Florida is tempting cheating by basing teacher salaries on the results of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, Fred Grimm opines in the Miami Herald today.
Lawmakers required school districts create pay-for-performance systems where at least half a teacher’s evaluation is determined by an FCAT score. That sets Florida up for the same type of systematic cheating seen in Atlanta and under investigation in Pennsylvania schools, Grimm argues.
“Merit raises (the only raises permissible under the new Florida law) will ratchet up the temptation, warned Arizona State University professor Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, who has spent years studying the unintended consequences of high-stakes student testing. She said Wednesday that “it’s pretty clear” that the more consequences states tie to the outcome of the standardized tests, particularly merit pay or cash bonuses, the more cheating we’re likely to see.
Amrein-Beardsley led a team that surveyed 3,000 Arizona teachers. In her study, published last year, more than half admitted to manipulating the test scores on the Arizona standardized tests.”
Do you agree with Grimm?What other ways might FCAT and merit pay requirements change behavior?
Amanda Moreno at The Huffington Post attempts to peel apart the arguments used by the education reform advocates against those who oppose high-stakes student testing, performance pay and other measures states are adopting across the country.
Moreno’s piece is sure to provoke an argument, but one section seems worthy of discussion. Moreno notes that a teacher’s performance is as likely to be overestimated by a rating system as it is to be underestimated:
“Research has confirmed this caution, showing that a full one-fourth of teacher ratings will be wrong — in either direction. Thus, you might even say that test-based evaluation is “soft on accountability” since it protects many ineffective teachers.
Test-obsessed reformers have my greatest fear exactly wrong. I am not worried that hoards of qualified teachers will be fired, but rather that the uninspired ones will be left alone.”
If a quarter of teacher ratings are wrong, one way or the other, is fair to base a teacher’s pay on that system? Is it responsible? Can you count on those teacher evaluations?
Florida’s legislature approved a state law requiring school districts develop teacher performance pay systems. Hillsborough County schools are using a $100 million Gates Foundation grant to design a merit pay formula.
Feel free to have it out over the rest of Moreno’s piece as well.
Florida education leaders are meeting in Tampa today to discuss school funding, but do not expect the panel to endorse more money for schools.
Roberto Martinez, the state Board of Education member who pushed for the budget discussion, said his goal is to brainstorm ideas that would help schools do more with the resources they have. State revenue forecasts and the political climate mean schools will not see more money next year, Martinez said. Martinez hopes the discussion with school district, charter school, college and other education advocates will focus on policy changes to recommend to lawmakers and help the panel draft budget recommendations by this fall.
“If they are just asking for more money, that’s not very helpful,” Martinez said.
That stance disappoints Colleen Hill with Save Duval Schools, who planned to attend today’s meeting. The amount of school funding is an issue, Hill said, but said the discussion could be valuable if the board totals up the cost of state and federal mandates on schools.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, discusses upcoming Congressional debt vote.
The pending federal debt deal would protect a college grant program for low-income students, according to an email from the National College Access Network.
The future of of the federal Pell Grant program has been in doubt as Congress and President Barack Obama negotiated a deal on raising the debt limit. Last week Republicans criticized a plan to add $17 billion in a failed compromise proposal for Pell Grants, which determines eligibility by income and does not require students to repay grants of up to $5,550 per year.
The National College Access Network email notes the next debate is around the corner:
“This deal is a victory for advocates of Pell Grants! Thanks again for your hard work protecting these important dollars for our students.While this is an important victory for our students, the battle over Pell grant and other education funding will continue this fall. Congress must still pass a federal budget for FY12 (Oct 1, 2011 – Sept 30, 2012) which is subject to the spending limit set in this new deal. In addition, the bipartisan panel will be looking for another $1.2 – 1.5 trillion in cuts by November 23.”
Why are Broward County schools cutting 2,400 jobs — mostly teachers — and requiring unpaid leave when other district proposed budgets avoid layoffs? The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has posted a Q&A about Broward’s budget problems. One answer: Broward could not sit on federal stimulus money like Miami-Dade or Palm Beach counties.
“Both those counties set aside at least half of last year’s unexpected infusion of federal stimulus money to prop up budgets this year. Broward used most of its $54 million pot last year to hire teachers in an effort to comply with the state’s class-size law. The rest was folded into this year’s proposed budget to help cover a $171 million shortfall.
The National Center for Education Information released its most recent national teacher survey this morning and it shows some changes among the country’s 3.2 million educators.
Teachers are “slightly more satisfied” with their working conditions and community status than they were in 2005, 1996, 1990 and 1986 surveys.
About 40 percent of teachers hired since 2005 were trained in alternative programs rather than traditional education schools.
Those teachers trained in alternative programs were also more likely to favor pay-for-performance, eliminating tenure and other education reforms now mandated by Florida law and considered in other states.
Teachers are skewing younger, with 22 percent under the age of 30. That’s up from 11 percent of teachers under the age of 30 in 2005.
Younger teachers are also less experienced. More than one-quarter of teachers surveyed in 2011 had five or fewer years of experience, up from 18 percent in 2005.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor after meeting with the GOP caucus
A $17 billion increase to a college aid program for low-income students is one reason U.S. House Republicans are balking at plan to raise the federal debt limit, according to The Hill newspaper.
Republicans are asking House GOP leadership why they are growing the Pell Grant program in a bill designed to cut the federal budget deficit?
The program is critical in Florida, whose students received $1.93 billion in grants — up to a maximum of $5,350 — during the 2009-2010 school year according to U.S. Department of Education data. Only students in California and Texas received more in Pell Grant money.
Five of the top 20 public colleges for Pell Grants in 2009-2010 are in Florida, including the nation’s largest in Miami-Dade College, Valencia Community College, Broward College, Florida International University and University of Central Florida.
Two years ago the non-profit group that oversees Florida’s tax credit scholarship program for low-income students cut off applications in December.
Last year the cut off came in October.
This year Step Up for Students ran out of space on May 22 — after just seven weeks of enrollment. Last year the program provided 34,600 scholarship — up 5,700 students from the year before.
Why? A viral marketing campaign among parents, said Step Up for Students President Doug Tuthill.
“Parents are very aggressive about seeking out information,” Tuthill said, noting his group does little scholarship marketing. “They have their own social network.”
Teachers rally against proposed budget cuts in March
Teachers are saying they have had enough of the politicization of their profession and are retiring in numbers this year, a trend reported across the state in recent weeks.
Palm Beach County teacher Margot Collins told the Palm Beach Post why she is leaving after 32 years:
“The whole thing is just overwhelming me these days,” said Collins, 61. “I see what people are going through, and it’s not getting better. There’s so much politics these days, with all the hoopla about the state passing Senate Bill 736, and all the stuff they’re doing to our retirement.”
The retirements follow a year in which lawmakers mandated pay-for-performance statewide, stripped teacher tenure and required teachers to take a 3 percent pay cut in order to contribute more to their pensions. Many of the teachers are entering an early retirement program so they can keep working but avoid the additional 3 percent pension contribution.
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