ORLANDO SENTINEL EXCLUSIVE

Jeb Bush has few regrets on education
The ex-governor likes his legacy, including FCAT, he says in an upcoming magazine article.

Dave Weber | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted May 20, 2007

Former Gov. Jeb Bush says he wishes he had done a better job of convincing educators and parents that the FCAT exam and other education reforms were necessary and would improve Florida schools.

In an interview being published this week, he defends the policies he championed and speaks proudly of students' gains in reading and math. But he conceded that he could have done more to get critics on board.

"If I could have changed anything," he told Education Next magazine, "it would have been to better communicate to parents, teachers and principals both the need for reform and the incremental nature of progress that can be made."

The Orlando Sentinel was given an advance copy of the interview. In it Bush, who left office in January, talks about school choice, the drive to raise standards for student performance, merit pay for teachers and changes he favors in the federal No Child Left Behind law.

A few regrets...Allow vouchers, he says....

Dave Weber can be reached at dweber@orlandosentinel.com or 407-320-0915.

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Read the entire piece and make comment on The Orlando Sentinel Web site.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-jeb2007...0,2582884.story

Here's the interview with Jeb in the Hoover Institution's Education Next magazine.

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The Education Governor
An interview with Florida governor Jeb Bush

http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/7557667.html

Here's a piece from the St. Pete Times that comprehensively summarizes Jeb's education policies. The article was written just prior to Jeb's leaving office.

The piece also refers to Jim Warford, former k-12 chancellor under Bush and current director of the Florida Association of School Administrators, who is under current consideration for the Commisioner of Education post.

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Imprint carved on system: F-C-A-T

LETITIA STEIN
Published December 31, 2006
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[font="Arial"]No governor has done more to change the way Florida students learn than Jeb Bush.

Or created more controversy along the way.

Bush introduced the nation's first statewide voucher program, only to have it tossed out by the state's highest court. He banned the use of racial preferences in university admissions, prompting sit-ins and protest marches.

But the governor is best known for using a single, high-stakes test to reward or punish schools and crack down on social promotion.

Eight years later, polls show a majority of Floridians oppose Bush's decision to make the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test the centerpiece of a strict accountability system.

Bush defends the test, pointing to signs of rising achievement, especially among elementary students.

"The fact is that more kids are learning now, and we're not dumbing down the curriculum to have that be achieved," he said.

For better or worse, Bush transformed the education landscape in Florida....

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Read the entire piece and comment on The St. Pete Times Web site.
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/31/State/Im...ed_on_sys.shtml

Following money leads to blind alley
By GLENN HENDERSON

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Close your eyes, concentrate hard and wrap your mind around this assumption, just for one fleeting moment:

FCATs are a valid way to measure the performance and quality of our schools, teachers and students.

Got it? Hold on to that for just a moment longer.

Martin County schools received all A's this past year on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. To wit: Martin County public schools are all top of the line.

OK. You now can relax your brain.

Now let's move on to stories by The Palm Beach Post's Rachel Simmonsen in the past two weeks concerning strife in the school district over bonuses.

The first involves "school recognition money," which the state gives to those schools whose students perform well on FCATs.

The theory behind this goes back to former Gov. Jeb Bush and his cronies, who believed the only way to improve our schools is to dangle money in front of them as an incentive to excel.

The premise: Teachers will work harder, longer and better if they know they may get some extra cash in their paychecks.

Sounds simple, but as we can see, something has been lost in the translation.

Plenty of hard feelings were left

Simmonsen described conflict at Warfield Elementary School in Indiantown, where teachers and noninstructional staffers bitterly disputed how to split the $60,000 awarded to the school.

They grappled with a dilemma repeated at schools elsewhere in Martin County and all over the state: Should teachers get all the money? What about teachers who weren't there last year? What about office staffers or even janitors: They keep the school clean, but does that affect FCAT performance?

The debate finally was resolved with most of the money going to teachers. But plenty of hard feelings were left.

"It was a side of people I've never seen," the assistant principal said.

"I never thought money could divide this staff," an office worker said.

But the nastiness doesn't end there.

Simmonsen also wrote about similar issues with the Special Teachers Are Rewarded program, yet another way for state education officials to bait teachers with bonus money, instead of merely giving them a bigger paycheck.

'Rich' schools get the most cash

The district's "best" teachers share bonus money based on a complicated assessment of student performance - there's that FCAT again - and personal evaluations. But here arise more questions: How do you rate teachers fairly when their students vary so greatly from subject to subject, school to school?

And what about teachers whose students don't take FCATs? In Martin County's case, a bizarre districtwide test is crafted in each subject area that supposedly provides a level playing field to gauge performance.

But it doesn't work; wealthier schools almost always have an advantage. Teachers at "rich" schools usually get the most cash.

That might help explain why this year's districtwide teacher of the year, who also teaches at Warfield, somehow didn't qualify for STAR money.

We have in our schools a system that spreads money in many ways based on FCATs - those very same tests that supposedly show our Martin County schools are as good as they can be. After all, what's better than an A?

Let's wrap our minds around those two inconsistencies. In one instance, the FCAT-weighted system is supposed to be the best way to appraise our schools. At the same time, it's not a valid way to appraise our teachers.

Clearly, something doesn't add up.
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Read the article on palmbeachpost.com.
http://tinyurl.com/yqe2q4