California. Congresswoman Castor has talked about this since she first came to Washington. She’s been raising these issues with me. And I thought it would be a good forum to explain the kinds of changes we’re anticipating with the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. The biggest of course would be the growth model, which would smoothe out many of the differences between Florida and the federal standards, and certainly will make a difference in how we measure the progress the children are making in the system. Instead of comparing one class to another class, we will be making sure that child’s progress over a period of time to see that they’re working toward grade-level proficiency. That will be the biggest change with respect to the dichotomy in the system.

Congresswoman, you brought him here. You’ve been harping on this issue for a while. Why have you decided to focus on this issue and what do people here need to be thinking about as this bill moves forward?

KC: Well, I’m fortunate to be representing some of the biggest districts in the country, here in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Manatee. And the public schools serve hundreds of thousands of children. And parents have very high expectations, as do we. But the problem is the way that No Child Left Behind and Florida’s FCAT system have been implemented is irrational. And frankly at the state level, over the past years, they’ve taken the easy way out. And parents now have come to recognize, and teachers as well, that you cannot base an accountability system on one single test at the end of the school year. There are so many other factors that go into children’s education. So the reform effort, which is looking positive at this point, is going to take a look at those different factors and make it a more rational accountability system. Because we’re doing great things in the school systems. Does it make sense for a school to be graded an A school under Florida’s system and then under the federal No Child Left Behind it doesn’t make adequate yearly progress? Parents are throwing up their hands and saying, What does this all mean?

You’ve thrown out the issue of multiple measures. My recollection is that Florida looked at multiple measures and then did away with it because they didn’t want schools to be graded, basically, on whether a kid had lice on a day or not - essentially to have attendance counted in achievement. How would you balance that?

NCLB: The reax

Let the debate begin. The experts have begun poring over the "discussion draft" NCLB reauthorization bill from the House Education and Labor Committee. And they've started issuing their first impressions.

The Alliance for Excellent Education gives the proposal a thumbs up. To read its statement, click here. The Education Trust says the ideas kill the notion that no child will be, well, left behind. To read its statement, click here.

US Rep. Kathy Castor, one of the moderate Democrat newcomers whose support is widely sought after, isn't rushing to judgment. Rather, she put out an announcement saying she wants to hear from parents, teachers and other interested folks about the proposal, which can be found here. She's asking for comments to her e-mail, Kathy.Castor@mail.house.gov.

We at the Gradebook would like to hear your thoughts, too. Feel free to post below where you think Congress should go with No Child Left Behind.

One more thing

Local school leaders liked what they heard about the proposed changes to No Child Left Behind when House Education and Labor chairman George Miller came to town. But all the talk about growth models, multiple measures, choice options and such can't be effective, they told Miller, without one more piece in place.

"One of the ways you can really help me at the federal level is to fully fund IDEA," Pinellas superintendent Clayton Wilcox (left) said, referring to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. "Because right now I'm converting substantial dollars locally to serve those kids, who absolutely need it. I cannot leave those kids unserved."

Hillsborough School Board chairman Jack Lamb (right), an exceptional student education advocate, told Miller much the same. "You talk about accountability. We'd like Congress to be accountable," Lamb said. "We'd like them to stand up for what many parents of disabled children believe was a promise in 1975, that they were going to assume responsibility for 40 percent (funding). We're not even half way there."

Miller, who helped write many of the IDEA rules, too, acknowledged the problem. He said it's been a constant struggle since the day Congress overwhelmingly passed the law and then flat-lined the funding.

"One of the things that is very clear - you cannot do No Child Left Behind and take the money away from IDEA. And you can't do IDEA and take away from No Child Left Behind. That just won't work," Miller said. "This year we did small additions to IDEA and pretty good additions to Title I schools and schools in need of improvement. Hopefully next year we'll start rebuilding."

Fears of narrowing curriculum

A majority of people think No Child Left Behind is limiting what children are learning in schools and they’re getting increasingly fed up with standardized testing, according to the latest public-school poll from PDK International and the Gallup organization.

Released this morning, the poll found 52 percent of people believe No Child’s emphasis on reading and math has reduced the amount of time spent teaching other subjects. And among those who said yes, 93 percent said they were either very or somewhat concerned about it. The poll marks the second time in a month that the notion of narrowing curriculum has been raised in national surveys (read the Gradebook post on the Center on Education Policy survey here).

