Kudos roll in for Tampa teacher

Gov. Charlie Crist says of Megan Allen, who was selected last night as Florida’s Teacher of the Year: “Not only is she a credit to her profession, but her contributions in and out of the classroom exemplify the type of teaching that has moved Florida’s education system to 10th in the nation.” Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith says "she has done incredible work in challenging and inspiring her students." Read more praise for Allen here.

Mediocre teachers? Not around here

The results are in: 99.7 percent of Pinellas teachers and 99.3 percent of Hillsborough teachers last year were rated either outstanding or satisfactory, according to district data requested by the Gradebook. We asked more than a month ago, prompted by this highly praised report from The New Teacher Project, but for some reason it took a while for the numbers to trickle out.

Arne Duncan stresses teacher quality

Anybody in Florida who thinks improving teacher quality is important – and not some kind of code speak for “teacher bashing” – just got some cover from President Barack Obama’s education secretary.

In his big speech last week – which didn’t get near enough ink (did a word of it run anywhere in Florida?) – Arne Duncan offered frank talk on the subject, which he says is one of the four “core reforms” for bettering American schools. Here's a sampler:

“We created seniority rules that protect teachers from arbitrary and capricious management – and that’s a good goal. But sometimes those rules place teachers in schools and communities where they won’t succeed – and that’s wrong.”

“We created tenure rules to make sure that a struggling teacher gets a fair opportunity to improve – and that’s a good goal. But when an ineffective teacher gets a chance to improve and doesn’t – and when the tenure system keeps that teacher in the classroom anyway – then the system is protecting jobs rather than children.”

Want a better way to get rid of bad teachers?

Or make them better, quick? Get good teachers involved. This Washington Post story looks at peer review. Any districts in Florida doing this?

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

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Are education colleges getting teachers ready for school? Accrediting agency says ...

Not exactly.

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education has released new standards saying that colleges must do more to give teachers classroom skills that focus on student learning.

"The new focus will help close the gap between theory and practice, and assure that teacher education program candidates are able to help diverse students be successful learners," NCATE president James G. Cibulka said in a news release. "In the past, accreditation wrapped clinical experience around coursework. This approach reverses the priority, encouraging institutions to place teacher candidates in year-long training programs and wrap coursework around clinical practice."

The impetus? The Obama money. Through the federal stimulus package, millions have come available to improve teacher quality. So why not take some of that cash and put it toward teacher education?

Is this an implicit acknowledgment that our colleges of education have done a poor job preparing teachers for today's classroom, though? 

National reports on teacher tenure aim at evaluations

Lots of things to consider in two new reports out this morning from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank that’s raising tough questions about teacher quality. Teacher tenure laws need a “serious overhaul,” but don’t need to be killed, the center says in the first report.

This is a more nuanced position than we’ve heard in Florida, but the debate here isn’t over.

Like the New Teacher Project report from a few weeks ago, the center concludes the bigger problem is a worthless teacher evaluation system. “What is clear from this review is that fixing tenure first and foremost involves defining what effective practice is,” the report says. “We cannot ‘fix’ the tenure process without clear, shared standards of excellent practice and tools and procedures to measure that practice. Our current teacher evaluation practices are weak and designed at best to weed out the most egregious teachers, rather than to cultivate rigorous performance of all teachers.”

The center’s second report, “So Long, Lake Wobegon?”, says the teacher evaluation issue is being pushed onto the front burner by school choice and accountability. “Traditional public schools now face pressure from without by charter schools, voucher programs, and the growing home-school movement and from within by accountability measures. They can no longer do business as usual, or merely assert that their teachers are ‘highly qualified.’ "

(Cartoon from Raleigh News & Observer.)

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Florida teachers want to save their Sea World pass

For years, Florida and Georgia full-time teachers have received free annual passes to Sea World. Many have used their unlimited admission to create fun aquatic-themed lessons for their students.

The end of 2009, though, means the end of the free ride into the theme park. So a group of teachers have started an online petition in hopes of changing the new park owner's mind.

"As an educator in the state of Florida or Georgia," they write in the introduction, "it is up to you to let Sea World Orlando know just how important the Study Pass is to our daily lesson plans and how denying educators of the Study Pass is essentially denying students knowledge."

Of course, Sea World does provide free study guides for teachers. And it offers an entire Web site aimed at teachers and education, also free. It's just the entry fee — $74.95 for unlimited admission for Florida and Georgia residents — that won't be gratis anymore.

Still, more than 150 teachers had signed the petition when we last checked, writing things like, "Teachers and SRPs get paid so little that this is a really nice way of letting us know we are appreciated. Please keep this promotion going."

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Op-ed: Least experienced teachers teach neediest students

Florida newspapers won’t write about teacher quality (except for the St. Petersburg Times on occasion) but the issue will continue to be a bigger and bigger deal.

Here’s an op-ed on the issue from the latest U.S. News & World Report. (The author is a former senior education policy adviser to U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and she now works for the New America Foundation. Just who you’d expect to be a teacher-basher, right?)

The piece begins:

“Imagine for a moment that you are driving your child to the hospital. She has a high fever and is suffering from severe abdominal pain. It’s unclear what’s wrong but she is in definite need of medical attention.

