Why are three dozen parents, teachers, principals, business leaders and others spending three days in Clearwater talking about education?
That’s what reporters asked interim Education Commissioner Pam Stewart about this week’s summit called by Gov. Rick Scott.
During a break Monday, Stewart took questions from reporters. What exactly did she hope to accomplish? Stewart said she’s here to listen, but it isn’t clear what else might come from the three-day meeting.
Here’s an excerpt of the Q & A:
Q: What kind of consensus are you trying to reach? And what are you planning on telling the governor about this event?
A: It certainly is a great opportunity to bring everyone together. I’m so appreciative to Gov. Scott that he has provided this opportunity, but his focus is on education and he believes that this is such an important opportunity to bring everyone together and to hear from everyone.
And what we plan to gain is to listen, to hear what everyone has to say, to hear what’s most important, how we want to focus on Florida’s students, moving the bar, moving ahead and keeping the focus on education and doing the right thing for our students.
Miami-Dade superintendent Alberto Carvalho introduces himself at Gov. Rick Scott's education summit.
Florida educators have kicked off a three-day education summit in Clearwater to discuss standards, testing, the state school grading formula and teacher evaluations.
Gov. Rick Scott invited more than three dozen people to the summit, including parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, representatives from unions and other professional groups, lawmakers, business leaders and others.
So far, participants have introduced themselves and laid out their policy beliefs by way of praising strengths of Florida’s accountability system. Department of Education staff is briefing attendees on the four summit topics.
Interim education commissioner Pam Stewart said the state has a “moral, ethical and legal obligation” to make sure tests actually measure Florida’s education standards. Stewart also said the formulas for school grades and teacher evaluations should be easy to understand.
Gov. Rick Scott has called a three-day education summit in Clearwater, starting today. Will Scott stake out new positions on Common Core, testing, school grades or teacher evaluations?
Scott has put four items on the agenda: State education standards known as Common Core; the test which will assess those standards and (mostly) replace the FCAT; how Florida should revise its A-through-F school grading formula; and teacher evaluations, which state law requires are based in part on student test scores.
The governor, State Board of Education and Republican legislative leaders have supported all four ideas for years. But cracks have started to form on some issues.
State Board of Education members have criticized the school grading formula’s complexity. Lawmakers had to adjust the teacher evaluation law to eliminate teachers being evaluated on students who were never in their classroom. And Common Core has riled education activists on the political right and left who worry about a once-size-fits-all education system, loss of local control, more testing and more.
And Scott is running for reelection. He’s struggled to boost his poll numbers since taking office in 2011. He’s taken more of an interest in education issues recently, calling for more school funding after initially calling for cuts and pushing for teacher raises.
Here’s what we’re watching at the summit this week:
Readers tell us what they think of Common Core standards.
All week we’ve been posting answers from teachers to three questions about the Common Core State Standards (Part 1 is here, part 2 is here, part 3 is here and a superintendent is here).
One criticism we’ve received from readers is that no teacher is going to bash the standards or training they received if they want to keep their job. Readers (not all from Florida) have also weighed in with their own thoughts on the standards.
Job: Superintendent of the St. Johns County School District
Q: How well prepared do you feel for the Common Core?
A: Better than a year ago. We’re not there yet, I would say we’re probably 50% there. I am excited about it. It’s going to take a lot of training on the part of teachers and parents, but I think we’re a good ways there and I think we’ll be there in ‘14, ‘15.
Teresa Stillman teaches at Cannella Elementary in Hillsborough County.
Here’s another round of Q & A with teachers about the switch to Common Core State Standards. part 1 is here and part 2 is here.
Name: Teresa Stillman School: Cannella Elementary in Hillsborough County Teaches: Fifth Grade Experience: 17 years
Q: How well prepared do you feel for the switch to Common Core?
A: I think I feel really well-prepared. The math department has been really good about phasing in lots of training for us. In our faculty meetings at school we’ve been talking about them. And the kids have started them in Kindergarten and first grade too, so my kids will have a background by the time they get to me – which is nice.
Joanne Land, right, sorts vocabulary words into tiers to learn more about how Common Core standards work. Land was one of hundreds of parents who attended a recent Parent University session. Many parents said they wanted to learn more about Common Core standards and testing.
School is back in session, and so is Parent University.
Parent University is a partnership between the Alliance for Public Schools and the Hillsborough County school district. Parents can take classes to learn more about district school choice offerings, the transition to middle or high school and how to find financial aid for college. Some sessions are offered in Spanish.
New school year, new education polls -- often with conflicting results.
The start of the school year in Florida and many parts of the country has meant a glut of new education polls asking about shared education standards, standardized testing, teacher evaluations and policies adopted by Florida and other states.
The most noteworthy poll is the annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll of education issues. This is the 45th year of the poll. The poll sampled 1,001 adults and had a margin of error of 3.8 percent.
The PDK/Gallup poll found broad belief that two major education reforms will have little effect on U.S. schools.
Just 22 percent of respondents said the increased use of standardized testing to measure school performance has helped. 36 percent of those who responded said the testing has hurt schools, while 41 percent said it made no difference.
Florida is one of 45 states which has fully adopted new education standards known as Common Core, but the PDK/Gallup poll shows only 38 percent of those responding had heard of Common Core. Even for those with children in public schools, less than half were familiar with Common Core.
Yesterday we published the answers of two teachers. Here’s what another two teachers think about Common Core.
Name: Alexis Hill
School: Thomas P. Corr Elementary in Hillsborough County
Teaches: 2nd grade
Experience: 7 years
Q: How well prepared do you feel for the switch to Common Core?
A: It’s going to be new this year for second grade, so it will definitely still be new ideas and new standards and things are changing – but they constantly change in education. It’s different, but I still feel like we are getting trainings. It started throughout last school year and then the opportunity for the summer trainings have been tremendous. There’s been lots of availabilities for you to come in. And just today I walked in and they found a training for me. The opportunity is there for us. It’ll be new, but I feel like we’ve been prepared.
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