John O'Connor is the Miami-based education reporter for StateImpact Florida. John previously covered politics, the budget and taxes for The (Columbia, S.C) State. He is a graduate of Allegheny College and the University of Maryland.
Some Florida school districts have suspended FCAT testing after having problems connecting to the online exam.
UPDATE: Education Commissioner Pam Stewart has sent a letter to Pearson saying she expects “a resolution and explanation for this immediately.”
“This failure is inexcusable,” Stewart wrote. “Florida’s students and teachers work too hard on learning to be distracted by these needless and avoidable technological issues.”
Read Stewart’s letter below.
Original post:
Schools are suspending today’s FCAT testing because some school districts are having computer issues.
The Florida Department of Education says the problem is with testing firm Pearson. The problem is not statewide, they said, but they’ve advised districts having issues to suspend testing.
The Tampa Bay Times reports Pasco County schools have stopped testing. Pasco County schools’ testing director said Leon, Seminole and Brevard schools are reporting similar issues.
Here’s the note the department sent to school districts this morning:
Good morning,
As some of you already know, Pearson is experiencing difficulty with a hosting provider this morning, which is causing issues with testing (both TestNav and TestHear) and accessing the PearsonAccess website for test management. The issue does not seem to be statewide, but several districts have reported issues.
Academica president Fernando Zulueta, at a 2011 meeting in the Bahamas with company leaders. The company is included in a national federal audit of charter schools.
UPDATE: The U.S. Department of Education audit is a broad review of charter schools across the country and not limited to Academica or the Mater Academy network it manages, a fact confirmed by the federal agency.
Academica disputes the U.S. Department of Education’s initial findings and said they have responded to the agency.
We’ve updated the headline for clarity.
ORIGINAL POST: The U.S. Department of Education is investigating the business practices of Florida’s largest for-profit charter school operator, according to a Miami Herald scoop. The federal agency is concerned about conflicts of interest between Academica Corp. and the Mater Academy network it manages.
The auditors found that three of the schools in the Mater network — Mater Academy, Mater High and Mater East — entered into leases with development companies tied to the Zulueta family. Two of the leases were executed while Zulueta sat on the Mater board.
In addition, Mater Academy hired an architectural firm from 2007 through 2012 that employs Fernando Zulueta’s brother-in-law, state Rep. Erik Fresen, the report said.
“We identified four related-party transactions, two of which indicated, at a minimum, the appearance of conflicts of interest between Mater Academy and its CMO [charter-management company],” the Mater Academy in Hialeah Gardens and its nonprofit support organization, Mater Academy Foundation.
“Mater Academy shares the same board of directors with the foundation and based on our review of the board of directors meeting minutes at Mater Academy, there is evidence of Mater Academy’s board of directors transferring public funds to the foundation,” the auditors noted.
Those grades depend a lot on student FCAT scores. So Hillsborough Superintendent MaryEllen Elia took a moment pump up students at West Tampa’s Graham Elementary School before this week’s testing.
“Next week you’re going to have an opportunity to do great again, right?” Elia asked.
“Yeeesssss,” the kids responded.
“Who’s gonna do great?” Elia asked.
She got silence in response.
“You better all have your hands up,” another teacher cut in, drawing laughs from the room.
Florida students are taking FCAT math, reading and writing exams for the final time this year. The test started as a way to measure student progress. But anger with FCAT has grown as state policies added more consequences to the test scores.
Some parents say the pressure is too much. That one bad day testing could have long-term consequences. A small group of parents are pulling their kids out of the FCAT and encouraging other parents to follow.
Florida Parents Against Common Core protest at a national meeting discussing the standards in June in Orlando.
A coalition of groups opposing Florida’s use of new math and language arts standards say they will try to force the Legislature to call a special session to address two bills which would put the standards on hold.
The gambit is a long shot. Twenty percent of the Legislature must call for the special session, and a super majority must vote to approve it.
Activists are unhappy HB 25 and SB 1316 have yet to get a hearing with the 60-day legislative session winding down. The identical bills would halt implementation of the standards until the state completes an analysis of how much the standards will cost, and public hearings are held in every Congressional district. They say House and Senate leadership are blocking the bills.