“Now imagine that the only doctor on call is a recently graduated medical student. It’s her first day on the job and there is no experienced physician or surgeon available for consultation. Are you satisfied with this level of care for your child? I wouldn’t be. I’d want to benefit from the knowledge of a more experienced physician. Wouldn’t you?

“Unfortunately, a similar scenario is playing out in America’s urban classrooms with shocking regularity. Teachers with the least experience are educating the most disadvantaged students in the highest poverty, most challenging schools. Low-income kids are being “triaged” not by experienced teachers, but by those with fewer than three years of teaching to go on.”

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Top teachers leave when schools re-segregate, study finds

What one Cornell researcher found after the Charlotte-Mecklenberg school district ended race-based busing in 2002 has ominous overtones for Pinellas.

Teachers with more experience and higher certification scores were more likely to leave schools with sudden inflows of black students, found C. Kirabo Jackson, according to a study published in the April edition of the Journal of Labor Economics. (To see the actual study you’ll have to fork over $10 to buy it from the journal. But you can see a summary in this ScienceDaily story.)

Teacher transfer data suggests this may already be happening in Pinellas, as the Gradebook noted last year after this St. Petersburg Times story on teacher transfers.

Hat tip to USF professor Sherman Dorn for noting the Cornell study in this recent blog post. The post also references a new study in the Education Policy Analysis Archives, which Dorn co-edits, which found that young white teachers are more likely to stay in schools with smaller proportions of minority teachers.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Teachers need honest evaluations, national report says

Bad teachers and the hurdles to firing them are real problems. But they're just one part of a more pressing dilemma – the failure of schools to honestly and accurately evaluate teachers, says a new report out this morning from The New Teachers Project.

The vast majority of teachers earn excellent evaluations, while only a tiny fraction earn bad ones, says "The Widget Effect," which analyzed the ratings at 12 school districts in four states (none of them were in Florida.) That kind of evaluation inflation prevents schools from recognizing the best teachers, so they can become models. And it keeps other teachers from getting the targeted professional development they need to get better.

"While it is impossible to know whether the system drives the culture or the culture the system, the result is clear – evaluation systems fail to differentiate performance among teachers," the report says. "As a result, teacher effectiveness is largely ignored. Excellent teachers cannot be recognized or reward, chronically low-performing teachers languish, and the wide majority of teachers performing at moderate levels do not get the differentiated support and development they need to improve as professionals."

TNTP offers recommendations to turn this around. But it also suggests the vicious cycle now in place won't make it easy:

"Administrators generally do not accurately evaluate poor performance, leading to an expectation of high performance ratings, which, in turn, cause administrators to face stiff cultural resistance when they do issue even marginally negative evaluations," the report says. "The result is a dysfunctional school community in which performance problems cannot be openly identified or addressed."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Summer vacation arrives for Florida teachers. Or does it?

Students celebrate their last day of classes all over Florida this week. They pack up their supplies, thank their teachers and head off for weeks of camp, travel or something other than school.

Common thinking is that teachers go on vacation, too.

This Lakeland Ledger story does little to dispel that myth, focusing at the top on those educators who use the time to travel and take a breather. Here's the lead:

"For most Polk County teachers, the three Rs — reading, writing, and 'rithmetic — get replaced with the 2 Rs once they finish their teacher workdays on Friday: relaxation and rejuvenation."

But when we talk to teachers about their summers, rarely does the word vacation come up. Rather, they speak of working second jobs, attending training seminars and other things that are certainly less than "relaxation and rejuvenation."

Indeed, we expect many this summer will be seeking new jobs as they face involuntary transfers, layoffs or some other form of displacement.

To be sure, many of you can tell us what summer will look like for you. Please share your plans with us here, and if you include your e-mail in the comment field perhaps we can get in touch to talk more so we can share the story over the summer.

Polk schools have teaching jobs

You read that right. The Polk County school system tells the Lakeland Ledger that it plans to hire 200 to 300 new teachers over the summer -- even after accounting for all its own internal transfers.

"I would start checking on a daily basis after the Memorial Day weekend," assistant superintendent Ron Ciranna told the Ledger.

He said the district Web site will be updated regularly. Good luck.

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A weekend interview with Marshall Ogletree, the new executive director of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association

Marshall Ogletree went to school in Pinellas County and after college came back to teach here. Then he got into the business of advocating on behalf of teachers, working in Orange and Seminole counties before heading to the state teachers union. Now he's back as executive director of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association. He spoke with Times education reporter Donna Winchester about why he thinks teachers unions are important and the priorities that will guide him in his new job.

How did you get involved in teacher advocacy?

I’ve always had a strong political bent. I was a math major who took political science classes as opposed to science courses. When I got involved in the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association as a faculty rep and later as vice president, it was from a political point of view. PCTA then and now is one of the more active organizations in Florida from that perspective. When I was vice president, someone said, ‘Why don’t you look for a job in this business?’

Isn’t this a really difficult time to be taking on the job of executive director of a teachers union?

I know it’s going to be tough. This is a very difficult time for unions and school districts because of the lack of funding and the lack of support the Legislature has given us. I don’t care how they color it, this last legislative session was just a Band-Aid of major proportions. They’re going to have to face up to the fact that there are holes to fill because they’re building on the stimulus money and on taxes that are a declining source of revenue, like the cigarette tax. We have big holes to fill, not just in education, but in all parts of the budget.