On other questions, the PDK-Gallup survey found 43 percent of Americans believe there is too much standardized testing in schools, up 12 percentage points since 2002, when No Child won bipartisan Congressional support and was signed into law by President Bush. A strong majority – 60 percent – continues to oppose vouchers. But a growing majority also supports charter schools, with 60 percent saying they favor them, up from 42 percent in 2000.

To read a response from the Forum on Educational Accountability, which includes many FairTest folks, click here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Chairman Miller offers NCLB insights

US Rep. George Miller, one of the chief architects of No Child Left Behind, made one of his NCLB listening stops in Tampa today to hear what local educators think as the Congress reauthorizes the accountability law. He announced that the House draft bill should be released online later today, and revealed some of the details.

Perhaps the key change is that the Congress will move toward a growth model for assessing whether schools and students are meeting academic goals. A dozen states, including Florida, already have won approval from the administration to move this direction. "It reflects more what is happening on the ground," Miller, a California Democrat, said.

"Comparing last year's fourth graders to this year's fourth graders doesn't tell us very much about what is going on in the schools," he said.

The bill would also adopt a more uniform high school graduation rate as one success measure, as many governors have proposed.

Schools will remain accountable for English-language learners and special education students, he continued, but the Congress wants to give schools more flexibility in how to assess them. The bill will give schools five years instead of three to before requiring English-language learners to take the main exam, for example. He's also looking to allow the students to complete portfolios. "We need to be able to determine what a child knows and what he needs to know," Miller said. "They're entitled to an assessment that accurately reflect where they are."

School grade appeals decided

Twenty-seven Florida schools got some good news today, when the state Department of Education announced it had approved their appeals on either their state grade or adequate yearly progress rating for the 2006-07 school year.

Locally, Dover Elementary in Hillsborough got boosted from a C to a B. Sheehy, Alexander and Egypt Lake elementary schools in Hillsborough, and Dunedin, Mount Vernon and Pinellas Central elementary schools in Pinellas were judged to have made adequate gains in all subgroups of students.

On the downside, Cox Elementary in Pasco kept its D grade and Foster Elementary in Hillsborough remained an F school. Also, Lealman Avenue and Sandy Lane elementary schools in Pinellas did not see changes to their AYP status.

The state did not act on 38 AYP-only appeals related to the USDOE's decision to exclude students with disabilities who took an alternative test to the FCAT. The state is working with the feds to gain waivers for those schools.

To see the full press release on the appeals, click here.

Sups: NCLB not so good

We often hear teachers grouse about No Child Left Behind. Now comes a survey in which 74 percent of superintendents say they find NCLB "at least somewhat detrimental." Only 1 percent say the law benefited public education while 26 percent found it "somewhat beneficial." The results are reported in the latest edition of School Board News, a publication of the National School Boards Association. See story. More than 1,300 sups participated in the survey, the latest in a decades-long series by the American Association of School Administrators. The AASA web site has some information on the survey, but a complete copy will cost you $90.

Readin', ritin', rithmetic, repeat

It's repeated so often it has become a given: Because of No Child Left Behind and other school accountability measures that stress (and test, test, test) the basics in math and reading, other subjects - art, music, history, PE - are getting short shrift. The latest survey/report from the Center on Education Policy, a Washington D.C. think tank, gives more weight to that line of thinking. Its survey of nearly 350 school districts found that while districts report more time on reading and math in elementary schools since No Child became law in 2002, time spent on other subjects has fallen by nearly a third. "What gets tested gets taught," Jack Jennings, the center's president and former staff director for Congressional Democrats, said in a press release. "Under No Child Left Behind, there is reading and math and then there is everything else."

The CEP report doesn't have a state-by-state breakdown, so we wonder: How much, in fact, has curriculum narrowed in Florida? Is the narrowing affecting students who don't need remedial help? And if it is, who's to blame? Maybe some us at The Gradebook are still groggy after returning from summer vacation, but we can't recall any studies or newspaper reports that have looked at this issue in thoughtful detail. If there is such a study or report, can somebody point us in the right direction? In the meantime, if you have concrete examples of curriculum being narrowed to students' detriment, can you please share them with us?