“We worked so hard just to get that bill; find someone to carry the bill for us,” said Laura Zorc, a co-founder of Florida Parents Against Common Core. “They’re saying our concerns aren’t valid. Why not hear the bill? Why not let it go for a vote? If it was going to fail, then let it fail.”
Throw away the old prep guides because the SAT will be changing in 2016.
The new SAT will take a little less time, focus on words students are more likely to encounter and have fewer answers for each multiple choice question, according to a preview from the College Board, to non-profit which oversees the college entrance exam.
College Board president David Coleman is the same guy who helped lead development of the Common Core State Standards fully adopted by 44 states including Florida. The SAT changes will incorporate ideas and concepts emphasized in Common Core.
Here’s how things will change overall and why, according to College Board’s Chief of Assessment Cynthia Schmeiser, from the Huffington Post:
Gov. Rick Scott at Tampa's Graham Elementary School.
House and Senate leaders are divided over whether students who receive a tax credit scholarship to attend a private school should have to take the state’s standardized test.
“I think all of our education system likes measurement,” Scott said. “They want to get better. I have not met a teacher that doesn’t say ‘Look, I believe in measurement.’ We gotta have the right measurement for every school that we have. And I support what’s happening in our schools. We’re clearly doing the right thing when it comes to the results.
Wyrosdick said the school district has invested about $3.5 million to buy and upgrade infrastructure to meet the minimum specifications for testing systems. The standards are required but not funded by the Florida Department of Education, so a recent half-cent sales tax has financed the purchases.
There are other problems, too. Guidelines that dictate how far apart students taking the test must sit mean that in a close-quarter computer lab, not every available computer can be utilized.
Scheduling is a big problem because most classrooms aren’t outfitted with enough computers to conduct a standardized test, said Bill Emerson, Santa Rosa County assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment.
“It used to be if we had 300 kids taking the FCAT, we’d put them all in the cafeteria,” he said. “Now it takes 10 different classrooms to do that. And most of our schools don’t have 10 computer labs.
Randy Avent, left, shakes hands with Florida Polytechnic Board of Trustees Chair Rob Gidel.
Randy Avent has a career of turning research into new defense, computer science and life science projects.
Florida Polytechnic’s Board of Trustees said they want Avent to inspire future entrepreneurs at the Polk County campus.
Avent was the board’s unanimous choice for the university’s first president.
“Dr. Avent personifies the innovative, entrepreneurial qualities that we hope to inspire in our future students,” Board of Trustees Chair Rob Gidel said in a statement. “As an institution focused on hands-on learning, we’re proud to welcome Dr. Avent, who has impressive experience and demonstrated commitment to applied research and academics.”
Avent is the associate vice chancellor of research development at North Carolina State University. He’s also led research for the Department of Defense and worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Labortory.
Avent will now negotiate a contract with the university, which the Lakeland Ledger reported is expected to come with a salary between $310,750 to $550,000. And the Florida Board of Governors must approve Avent’s selection.
Florida’s 12th university is scheduled to open in August.
Florida schools are scheduled to complete the switch to new K-12 math and language arts standards based on Common Core this fall. New standards will require a new test.
FCAT is going away — with one exception. Fifth and eighth grade students will still take the FCAT science exam. Florida State University physics professor Paul Cottle noted the exam will stagger on:
.@StateImpactFL Not correct. The Science FCAT at grades 5 and 8 will continue on, zombie-like.
In a column written for the Tampa Bay Times, Elia notes the school district has 85 to 100 medical emergencies requiring an ambulance every most months. She said the investigation found no criminal conduct, but that the school district has learned from Isabella Herrera’s death:
Despite testimony from several medical experts, there is no conclusive opinion as to whether different decisions on the bus would have yielded a different outcome. Regardless, our school district has worked to improve the reliability of our bus radio system and bolstered training for drivers, emphasizing that bus drivers can and should use their personal cellphones to call 911 when warranted. We have reached out for input from parents and professionals to see how we could improve services for special needs children — and have made multiple changes based on that input.
At the April 1 School Board meeting, at which the $800,000 settlement was finalized, Isabella’s mother made an impassioned plea to board members and to the school district to keep her daughter in mind when we make decisions regarding the most vulnerable among our students. I know that board members have taken those words to heart — and I certainly have.
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