"Now, let me be clear: This is not about the kind of testing that has mushroomed under No Child Left Behind. This is not about more tests. It's not about teaching to the test. And it's not about judging a teacher solely on the results of a single test.” ~ President Barack Obama
Read the entire post, "Public Education...A FLORIDA TEACHER'S POINT OF VIEW," on a blog by Mike Archer.
http://www.mike-archer.blogspot.com/
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Posted January 17, 2010
Teachers Plead for Cooperation: Will Florida Ever Hear Them?
States hustle to grab a piece of the federal Race to the Top grant. Awards go to “ambitious yet achievable plans” for education reform. The feds want us to work together for the good of students.
“We will scrutinize state applications for a coordinated commitment to reform,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Coordinated commitment. What a terrific idea. Sounds like a no-brainer.
Florida’s Department of Education wants the dough, but can’t seem to accept the “coordinated commitment” it takes to qualify.
Instead of teaming up with schools to get the job done, the education bosses of Florida appear frightened at the idea of sharing power.
So, instead of collaborating with local districts and teachers, FLDOE wants to use the federal grant to extend its same old big-government policies that aren’t working – policies that could end up costing our schools more than they deliver.
Such a waste. Had teachers, school principals, and school board members been included in a more meaningful way, Florida’s plan could be an efficient trendsetter. Instead, it’s a sad victim to a state government where leaders won’t share decision-making with the people who will be doing the work.
No wonder the teacher associations in most of Florida's 67 counties rejected the FLDOE's plan. These teachers are thinking about their students; FLDOE is just thinking about itself.
Building turf, hoarding power, pushing the same failed gimmicks euphemistically called reform. That won’t make schools stronger and it won’t improve learning.
People with little knowledge of how learning works want to blame teachers for not signing on to FLDOE’s plan, no matter what it says. After all, it’s more money, right? Actually, with teachers and school districts shut out of the process, there is no way of knowing. It could end up costing more than it delivers.
Consider this thought from Lake County Education Association President B Grassel, who recently spoke to the Lake County School Board:
"FLDOE wants us to sign on for four years. Would anyone purchase a car if the cost were unknown? If the interest rate and payments were unknown? If the make, model, mileage, and condition were unknown? ... FLDOE want districts to take a leap of faith and to trust them with a state plan that FLDOE admits is not complete."
Wondering why so many folks might not be willing to take that leap of faith? Examine these numbers:
Lake County lost nearly $19 million in school funds since 2007. Orange County lost $105 million. Osceola, $42 million. Seminole, $40 million. Sumter, $2 million. Volusia, nearly $54 million.
Check out www.FundEducationNow.org and have some aspirin handy if you want to keep checking the losses county-by-county around the state.
Trusting Tallahassee so far not only led to budget cuts, but also more high-stakes testing with fewer teachers to help children learn how to read, write, solve problems, and think. It has meant inadequate technology to help students prepare for the future, fewer electives for college-bound students, and less job training for those who are willing and able to go to work.
Just the sort of problems Race to the Top is supposed to help solve.
President Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan understand a very simple rule of business: If you want your plan to succeed, then you have to respect and include the people who will actually be doing the work.
Once again, it seems like a no-brainer.
Yet Florida’s DOE didn’t do that. Teachers got the brush off. Why? Could it be that the egos of our leaders in Tallahassee would not allow them to concede that somebody else involved in education might have an idea worth considering?
Consider this comment from Pat Santeramo, Broward Teachers Union president: “Sadly, (Florida Education Secretary Eric) Smith has twisted Obama's intentions for the grant funds in a power grab to pay for existing education initiatives that have repeatedly failed.”
The top-down attitude Santeramo describes needs to change. The education commissioner should be reaching out to teachers, principals and school board members. Instead, FLDOE prepared the grant application using, as Santeramo describes it “every old initiative that has already resulted in our schools being in a race to the bottom.”
Translation: More testing and blaming, less teamwork.
In her address to her school board, Grassel asks a question that deserves an answer: “Why can’t, or won’t, FLDOE agree to realistic revisions proposed by FEA, superintendent, and school board leaders?”
Of course teachers want the federal grant. But they want it to be used as intended – to help students. They are raising a warning flag here: Florida’s obsession with testing and blaming, wrapped in financial uncertainty, could make things worse, not better.
The decision not to sign was difficult, and took courage. Consider this comment by Kathy Donato, president of Osceola Classroom Teachers Association:
“We agonized over the decision. We knew it could be a public relations nightmare and appear that we were turning down millions of much-needed funding. While these are substantial amounts of money and worthy goals … unfortunately the Memorandum of Understanding and the accompanying documents that were issued from the Florida Department of Education ignore substantial portions of the objectives of Race to the Top...” ...