Another plug for measuring teachers

It might be hard to tell from the media coverage, especially in Florida, but the idea that teachers should be rated based on student test scores is not a right-wing plot. There are independent groups, non-partisan groups, bipartisan groups and yes, even lefty groups who think the notion has merit (like the Brookings Institution, see here; the Center for American Progress, see here; and the Carnegie Corp., see here). The latest example: The bipartisan No Child Left Behind Commission, which issued this policy brief yesterday in furthering its arguments that the federal law should change how it defines a highly qualified teacher. Testing data "should not be the sole determinant in making teacher quality decisions," the commission said, "but they must - along with evaluations conducted by principals and peer review panels - be a substantial part of the equation."

To be sure, measuring teacher quality has its pitfalls, as many supporters readily admit. And who knows? Maybe the test-making and data-crunching tools needed to do it fairly and sensibly aren't in hand yet. But it seems dishonest (doesn't it?) for critics to attempt to dismiss the idea as partisan or ideologically driven. What do you think? If the idea is so lame-brained, why have thoughtful people from the left, the right and the center all moved towards the same conclusion?

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

NCLB: Time for Change?

Parents, teachers and administrators think the federal No Child Left Behind Act should be more uniform and support a national set of standards, a poll commissioned by the Educational Testing Service has found. This would address concerns about different standards in each state.

This year's annual ETS survey focused entirely on NCLB and netted some interesting results. For starters, fewer than half of people polled said they knew much about the law. Until it was explained, they were more likely to see it as a negative (43 percent) than a positive (41 percent.) They became supportive once NCLB was defined.

Other interesting results:

*Those surveyed saw lacking parental involvement as the biggest problem facing schools.

*Parents saw lack of discipline in the classroom as the second major issue, while teachers and administrators pointed to inadequate funding.

What do you think? Check out the poll and let us know.

Teachers union: Newsweek rankings okay?

The National Education Association issued an interesting statement yesterday slamming the school rating system used by No Child Left Behind, and using two Hillsborough schools as examples. Under No Child - which looks at how well students do on their state’s standardized test, in this case the FCAT; and how well different subgroups do, including poor kids, minority kids and disabled kids - both Hillsborough High and King High are deemed in need of progress.

So how can it be, the NEA statement implies, that both schools are on Newsweek’s list of the 100 best high schools in the country? The NEA statement goes on to say “Newsweek’s evaluation is based on those schools doing the best job of preparing students for advanced academic work and college students.” It notes that Newsweek looks at how many students are taking AP and IB classes - which is true.

But the NEA fails to mention that under the Newsweek system, the number of AP and IB test-takers at each school is divided by the number of graduating seniors. In other words, schools with poor graduation rates are rewarded with higher rankings. Hillsborough High had a graduation rate of 71 percent in 2005, and while 69 percent of its white ninth- and tenth-graders were reading on grade level last year, only 16 percent of its black and 23 percent of its Hispanic students were. The corresponding numbers at King: 78, 64, 20 and 29.

Education experts of all stripes find flaws in No Child. But does it make sense for the country’s biggest teachers union to use an even more flawed ranking system to make a point?

For a study in contrasts, read the union's release (Download NEArelease.doc). Then check out our story from earlier this year, when the Hillsborough student newspaper was censored from publishing the dismal No Child results.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

No Child? Nope, haven't heard about it ...

Breaking news: Americans have mixed feelings about No Child Left Behind ... but they're not sure what it is. According to a survey released today by the Pew Research for the People & The Press, 34 percent of those who have heard about No Child say they like it; 26 percent say it has made schools worse; and 32 percent say it has had no effect. Among parents with children in public schools, the numbers wiggle and woggle: 42 percent who have heard about No Child say it has made schools better, but that number drops to 30 percent when they're asked about their kid's school specifically.

Surveys can be useful gauges of public opinion, and it's no surprise that No Child - jerry-rigged as it was by a strained coalition that included President Bush and Ted Kennedy - would split the country. But maybe this is the most important number to consider from the Pew poll: 58 percent of respondents said they knew little or nothing about No Child, the most sweeping ed law in decades. Yikes! And when the other 42 percent say they knew "a lot," you have to wonder what "a lot" means to the average American. Like, Paris Hilton "a lot" or Anna Nicole "a lot"???

Think tank: Is No Child working? Who knows?

After an exhaustive look at test data in all 50 states, the Center on Education Policy, a reputable national think tank, concludes in a report released this morning that student achievement in reading and math has improved since No Child Left Behind became the law of the land in 2002, and that far more states have narrowed achievement gaps over that time that widened them. But.