The discussions we’ll be having this summer about salary and benefits will be constrained by that. We’ll try to do the best we can to make sure the district stands by its employees. We’ll fight for their needs. But it’s going to be difficult. I want our members to understand this is a time like no other. I’ve been doing this a long time, and there has been no time since I’ve been doing this work that we’ve had the problems and the financial situation we have today.

You were close friends with former PCTA executive director Jade Moore, who died in December. What did you learn from him?

Unions more important than ever, new Pinellas teachers association boss says

Times are tense for Florida school teachers. They face the threat of layoffs. Their work conditions are up for grabs. Raises? How about the possibility of pay cuts instead?

Into the fray in Pinellas comes newly appointed Classroom Teachers Association executive director Marshall Ogletree, no newbie when it comes to organized labor. His message to the rank and file: Keep the faith.

"I think in tough economic times, unions are more important than they’ve ever been," Ogletree tells the Gradebook:

"Throughout the state, and Pinellas is no exception, the immediate reaction of school boards is to say, ‘We have to cut pay. We have to cut hours or days.’ That is the immediate reaction. Without a union to say, ‘Hey, stop, wait a minute, let’s look at this,’ they can do whatever they want to do.

The union’s role is to solve problems, to work on the contractual rights that folks have – their salaries and working conditions. Without a union, would there be a 40-hour work week? Would there be child labor laws? A 30-year-old teacher might take for granted duty free lunches and planning periods. But the fact is, we worked long and hard to get those provisions in our contract. Teachers have walked picket lines to get those things into contracts. It’s important for folks to know there’s a rich heritage here at PCTA. Times are tough, but look at what PCTA has done and will continue to do in the future."

To learn more of Ogletree's views, visit the Gradebook at noon Saturday for a full interview.

- Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

And then there were five: Hillsborough teacher among state teacher of the year finalists

Hillsborough top teacher Megan Allen of Cleveland Elementary has been selected from 72 Florida teachers as one of five finalists for 2009 Teacher of the Year. She got the news -- along with a $5,000 check and a $500 Macy's gift card -- during a surprise reveal Friday.

The other finalists are:

Marilynn Pedek, Palm Beach
Melissa Reiker, Orange
Emily Barbacci, Leon
Patricia Fairclough, Miami-Dade

The winner will be announced July 9. (Photo courtesy of Macy's)

Commissioner Smith: Don't forget to appreciate your teachers

It's Teacher Appreciation Week. Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the need to take the time to show teachers some love.

Why does the state need to set aside time to appreciate teachers?

Well, it's important that we dedicate time because so often it gets overlooked in the day to day rush of work at the state level but also in parents' households within Florida and within communities, the needed appreciation that we should express to our teachers for doing just incredible work. Incredible work. It sometimes gets overlooked in the rush of things. So I think it is important that we dedicate some time to specifically appreciating the work that teachers do.

Just the last several days we've seen the work of great teachers in the writing scores that have come out. That's a credit to kids that have the capacity, but also the teachers who were able to tap that capacity and do something with it. So again, it's an example of how we are blessed with the teacher corps that we have.

So what do you think we need to do to show our teachers we appreciate them?

I think first of all we need to expand this beyond just one week. We need to do it every day. My message is there's nothing more important than acknowledging the appreciation we have for our teachers in a visible and tangible way, whether that's a note, whether that's a phone call, whether that's some other way to show appreciation for our teachers as we work to close out the school year. My call when I visit schools always to our students is, Have you taken time to thank your teachers for the great gift they give you every day? And kids, every time, they respond in a very positive way because they do recognize the great gift their teachers give them every day in their lesson design, though their patience and through their diligence in sharing information and thought about the critical content they deliver.

Should we be giving them presents, too? You always hear about teachers who lack things in their classroom. Is this the appropriate time to give them school supplies?

No go for ESOL teacher training plan

Teachers of students learning English will continue to need 300 hours of training after an idea to lower the number of hours got nowhere in the education budget.

It's the third time the bill, pushed by Jacksonville Republican Sen. Stephen Wise, fails to clear the Florida Legislature. 

Wise has argued that the 300-hour requirement, in addition to regular training to become a reading teacher, drives teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languages out of Florida. ESOL activists -- particularly from Miami-Dade, the county with the largest ESOL student population -- counter that extra training is necessary.

Wise, the Senate chair of a compromise committee on the education budget, had tried to tack his plan to the Senate's budget proposal Thursday as a pilot program to start in three school districts this fall. The House didn't bite -- but Wise said he will fight undeterred and take his ideas to the education commissioner, or back to the Legislature.

"I've worked on bills that took four years to pass," he said. "I've got three more [years], so I guess I can hang in."

