|
The State Board of Education is considering changes to the way Florida grades our schools. These changes will be considered at their next meeting on Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 7:30 am in Tallahassee.
Please see this link State Board Changes to School Grading for details on the proposed changes, meeting location, and how you can help our students.
You can download this explanation and forward to your friends and colleagues.
They need your voice right away.
What Proposed Changes to School Grading Means to You Education policy changes at the state level have very real consequences for children at the school level. On Tuesday, February 28, 2012, the State Board of Education will vote on changing the way they grade our schools. | Proposed Change | What it Means | | 1. Include students with disabilities & 2nd year English language learners in the school grade for their “proficiency” score on the FCAT. | 1. Right now, ESE & ELL students are counted in the school grade to determine if they made learning gains/progress. We want our students to be counted, but not punished. Many of them will not be considered “proficient” by the same standards as other children, but they are not failures. If their performance at the best of their abilities counts against their school grade they will become a liability to schools and much of the progress of last decades will be lost. Local centers serving our most challenged students will be graded like all schools and will become automatic “F” schools, enter “Intervene” status and principals & ½ of the staff will have to change. MAJOR INCREASE IN D & F SCHOOLS; FORMERLY A, B & Cs | | 2. Require students who make a 1 or 2 on the FCAT to make more than 1 year's growth or the school grade will be penalized. | 2. Students already struggling & facing great challenges will have to make significantly more than 1 year's growth or be considered a failure. One years' growth is an accomplishment and it takes incredible work for children already behind their peers, including our ESE & ELL students. When the cut scores for what growth means keep changing mid-year, how will our students achieve? INCREASE IN D & F SCHOOLS; FORMERLY A, B & Cs | | 3. Reading Performance Threshold: schools must have at least 25% of their students reading at proficient or they will become an automatic “F.” | 3. No matter what else a school has done to meet state guidelines for its letter grade – performance in math, growth of level 1 & 2 students, graduation rate increases – none of it will matter if the school doesn't have 25% of its students at a level 3 or higher on the reading FCAT. They will become an automatic “F” school and enter intervene status, which will require principal & staff changes and intervention from the state. RETURN SCHOOLS THAT HAVE IMPROVED TO F STATUS | No Excuses. That's what we hear about the need for measuring students – no excuses and we agree. All students should be counted and their progress monitored, but not all students are the same. Our ESE & ELL students must be counted and their progress evaluated, but to pretend that their progress should be identical on standardized tests to a child not facing those challenges is ridiculous. Students scoring a Level 1 or 2 on one test, one day are not failures. To implement rules that require them to make more than 1 years' growth, when research shows how unlikely that is to happen every year, is simply setting those children & their school up for failure. The increased costs, both financially for schools and emotionally for families are not warranted. So why do it? What Can You Do? Contact all 7 members of the State Board of Education and the Commissioner and tell them to try again. Find a way to count our ESE and ELL children in the school grades without punishing them. Those children work harder every day to achieve what comes so easily to many others. Ask them why they are changing the rules now that will be implemented this year? If this is about what's best for students, wouldn't they want each school to start the year off knowing the new requirements? These changes will plunge many schools into “Intervene” status. How do they plan to pay for all of those costs? Finally, how will these changes actually HELP our students? Superintendents from around Florida have offered options to implement the law without hurting children. Ask the Board to listen to them. Who to Contact with Your Concerns: 1. Commissioner of Education, Gerard Robinson (850) 245-0505 2. State Board of Education Members: (850) 245-9661 Ms. Kathleen Shanahan
Mr. Roberto Martinez
Mrs. Sally Bradshaw
Mr. Gary Chartrand
Dr. A.K. Desai
Mrs. Barbara S. Feingold
Mr. John R. Padget 3. Complete the State Board's Survey form, found here:
Download the form, fill in your comments, save to your computer and email to ARM@fldoe.org State Board of Education Meeting to consider these changes: February 28, 2012 7:30 a.m. Department of Education
Turlington Building, Suite 1703
325 West Gaines Street
Tallahassee, Florida Speak Up. Make a Call. Send an Email. Fill Out a Survey. |
The State Board of Education is considering changes to the way Florida grades our schools. These changes will be considered at their next meeting on Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 7:30 am in Tallahassee.
