Celebrating mediocrity in Florida's public schools
By Dan Gelber
Wednesday Jul 9, 2008

I don't relish being the guy that is constantly throwing cold water on the party, but the release of school grades this week came with the usual self-adulation from all the usual suspects, especially the Department of Education who announced that all is well in Florida's school system because more schools are getting higher grades.

People need to pause for a moment and remember just what the school grades reflect. Florida's school grades are premised solely on how well students reach minimal competence (grade level) in three subjects. Nothing else. Let me repeat, school grades only reflect minimal competence in a few subjects. They don't calculate whether kids are high-achieving. They don't incorporate whether children are availing themselves of gifted programs, how they perform in history or civics, whether they are taking higher level math or science, or what foreign language courses are available. No where in the school grade is the graduation rate of a high school calculated or the retention rate of kids in lower grades. Not one elementary school grade included whether the school has an art or music program, or whether they are using enrichment programs. In short, most of the things parents care most about are not calculated anywhere in the school grade. Just minimal competence.

Now if you were shopping for a school would you ask the principal "how many kids in your school have reached minimal competence?" Or would you more likely ask "How big are the classes?" or "Tell me about your special programs?" or "How many of your kids graduate and are placed in college?"

The folly of the school grading system is that it is indexed to only minimal competence and, therefore, declares success upon reaching an absurdly low water mark. The real problem is that because school grades have become so important, all the other things that matter are wholly ignored. Florida schools have made the steadfast pursuit of mediocrity their singular goal, sadly at the expense of true achievement.

So, I'm glad some of the schools are doing better, but no one should be celebrating. Florida has the worst high school graduation rate in the nation, and until we get real about Florida's public education challenges, we will be forced to continue pretending that reaching minimal competence is somehow something that is worth celebrating.
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