-- Patricia Mazzei, Miami Herald

Lawmakers inch closer on preK-12 budget

The preK-12 budget conference committee just met, with the Senate providing its counteroffer to last night’s House bid. The sides appear to be moving quickly to agreement, though the talk today was about provisions in the budget, not the funding numbers themselves. That comes later today. New in the Senate offer:

• A pitch to preserve bonuses for all of Florida’s National Board certified teachers. The House plan was to limit the bonuses, which have been $5,000 a year, to classroom teachers in low-performing schools. “We don’t want to disenfranchise people who work hard,” said Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville.
• A proposal to waive green building requirements for school districts during the 2009-10 school year, which would let districts meet building standards but not have to spend more money on environmentally friendly materials.
• A plan to create a pilot study for English for Speakers of Other Languages, or ESOL, teacher training. The study would look at whether teachers with fewer hours of training could provide the same quality instruction as teachers receiving more training.

Tenure bill looks dead for this year

Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, tells the Bradenton Herald that the tenure bill has been turned into a “summer study program” and that the Department of Education will review it and report back next year.

“It’s better that way,” Detert, who chairs the Senate PreK-12 Committee, told the Herald:

“I think if you’re going to make radical changes to employment issues, those changes need to be made on facts. We have very experienced people at the (Department of Education), we have them studying the issue. They will report back to us next year and we’ll decide what changes we want to make.”

For what it’s worth, the embattled bill is still scheduled for two Senate stops. The Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee didn’t get to the tenure bill last week, as had been scheduled, so it’s now slated to look at it Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Senate PreK-12 Appropriations Committee has been scheduled to take a whack at it this afternoon. (There are four Republicans and two Democrats on appropriations, and one of them is Detert, who held her nose to pass the bill out of her committee two weeks ago.)

Ron Matus, state education reporter

Should a substitute teacher have a degree?

The Collier County school district says, Yes.

With subs in short supply, many school districts take who they can get — that often means anyone with a high school diploma and a couple of days of training.

Collier leaders want more, to ensure "there is as little instruction time lost as possible," superintendent Dennis Thompson told the Naples Daily News. That's why the district now mandates all subs have at least an associate's degree.

He added that the district plans to require subs to have a bachelor's degree starting next year.

The change prompted an interesting scenario in Collier when one of its most recent substitute of the year nominees complained that the rule would take her out of the classroom. She told the board that she's three credits away from her associate's degree but can't afford to complete it.

That doesn't take away from her hard work for little money on an as-needed basis, sub Deanna Jones said.

Thompson empathized, but told the Naples Daily News that the district needs more educational consistency from its subs and that it has plenty of degreed people willing to do the job.

Now to you: Who's right?

Amendment takes teacher money and puts it to Florida Holocaust Museum

The House is in session working on budget bills all day, with plenty of discussion over the PreK-12 budget. Democrats lined up to question cuts to programs for mentoring, teacher development and more.

But a number of amendments also drew much discussion, including one introduced by Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach.

He proposed taking $62,979 from general revenue funds for the Excellent Teaching Program — that's money for National Board certified teachers — and adding that amount to funding for the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg. Hasner said that amount is just .001 percent of the total funding for the Excellent Teaching Program.

Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, said he that "as a Jew" he could vote against the amendment, but chastised leaders for forcing the choice.

"You are punishing the wrong people,” Waldman said. The amendment passed 96-13.

Bill to kill teacher tenure draws another foe

The bill to kill teacher tenure has been scheduled for another stop in the Senate – and it might be its last.

The Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee is slated to hear SB 2458 Thursday afternoon. Like the Senate PreK-12 Education Committee, where the Jeb-backed bill barely squeaked by last week, the oversight committee has five Republicans and three Democrats.

And at least one Republican on the committee is not a fan, potentially setting the stage for a 4-4, bill-killing tie.

"I don't really want to get involved in passing legislation that affects teacher morale right now," Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Treasure Island, told the Gradebook. "I'm not sure fooling around with teacher tenure at this time is a positive thing."

The check is in the mail -- really

Efforts to cut bonuses to Florida's National Board-certified teachers have all but vanished under the threat of a veto from Gov. Charlie Crist.

But for weeks, the teachers have been wondering where their bonus checks might be. (They were supposed to arrive in January.)

The suspense is over.

K-12 Chancellor Frances Haithcock has advised superintendents that most of the money -- $4,883.36 per teacher (including taxes) -- is on its way.

The remainder is expected after the Legislature completes its budget.

Now teachers just have to wait to see whether lawmakers will curtail the program in other ways, such as a proposal to give the bonus to classroom teachers only.

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Teacher tenure bill not a hit with school superintendents

If it wasn't revealing enough that some Republicans aren't supporting the Jeb-backed bill to scrap teacher tenure, another key group also appears lukewarm: superintendents.

“One of the primary reasons we have teachers entering the profession is for job stability,” Bill Montford, head of the Florida superintendents association, told the Senate PreK-12 Committee this week. “We believe there may be a better approach than this bill to address the issue of teacher ineffectiveness in the classroom.”

A couple of superintendents told the Gradebook they agree.

“I don’t know if it’s the right answer or not,” Hernando superintendent Wayne Alexander said of the bill. He said administrators need to be more diligent about identifying and weeding out bad teachers who aren’t improving, particularly during their first three years, when they’re on annual contracts. He said the current system is “exhaustive, but is appropriate.”

Another pitch to save board certified teacher bonuses

With the House preK-12 appropriations budget conforming bill up for a vote today, Rep. Marty Kiar, D-Davie, made another pitch to save a state program that awards bonuses to National Board certified teachers.

