{"id":1352,"date":"2011-09-13T10:00:35","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=1352"},"modified":"2011-09-13T10:50:08","modified_gmt":"2011-09-13T14:50:08","slug":"is-florida-ready-to-consider-texas-higher-ed-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/09\/13\/is-florida-ready-to-consider-texas-higher-ed-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Florida Ready To Consider Texas Higher Ed Reforms?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Joe Raedle \/ Getty News Images<\/p>

Gov. Rick Scott listens at a Miami business roundtable meeting in August. Scott has been circulating a Texas plan designed to quantify college and faculty performance.<\/p><\/div>\n

Is it possible to evaluate a college professor the same way NFL scouts measure the speed, strength and quickness of college athletes?<\/p>\n

Florida Gov. Rick Scott wants to have that debate<\/a>. He\u2019s looking to a controversial Texas proposal <\/a>as a guide.<\/p>\n

The Texas model has sparked a Lone Star backlash<\/a> from schools concerned the plan forces them to adopt a one-size-fits-all template, undermines research and damages the value of a degree. An organization of the nation\u2019s top research universities has warned members about adopting the Texas reforms.<\/p>\n

Supporters say the plan was meant to start a conversation. They believe they achieved that goal.<\/p>\n

Texas Gov. Rick Perry\u2019s Republican presidential candidacy has focused more attention on the ideas.<\/p>\n

Last month University of Texas Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa outlined a nine-point plan<\/a> to more efficiently educate students. Florida State University President Eric Barron Thursday unveiled a 23-page proposal<\/a> for Florida schools, the first step in initiating Florida\u2019s debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s look at the breadth of factors and let\u2019s prove to ourselves we\u2019re talking about how effective someone is,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n

The State University System of Florida Board of Governors will meet this week to discuss reform experiments in other states, board spokesman Kelly Layman said.<\/p>\n

The Plan<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Texas Public Policy Foundation<\/p>

<\/p><\/div>\n

Texas \u201cSeven Breakthrough Solutions\u201d were authored by the free market-based Texas Public Policy Foundation<\/a> with the goal of quantifying school performance. The plan would rate professors based on number of students taught, grades awarded and student reviews.<\/p>\n

The report also calls for schools to break out their academic and research budgets and establish alternatives to national accreditation.<\/p>\n

The long-term goal is to ensure more students graduate from college and to slow the growth of college tuition. Advocate hope the reforms could mean a $10,000 degree.<\/p>\n

Scott has been sharing copies of the report with candidates for higher education boards, but has yet to endorse any specifics Layman said.<\/p>\n

The college proposals echo K-12 reforms<\/a> Scott signed into law earlier this year. That law mandates teacher evaluations and merit pay for those who rate highest. The law also strips newly-hired teachers of long-term contract protections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope what we\u2019ve been through is able to provide and make fruitful the higher education debate,\u201d said Joshua Trevino, spokesman for the Texas Public Policy Foundation. \u201cInasmuch as this discussion has spurred and people must participate in it whether they like or not, that\u2019s all for the good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposals met resistance<\/a> after Texas A & M University attempted to gauge the value of their faculty by calculating revenue a professor generated from teaching and then subtracting their salary and benefits. The resulting spreadsheet was dubbed the \u201cred and black report\u201d to designate between professors who profited the university and those who did not.<\/p>\n

Texas A&M also instituted bonuses for highly-rated professors.<\/p>\n

“We Don’t Produce Widgets”<\/h4>\n

Critics have said the evaluation is too simplistic and does not accurately account for research.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very much widgetry,\u201d said Melinda Hill Perrin, a leader in the Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education<\/a> which opposed the changes, \u201cand we don\u2019t produce widgets here, we produce student leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Those concerns were real then. They would be real now. We are paying attention.”<\/p>\n
-Association of American Universities spokesman Barry Toiv<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n

The 61-member Association of American Universities<\/a> agreed. The group is a coalition of the nation\u2019s top research universities.<\/p>\n

The University of Florida is the state\u2019s only member, but joining the group is such a high priority for the University of South Florida that the school includes it in their new employee orientation.<\/p>\n

University of South Florida administrators declined to comment on this story.<\/p>\n

Last fall the group\u2019s then-president Robert Berdahl wrote a letter to Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin that, according to the Texas Tribune<\/em>, questioned whether A&M\u2019s academic values aligned with the Association for American Universities.<\/p>\n

The reform proposal “demonstrates little or no understanding of the nature of graduate education,” Berdahl wrote.<\/p>\n

AAU spokesman Barry Toiv said the group has not changed its opinion of Texas-style reform. High-quality universities should not treat research as a separate function from academics, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose concerns were real then,\u201d Toiv said. \u201cThey would be real now. We are paying attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perrin argued that research was vital to maintaining a university\u2019s standards. Not every avenue of research can or should pay off, she said, and those decisions should not be based on profit potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to make sure that the degree we were presenting our students was of the highest quality,\u201d Perrin said. \u201cWe did not want for the efficiency and productivity debate to dumb down our university and devalue our degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Affordable Degree<\/h4>\n

Florida does meet one goal of the Texas reforms: College affordability.<\/p>\n

Seven Florida schools ranked in the top 100 of Forbes\u2019 values rankings<\/a>.\u00a0 Top universities such as the University of Florida cost about $18,000 in tuition and fees for a four-year degree, despite lawmakers lifting tuition caps in recent years.<\/p>\n

Florida has 11 schools<\/a> where it is possible to earn a four-year degree for around $10,000, according to U.S. Department of Education data. Those schools include Palm Beach State College, Broward College, Northwest State College and Miami-Dade College.<\/p>\n

But those tuitions could rise with the loss of more than $125 million in federal stimulus money from college budgets.<\/p>\n

Layman, the University System Board of Governor\u2019s spokeswoman, said the board will meet this week and plans to discuss ideas from Texas, Ohio and other states.<\/p>\n

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has proposed universities develop three-year degree programs \u2013 an idea the University of South Florida is trying<\/a>.\u00a0 Kasich\u2019s proposals would also attempt to reduce the need for remedial classes for students entering college.<\/p>\n

Trevino with the Texas Public Policy Foundation said the best plan would be a local plan with guidance from other states.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really Floridians that have to come up with Florida\u2019s solutions,\u201d he said. \u201cWe hope what we\u2019ve been through is able to expedite and make fruitful the higher education debate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it possible to evaluate a college professor the same way NFL scouts measure the speed, strength and quickness of college athletes? Florida Gov. Rick Scott wants to have that debate. He\u2019s looking to a controversial Texas proposal as a guide. The Texas model has sparked a Lone Star backlash from schools concerned the plan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[1035,1013,1065,1028,1007,107,1027],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2318,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions\/2318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}