But it's entirely unclear whether No Child deserves the credit, the report says. Part of the reason: No Child-like initiatives were underway in many states (Florida among them) well before President Bush and U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy (yes, Dems overwhelmingly supported No Child, too, though it might be hard to tell from subsequent media coverage) managed to find a middle ground on education reform. Another reason: It's hard to tell how much the gains are due to kids actually getting smarter versus other considerations. More test prep? Easier tests? Creative number crunching? Could be any or all of those things, too, the CEP report says.

No Child, of course, requires that states annually test students in reading and math, and that they slice and dice the data to see whether poor kids, minority kids, disabled kids and kids who speak English as a second language are also making gains. If the trend lines aren't moving in the right direction for the student population as a whole and for every sub-group, then consequences kick in, including provisions that force school districts to allow children in high-poverty schools to transfer to higher-scoring schools or get private tutoring, free of charge.

The CEP report includes breakdowns state by state, but the Florida section is mostly a rehash of FCAT data going back to 1999. If you're an FCAT data freak (and The Gradebook knows you're out there), then by all means, click here.

Want to know what Education Secretary Spellings thinks about the report? Click here.

A weekend interview with ...

Bob Schaeffer, the public education director for FairTest. A longtime critic of high-stakes testing, Schaeffer, who lives in Sanibel, has joined forces with the Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform in pressing for changes in the FCAT system. The group has gained attention in Tallahassee lately, even earning a seat on the DOE's advisory panel. Schaeffer talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about how Florida's testing culture might be turning a corner.

JS: How did you get involved with this particular issue, because we know you more on a national scene?

BS: Well, I live in Florida. And I've been connected to FCAR since they were established. I've been to and spoken at their statewide convention and participate on their email list. When I saw the initial wave of coverage ... when the state Department of Education admitted that last year's FCAT had been mis-scored I talked to a number of reporters about that. I was invited to be on a conference call with the FCAR board ... where we worked out the strategy that resulted in the letter.

JS: The idea behind the letter then is to hold their feet to the fire? Or are you looking for something more than that?

BS: It is designed to take advantage of the media and policy maker interest in the FCAT, to use the incident to open up the larger question about the exam's design, administration and use.

JS: Tell people who might not know all the details what these questions are.

BS: From the FairTest perspective, the FCAT is probably the most misused test in the country. The testing industry itself ... warns against using any test as the sole or primary factor to make high stakes judgments about students, teachers, schools, educational systems. Despite that, Florida politicians have chosen consciously to misuse the FCAT for grade promotion and retention, high school graduation, school grades, teacher bonuses and the like. All of which violate the standards of the testing profession. And we see the enhanced focus on FCAT because of the scoring error as an opportunity to explain how Florida misuses the FCAT.

JS: Is there a good use for the FCAT? Is FCAT a good test?

BS: I don't think anybody knows, and that's another problem with the FCAT. Unlike many other tests in which all aspects of the test are transparent - not just the test questions and answers, which belatedly have been made public, but the technical manual, information about how the tests are designed, scored and scaled - nobody has any idea on the FCAT. Nobody being policy makers, in most cases media, independent experts, parents, teachers, how the number of answers a student gets right on the FCAT are translated into an FCAT score, and how the sum of FCAT scores in a school translate into a school grade. Apparently, the formula changes from year to year. Meaning that it's subject to political manipulation.

JS: Do you really think that they are politically manipulating it?

BS: Without the information you can't be certain. But we do know that Florida has been involved in testing gamesmanship. For example with the requirement for adequate yearly progress that has been set for No Child Left Behind. Florida instead of choosing a steadily upward path for progress, has set up a system where stable performance is expected for years and then a sudden jump under some other politician's watch is built into the system.

The Declaration of What?

The latest national test scores on history and civics are out, and there is reason to both breathe easy and be very, very scared. On the upside: The percentage of students who have a basic grasp of U.S. history is up in all grade levels tested, while the percentage who have a basic understanding of civics is at least up in elementary grades.

The downside? Things like this: Only 14 percent of 12th graders can explain why the U.S. was involved in the Korean War. Only 28 percent of eighth graders can explain the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence. And only 1 percent of eighth graders can explain how the fall of the Berlin Wall affected foreign policy.

The results are from the latest round of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, which is often called the Nation's Report Card and is widely considered to be a credible yardstick of student achievement. Results released this morning are from the 2006 tests in history and civics, which were taken by a random sampling of fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders totaling more than 25,000 students nationwide. The test scores are not broken down by state, but instead offer a national gauge of progress over time.