The conforming bill would require any new National Board certified teachers to work in a low-performing school to earn the bonus, which has been almost $5,000 a year, whereas currently all National Board certified teachers regardless of school are awarded the bonus. Kiar offered an amendment that would keep it that way, protecting teachers who already rely on the bonus, he said. Additionally, Kiar proposed offering a separate bonus (of paying the application fee) to those National Board certified teachers who work in low-performing schools.

House preK-12 appropriations chair Rep. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, said the changes would cost an additional $5 million to $8 million and that because there's no money left in the budget, she could not support the proposal.

Kiar expressed hope for working with Flores on a bipartisan amendment to save the bonuses and then withdrew his proposal.

Teacher retirement tsunami is coming

In the next 10 years, the United States will lose half of its teachers to retirement, says a national report released this morning. And that spike, coupled with growing numbers of young teachers leaving the professions, means schools should immediately and dramatically re-think their current staffing models, the report says.

Instead of leaving teachers in isolation, schools should find ways to create “learning teams” that have new teachers, teacher mentors and teacher retirees working in unison, says the report from the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.

“First time teachers have been leaving the classroom in record numbers,” Tom Carroll, the group’s president and the report’s author, said in a press release. “And now we are about to be hit by a massive wave of retirements. We need to face facts and recognize that the supply of teachers is collapsing at both ends.”

“We can’t recruit our way out of this problem,” the report says.

In 18 states, more than half of all public school teachers are more than 50 years old, the report says. In Florida, the figure is 49.4 percent. The average teacher retirement age is 59.

Teacher tenure bill to be heard after all

After an unexpectedly long delay, the Jeb-backed, tenure-scrapping SB 2458 is on the agenda for Tuesday’s Senate PreK-12 Committee meeting, which begins at 8 a.m.

This could get interesting. Chairwoman Nancy Detert, R-Venice, has already said she doesn’t dig the bill. And if she votes no, and the other R’s and D’s fall in to their usual formations, that means a 4-4 tie – and a dead bill.

By the way, the teacher-firing flow chart the St. Petersburg Times ran in its print editions last week (next to this story about a tenured teacher who’s frequently in hot water) can now be viewed here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Florida lawmakers revisit National Board certified teacher bonuses

Florida's National Board certified teachers avoided seeing their annual bonuses cut during the Legislature's special session earlier in the year.

But they can't seem to escape lawmakers' attention altogether.

The House and Senate both have targeted the money that goes to the National Board teachers in their separate budget proposals.

Teacher tenure bill yet to be heard in Senate

It's halfway through the session, and the Jeb-backed bill to kill teacher tenure has yet to be debated in the Senate PreK-12 Education Committee.

The chairwoman, Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, said it will "probably" be heard, but she's making no bones about her reservations in an interview with the Gradebook:

"I don't even know where to begin. It has a lot of problems. It doesn't solve the problem that people are trying to solve, which is the famous, ‘Let's get rid of these bad teachers.' … We have a process now to get rid of bad teachers. Maybe it's too lengthy of a process, but this bill just doesn't solve that. So I'm hearing it as a courtesy and we'll see if anything happens. I really don't expect it to make it all the way through the process this year."

The St. Petersburg Times outlined the drawn-out firing process in a flow chart that accompanied Sunday's story about a Pinellas teacher who has been in hot water more than 20 times in a 22-year career . (Unfortunately, we don't have an online version, so you'll have to buy the paper.)

Detert said the process might need to be improved, but "is the tenure bill the right vehicle to fix what people perceive to be the problem? I don't think so."

A weekend interview with writing instructor Melissa Forney

When seeking a leg up in teaching their children to write, many Florida school teachers turn to Melissa Forney. Based in Orange City, Forney writes novels that schools can use as starting points for getting students interested in reading and writing. She also offers strategies teachers can use to make writing fun. Forney talked with reporter Jeff Solochek while visiting Sand Pine Elementary in Wesley Chapel.

I am interested in why you come to schools like Sand Pine and talk to students about writing.

I am an educator. And I love the philosophies of John Dewey, that education should be hands-on. And we've gotten so far away from that with testing. And as a child I was a big reader and I found I just lost myself in books. And I wanted to recreate that experience for kids to have outdoor books that at least mentally took them outdoors. No technology. Everything about climbing trees and swimming in brooks and learning about the outdoor fun stuff. And now I love going to schools that are actually implementing things where kids are on their bellies shooting marbles, or having a slingshot contest, that kind of thing. I just think this makes education memorable for them. That's the main reason.

Were you surprised to see how many children are into your books and the things that you are doing?

I am surprised and of course extremely gratified. When I went to graduate school to become an author for children, the philosophy was that you wrote for yourself. But I never adhered to that. I always think about the children who will read my books as I'm writing them. The book might be plotted ahead of time. But as I'm writing I might think, 'If I did this, the kids will love it.' Or, 'If I did this twist, kids would be sad but we would get through it.' So I do have them in mind when I write. So when I see that kids are excited about it, of course I'm thrilled.

How did you decide to come here [to Wesley Chapel]? Do you just tour Florida?