Please see this link State Board Changes to School Grading for details on the proposed changes, meeting location, and how you can help our students.
You can download this explanation and forward to your friends and colleagues.
They need your voice right away.
What Proposed Changes to School Grading Means to You Education policy changes at the state level have very real consequences for children at the school level. On Tuesday, February 28, 2012, the State Board of Education will vote on changing the way they grade our schools. | Proposed Change | What it Means | | 1. Include students with disabilities & 2nd year English language learners in the school grade for their “proficiency” score on the FCAT. | 1. Right now, ESE & ELL students are counted in the school grade to determine if they made learning gains/progress. We want our students to be counted, but not punished. Many of them will not be considered “proficient” by the same standards as other children, but they are not failures. If their performance at the best of their abilities counts against their school grade they will become a liability to schools and much of the progress of last decades will be lost. Local centers serving our most challenged students will be graded like all schools and will become automatic “F” schools, enter “Intervene” status and principals & ½ of the staff will have to change. MAJOR INCREASE IN D & F SCHOOLS; FORMERLY A, B & Cs | | 2. Require students who make a 1 or 2 on the FCAT to make more than 1 year's growth or the school grade will be penalized. | 2. Students already struggling & facing great challenges will have to make significantly more than 1 year's growth or be considered a failure. One years' growth is an accomplishment and it takes incredible work for children already behind their peers, including our ESE & ELL students. When the cut scores for what growth means keep changing mid-year, how will our students achieve? INCREASE IN D & F SCHOOLS; FORMERLY A, B & Cs | | 3. Reading Performance Threshold: schools must have at least 25% of their students reading at proficient or they will become an automatic “F.” | 3. No matter what else a school has done to meet state guidelines for its letter grade – performance in math, growth of level 1 & 2 students, graduation rate increases – none of it will matter if the school doesn't have 25% of its students at a level 3 or higher on the reading FCAT. They will become an automatic “F” school and enter intervene status, which will require principal & staff changes and intervention from the state. RETURN SCHOOLS THAT HAVE IMPROVED TO F STATUS | No Excuses. That's what we hear about the need for measuring students – no excuses and we agree. All students should be counted and their progress monitored, but not all students are the same. Our ESE & ELL students must be counted and their progress evaluated, but to pretend that their progress should be identical on standardized tests to a child not facing those challenges is ridiculous. Students scoring a Level 1 or 2 on one test, one day are not failures. To implement rules that require them to make more than 1 years' growth, when research shows how unlikely that is to happen every year, is simply setting those children & their school up for failure. The increased costs, both financially for schools and emotionally for families are not warranted. So why do it? What Can You Do? Contact all 7 members of the State Board of Education and the Commissioner and tell them to try again. Find a way to count our ESE and ELL children in the school grades without punishing them. Those children work harder every day to achieve what comes so easily to many others. Ask them why they are changing the rules now that will be implemented this year? If this is about what's best for students, wouldn't they want each school to start the year off knowing the new requirements? These changes will plunge many schools into “Intervene” status. How do they plan to pay for all of those costs? Finally, how will these changes actually HELP our students? Superintendents from around Florida have offered options to implement the law without hurting children. Ask the Board to listen to them. Who to Contact with Your Concerns: 1. Commissioner of Education, Gerard Robinson (850) 245-0505 2. State Board of Education Members: (850) 245-9661 Ms. Kathleen Shanahan
Mr. Roberto Martinez
Mrs. Sally Bradshaw
Mr. Gary Chartrand
Dr. A.K. Desai
Mrs. Barbara S. Feingold
Mr. John R. Padget 3. Complete the State Board's Survey form, found here:
Download the form, fill in your comments, save to your computer and email to ARM@fldoe.org State Board of Education Meeting to consider these changes: February 28, 2012 7:30 a.m. Department of Education
Turlington Building, Suite 1703
325 West Gaines Street
Tallahassee, Florida Speak Up. Make a Call. Send an Email. Fill Out a Survey. |