Supporters of history and civics education said the results show those subjects are not getting enough attention in the nation's schools. Kim Kozbial-Hess, an Ohio fourth-grade teacher who sits on the board that oversees NAEP, pointedly noted that No Child Left Behind puts the spotlight on math and reading. "Are we doing well enough in U.S. history that it should continue to be left out of the No Child Left Behind legislation?" she said in prepared remarks.

But other observers say maybe there is a link between No Child's focus on reading and the uptick in history and civics scores. No Child, along with school accountability systems like the one built in Florida by former Gov. Jeb Bush, have (rightly or wrongly) forced schools to focus more attention on struggling students, who showed some of the biggest gains in these latest NAEP results. "If students are learning to read more effectively than in previous years … then there may be some spinoff effect taking place," said Charles Smith, the National Assessment Governing Board's executive director.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

UPDATE: To read US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' reaction to the results, click here. Read Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews' take on the results, too.

Castor: Too much FCAT

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, is scheduled to testify before a key Congressional committee tomorrow on the re-authorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act - more specifically, her office says, on the discrepancies between the "adequate yearly progress" label given to schools under No Child and the school grades determined by Florida’s accountability system. She'll be taking a big whack at standardized testing, too.

Last year, 75 percent of Florida schools earned A's or B's under the state grading system, but only 28 percent made adequately yearly progress under No Child. Both systems are based on the FCAT, but they slice and dice the scores in different ways. "In Florida, NCLB and state laws are at odds to the extreme," Castor said in a press release on the eve of her appearance before the House education committee.

The freshman Congresswoman (and daughter of former Florida Education Commissioner Betty Castor) also said her constituents want a "more inclusive method" of measuring how well students, teachers and school are doing. "We need to develop an accountability system that evaluates more than students' test scores on potentially biased standardized tests," she said. Translation: Find something other than the FCAT.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Spellings on testing

As you digest all the FCAT results that came out this week, and look forward to more to come, the Gradebook presents for your contemplation some thoughts about the whole testing culture courtesy of our US Secretary of Education. Margaret Spellings spoke in Los Angeles late Thursday to an assorted gathering of education reporters, and focused on No Child Left Behind.

You say, Teaching to the test is bad. Spellings says - XXXX (if you don't get it, think Family Feud): "If and when standards are clear to educators, and assessments are aligned to those standards, which we spent a great deal of time and care seeing about through peer review processes and things like that at the federal level, then there's not a thing wrong with teaching to the test. If you say you want kids to know long division, and long division is what is on the test, then amen. Teach to the test. Testing of course has always been part of the educational enterprise since Socrates, and part of the teacher feedback mechanism. Teachers have fostered and foisted more tests on more people over history. So really there's nothing wrong with having a curriculum that is established around standards and measurements aligned there too."

How about more testing, college style? Spellings says: "Higher education for a long, long time in this country from the mid '60s to now basically has been a 'Put the money out and hope for the best' strategy. And in the mid '60s when you could make a pretty good living off the sweat of your brow, it maybe didn't mean so much. But our demands as the purveyors of innovation, which of course is rooted in the development of human capital, we simply have to get many many many more Americans in and out of our higher education system. About a third of Americans have a baccalaureate degree and about two-thirds of Americans ought to have a baccalaureate degree. If we look at disaggregated data of higher education in America, it is very, very discouraging. And we simply have to start talking about the issues, not only affordability, which we talk about a lot, accessibility, meaning do we have kids getting out of our high schools who can do college level work. But also about accountability and transparency about information of our higher education system."

Does that mean standardized tests, Ms. Spellings? "No. Absolutely not. But let me tell you what we are thinking about. ... This notion of what is it that our colleges and universities are adding with respect to  value. And what the President has asked for is a $25-million pilot program so we can experiment with that kind of notion. ... I'm sure you know I have a college sophomore daughter who is at a fairly expensive private college. After I spend a couple hundred thousand dollars on her education, is she going to know anything? Can she write? There are instances where people are looking at that right now."

Value added? "I think we would all agree .. with the principle that students who have completed a baccalaureate degree would have the basic ability to write, to think and to solve problems. Those are knowable values in modern psychometrics. Am I going to prescribe a one size fits all? No I am not. But I do want to invest with folks who are willing to pioneer on those fronts."

To hear some of Spellings' remarks to the Education Writers Association, click here.