Report touts merit pay, doubts rewards for master's degree

It's not hard to find folks who argue it was the height of tone-deafiness for the state Board of Education to release a report this week urging more accountability reforms in the midst of historic budget cuts.

But bad timing aside, the out-of-state wonks who put the report together do make points that education experts of all political persuasions have been making. Like …

Keep trying on merit pay: In Florida, STAR didn't work. MAP is all but ignored. So, the wonks suggest, come up with something that combines a state system with more district flexibility. "Such flexibility would allow for a greater degree of experimentation and innovation, which is important given that we have little experience to draw upon when designing an optimal performance pay system for teachers."

Pay teachers for effectiveness, not their degrees: According to the report's estimates, Florida spends $180 million every year to pay 60,000 teachers more for their master's degrees. This despite reams of research that suggests all that extra higher ed doesn't do much for student achievement. (A few months back, Bill Gates bashed the idea.)

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Teacher deal at Borders

Hey teachers! Need a book for your classroom or home?

In honor of Educator Appreciation, Borders is offering 25 percent off the list price of almost every title in the store, today through March 25.

All you need is some sort of proof that you're a teacher (or a retired one) and a wish list. Have fun.

Another day, another push for education

On Tuesday, it was about raising the state's high school graduation standards and creating an extra penny tax to benefit education. Today, teacher pay took center stage with Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, and Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington, working together to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot to mandate minimum salaries for the state's teachers in line with the national average.

Wilson, a lifelong educator and sponsor of the Senate resolution, talked passionately about what teachers do for children: Make them wonder. Make them sit still for an hour. Make them apologize and mean it.

"Teachers make students understand that if they use the gifts given to them, they can succeed," Wilson said in a news conference on the Capitol's fourth floor.

Abruzzo, the House sponsor, called the plan a "common sense solution" to the problem of retaining quality teachers.

The amendment, which would have to be approved by 60 percent of voters if it makes it to the ballot, calls for the salaries of new teachers to be "no less than the national average" by 2012 and calls for the state to fund "any increase."

Amy Hollyfield, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

Rep. Stargel: Florida deserves 'a great teacher in every classroom'

The teacher tenure debate has reared its head in Florida, with Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, leading the charge. Her bill to extend the number of years before a teacher can earn tenure, expand performance pay options and other related changes comes to its first stop in the House this afternoon.

Stargel contends in a guest post to the Gradebook that her effort is in line with President Barack Obama's plans for education reform, and suggests that Florida should do no less. [The Gradebook welcomes original guest columns on Florida education issues. E-mail your contributions to solochek@sptimes.com for consideration.]

Here's what Stargel has to say about her proposal:

"This session, Florida has an unprecedented opportunity to create a world-class workforce that will attract investment and high wage jobs, and help return our economy to a path of prosperity for the long term. Elected officials from both sides of the aisle agree that great teachers produce great students.

"In his speech on [March 10], President Barack Obama said, 'From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents; it's the person standing at the front of the classroom.' In fact, research confirms effective teaching is the most important factor in determining a student’s success in school. Policy experts at the Education Trust, Stanford University and the University of Tennessee confirm that good teachers accelerate student progress, and produce student gains almost four times greater than the least effective teachers in the system.

"To transform education in Florida, I filed House Bill 1411 — the 2009 Teacher Quality Initiative. The initiative is a comprehensive approach to raising student achievement by ensuring a great teacher in every classroom.

Teachers, are you happier than ever?

Teachers are substantially more satisfied with their jobs and their pay than they were 25 years ago, and feel more respected by society, according to this recently released national survey. (Apparently they didn’t ask any of the teachers at the rally in Orlando.)

According to the 25th annual Metlife teacher survey, 62 percent of teachers are very satisfied with their careers, compared with 40 percent in 1984. Sixty-six percent say their jobs give them the opportunity to earn a decent salary, compared with 37 percent back then. And 66 percent say they feel respected, up from 47 percent.

The survey was conducted between May 23 and June 28, 2008 –- still in the early stages of the budget crisis now overwhelming Florida and gripping many other states.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Pinellas teacher a judge deemed incompetent pleads for mercy

A former Pinellas middle school teacher who a judge recently found to be incompetent pleaded for mercy this morning before the Pinellas County School Board voted 7-0 to accept the judge's recommendation to fire him.

Curtis Brown, 68, a former math teacher at John Hopkins Middle, asked if he could resign instead.

"I just don't want to be dismissed for being incompetent," Brown told the board. "I don't have to go back into the classroom. But allow me to go out with some kind of dignity."

Laurie Dart, the school district attorney who handled Brown's case, noted that the district began the process of firing Brown last May -– and that he could have resigned at any point. "The district put in a great deal of time, effort and money in these proceedings," she said. "At the 11th hour when the board is considering the judge's decision, this is the first time he has asked to resign."

Added superintendent Julie Janssen: "If we allow him to resign, we have no mechanism for other school systems (to see) that we did all of this work to prove he was not doing what was in the best interest of our students."

Donna Winchester and Ron Matus, Times Education Reporters

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Hillsborough teachers consider furloughs

Teachers might wind up taking two unpaid days off, and year-round school employees might take three days, under a contract proposal from the Hillsborough County School District.

Classroom Teachers Association executive director Yvonne Lyons said her union is just now evaluating the proposal, which officials presented in a meeting on Thursday.

Bargaining resumes on March 19.

The furloughs would save the district an estimated $11.4 million a year, Lyons said. Far more controversial, she said, is a proposal that retired teachers who are hired back accept beginning salaries rather than receiving credit for their experience. That difference could amount to $25,000 a year for those returning teachers, she said.

A recent survey showed that, compared to other cost-cutting measures, many teachers would be able to accept the furloughs. It might make sense to close the schools on the shorter Thanksgiving week, Lyons said, and add two days elsewhere on the calendar.

However, she said the lost earnings will be hardship, especially to lower-paid teaching assistants, clerical and custodial workers.

"At least half our our employees are blue-collar workers," she said. "Our teacher aides are earning barely above minimum wage."

-- Marlene Sokol, Times staff writer

Why would you leave a Pinellas school job?

The Pinellas school district should conduct confidential exit interviews when teachers transfer within the district, and when they leave the district, says a new recommendation from the District Monitoring and Advisory Committee.

"These surveys are to be anonymous and the information evaluated by HR, for patterns and areas of needed improvement," says the recommendation, which the DMAC approved last week.

Among the DMAC's other recommendations:

• The school board should set school improvement targets as the policies for site-based management develop, including expectations for principals
• The board should give principals at struggling schools more latitude in choosing teachers, including getting “first crack” at new hires

The DMAC did not take action on some ideas for changing teacher tenure, but chairwoman Adrien Helm said the idea isn't dead, only postponed until there’s time for more serious consideration. The DMAC is also still considering a recommendation to deal with a growing number of teachers who want to transfer out of resegregating schools.

The group will meet with the school board in April.

Have you left a position in a Pinellas school? Share your reason why here.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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A Democrat pushes teacher tenure reform

There's no doubt the Jeb/GOP imprint on the pending teacher tenure bill will lead some people to dismiss it outright. But the truth is, more and more calls for tenure reform are coming from blue-state, donkey types.

The latest example: Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.

As the Columbus Dispatch reported recently, Strickland, a Democrat, is pushing a far-reaching bill that would:

• Judge teachers on student achievement;
• Make it easier to fire bad teachers; and
• Delay eligibility for tenure from three years, where it is now in Ohio (and in Florida), to nine years.

The Dispatch quotes Raegen Miller, a senior policy analyst for the left-leaning Center for American Progress: "Currently, everybody knows a fair number of teachers wind up getting tenure and then proceed to be chronically ineffective."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Teacher layoffs: Last hired, first fired?

Marion County schools aren't unlike many others in Florida or the nation. When it comes to cutting staff in order to save money, the teachers with the least experience in the district are the first ones to get pink slips.

Late last week, Marion's 522 first- and second-year teachers learned they wouldn't get new contracts, the Ocala Star-Banner reported.

That could be exactly the wrong solution, experts tell Education Week.

"We're moving teachers around and fragmenting the experience for the kids, and class sizes go up even more because we're protecting seniority," University of Washington education professor Marguerite Roza told the paper. "We're not making a decision that's in the best interest of kids."

Can teachers be guilty of malpractice?

There's more to the Jeb Bush-backed bill that we told you about Friday than just doing away with teacher tenure. Among other interesting provisions: A requirement that the state Board of Education adopt rules to define "educational malpractice," and that the Department of Education annually report how many teachers are guilty of that by district.

The draft doesn't offer any more details, except to say the definition "shall be based upon multiyear, objective data on declines in student performance." It also adds "educational malpractice" to the state's list of fireable offenses for teachers.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Bills to make it easier to fire Florida teachers

A sweeping plan to make it easier to fire bad teachers and put a bigger spotlight on teacher quality is headed to the Florida Legislature.

The plan, a priority of one of former Gov. Jeb Bush's education foundations, would essentially gut teacher tenure, a status encoded in state law that gives teachers special protections against being fired.

Instead of permanent "professional service" contracts, teachers would get short-term contracts – annual contracts for the first 10 years, then five-year contracts after that, according to draft legislation obtained by the Gradebook. The plan would only apply to new teachers hired after July 2009, and would not affect the 170,000 teachers currently in the system.

If they're wearing blue, it must be federal stimulus day

United School Employees of Pasco members wore black to mourn their salary steps and raises. They wore red to protest the School Board's budget. Now they're planning to don blue on Tuesday to show support for the federal stimulus package working its way through Congress.

Here's how the flier describes the game plan:

"Nationwide and here in Florida our schools and essential services are facing draconian cuts due to the economic crisis. The AFT strongly supports efforts like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan and is actively challenging proposed cuts to vital services. Let's send a clear message that strengthening education is crucial to restoring and preserving opportunity in this country."

"Even those of us in Pasco County care," USEP president Lynne Webb told the Gradebook. "We stand in unity for the package, and in making sure that education gets its fair share."

Education's share has been a question mark as senators have slashed some of the money for public schools that the House included in its plan. See a comparison of the main differences, as compiled by the Associated Press. And stay tuned.

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Should teachers be mandated to make house calls?

To help struggling black male students, a state council is recommending that teachers and principals be required to make quarterly home visits and weekly phone calls.

The suggestion is one of many in the just released 2008 report of the Florida Council on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, a group whose creation in 2006 was strongly backed by then St. Petersburg state representative and now Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Frank Peterman. The education section begins on page 51.

The report notes that 80 percent of black males in Florida high schools are scoring below grade level on the FCAT, and that by one measure, only about one-third of them are graduating on schedule. The home-visit recommendation specifically targets the "parents of students who are earning less than a C average or are clearly underperforming even if their grades are on average a C or better."

Among other council recommendations:

• Better tracking of student disciplinary actions.
• Hiring more black teachers.
• And the creation of voluntary orientation programs for the parents of black male students entering high school.

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

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Teach, teach, teach, that's all you ever do

As if budget cuts and salary freezes don't make Florida teachers mad enough, now comes a new national report on teacher development that says American teachers spend far more time teaching students than do their peers in other industrialized countries, and far less time planning, collaborating with colleagues and getting meaningful professional development.

U.S. teachers spend about 80 percent of their total working time teaching, says the report from the National Staff Development Council, compared to about 60 percent for teachers in the 30-member Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In South Korea, Japan and Singapore - countries often held up as education models – teachers only spend about 35 percent of their time teaching.

"The United States is squandering a significant opportunity to leverage improvements in teacher knowledge to improve school and student performance," former North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. writes in the report. "Other nations, our competitors, have made support for teachers and teacher learning a top priority with significant results. In these countries, students learn and achieve more. Teachers stay in the field longer and are more satisfied with their work."

The American Federation of Teachers quickly praised the report. In a news release, AFT president Randi Weingarten said:

"Recently, some policymakers have proposed so-called teacher quality reforms that, perversely, would make the teaching profession less attractive, undermine teacher morale and collaboration, and do nothing to help teachers teach and students learn. This report points to a better way forward, and we hope policymakers embrace the research-based measures described in this report, which have proven successful in other nations."

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Budget cuts may bury differential pay for teachers

Another ink-worthy idea we thought we'd get to write about during the legislative session looks like it's biting the dust.

Back in September, we told you that state Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, then chair of the Senate education committee, was talking to Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith about an idea to put a differential pay component into the state's existing merit pay programs. In other words, teachers who earn merit pay through MAP, or the bonus plan for national board-certified teachers, or through school recognition money, might get a bigger share of the pie if they're getting gains out of high-poverty students.

Alas, the idea appears stalled. Department of Education spokesman Tom Butler told the Gradebook that DOE is still talking with Gov. Charlie Crist's office about the possibility of pursuing the idea during the session. But budget cuts may get in the way.

"Something like this is going to be perceived as a new program" whether it requires new money or not, Butler said. He said DOE doesn't think the Legislature will have time to take it up, and "we're focusing our legislative efforts on other areas."

Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey said the governor's office was still planning for the session and had not made any final decisions about several initiatives, including the differential pay idea. But, "We are mindful of the current economic challenges and may limit our focus to existing programs or those programs that provide a measurable cost savings."

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

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Poll: Reasonable protection?

Should Florida adopt a law that would force school districts to steer any new money to teacher pay before giving administrators raises?
Yes, without teachers you have no education.
No, the state should stop telling districts what to do.

New teachers cut, weak links stay?

It's not a good time to be a teacher in Florida, but especially if you're a young teacher.

As budget cuts have forced districts to look everywhere for savings, many have turned their sights to teachers on annual contract, with the latest example making headlines being down in Indian River County. But is this really the best thing to do?

Wouldn't it be better if school districts let their worst teachers go, whether they were rookies or veterans? That's what the left-leaning Center for American Progress argues in a recent issue brief:

"Dismissing the least experienced teachers may have a negative effect on average teacher quality.

"Some of the most energetic and positive teachers are those with very little experience. For example, Teach for America corps members, who are carefully selected for academic skill and commitment to working in high-poverty schools, have been shown to be at least as effective as more experienced teachers. And what about teachers who are new to their current employer but have documented records of success elsewhere? They are just as vulnerable to being laid off as hapless rookies."

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

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Judge: Pinellas teacher should be fired for incompetence

In a rare teacher-firing case, a state hearing administrative judge is recommending that Pinellas fire a middle school math teacher for incompetence and insubordination.

Pinellas proved that Curtis Brown, 68, who was suspended without pay last year from John Hopkins Middle School in St. Petersburg, failed to prepare adequate lesson plans or teach the assigned subject matter, and did not improve despite repeated attempts by administrators to help him, says the 17-page recommended order filed Friday by Judge Jeff B. Clark.

School Board attorney Laurie Dart said the ruling should send a message to principals, who often complain that documenting the shortcomings of problem teachers takes too much time, and that because of protections built into state law it isn't likely to result in a teacher's removal anyway.

"I hope this case helps administrators realize that their hard work may result in something," she told the Gradebook this morning.

Florida gets C- for retaining young teachers

That's the bad news, according to a National Council on Teacher Quality report, released this morning, that takes a hard look at how well states are holding on to effective, new teachers. The good news, which isn't really good, is that the highest grade any state received was a B-.

The NCTQ analysis looked at state policies in 15 areas that fit three major headings: identifying effective teachers, keeping the good ones and booting the bad. Florida got a C in the first category and a C- in the last two.