Articles from the Manatee Herald Tribune - June 15, 2004:
Education report expected to fuel debate
Florida again looks likely to be near the bottom of all states in complying with the No Child Left Behind Act.
BY CHRISTINA DENARDO
Strike two.
For the second year in a row, most Florida schools are expected to fall well below the reading and math goals of President George W. Bush's national schools policy.
Advance speculation about the federal reports, to be released today, puts Florida again near the bottom of all states in complying with the President's No Child Left Behind Act.
And for the second year in a row, parents will ask how schools that rank high on the state's own report card, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, can fare so miserably on No Child Left Behind.
While today's reports will fuel the national debate over No Child Left Behind, that debate may be particularly intense in Florida, where some say the state's ambitious strategy for complying with the act has doomed the state's schools to failure.
Florida's compliance with No Child Left Behind law is so poor because "Our criteria for meeting the standard is so much more difficult than the rest of the country," said Doug Whittaker, Charlotte's director of elementary education.
The goal of No Child Left Behind, passed in 2002 as the keystone of the Bush administration's federal education package, is to have every student in every state doing grade-level work by 2014.
Schools are evaluated according to how students in grades 3 through 10 perform on standardized tests in reading and math.
Under the law, test scores of certain at-risk student groups -- minorities, low-income and disabled students -- are broken down separately. If just one of those groups does not meet the state's criteria, the school fails to meet No Child Left Behind.
Each state sets its own pace for reaching the goal, and each plots its own system of markers for measuring what the No Child Left Behind Act calls "Adequate Yearly Progress" toward the goal.
Florida set as a base-line the requirement that 31 percent of its students should be reading at grade level on the FCAT tests, and 38 percent doing grade-level work in math.
As a result, three out of four Florida schools failed to meet the 31/38 criteria last year, placing the state in last place.
The pass-fail ratio is to increase to 46/53 next year, but for the 2003-2004 school year, 31/38 remains the bar to meet.
Figures released today are expected to show little change from last year, when nearly nine out of 10 schools in Southwest Florida didn't measure up -- including several that got A's and B's in Gov. Jeb Bush's A-Plus schools ranking.
"Most of our schools made A's and B's, where under No Child Left Behind we are failing," said Charlotte Superintendent Dave Gayler. "It is confusing to the public."
One reason for the confusion: both ranking systems use FCAT scores to measure academic performance of schools as well as individual students.
Gov. Bush's program reflects a school's improvement from year to year based on students' FCAT scores.
No Child Left Behind judges only whether a school's FCAT scores demonstrate adequate yearly progress toward the ultimate goal.
Florida has set standards that are among the toughest in the country -- six times tougher than Michigan's, according to Jimeson MacKay, a spokesman for the state Department of Education.
This year, in light of poor performance by schools across the country, about 40 states are seeking permission to modify their adequate yearly progress goals, according to the national trade paper Education Week.
Florida is not among them.
"Other states are lowering their standards and that is not doing anything but hurting students," said MacKay. "We have high standards and we have high expectations for our children, and that's not a bad thing."
Harsh consequences
While some Florida educators blame the mass failure on the way the state measures adequate yearly progress, others say widespread failure suggests that Florida's schools need improvement.
"Educators in Florida and kids and parents have work to do in terms of getting every student to read and do math on grade level," said Kerri Briggs, liaison to Florida's schools for the U.S. Department of Education.
Federal education officials point out that all states share the same expectations: full grade-level proficiency by 2014 or else, with possible consequences ranging from staff firings to administrative takeover of individual schools by outside managers.
"Some states are easing into it," Briggs said. "Florida is jumping right in."
But critics say there is a risk in taking the plunge so early.
"It would be noble, if there wasn't such punitive measures for the schools," said Whittaker of Charlotte County.
Schools that do not demonstrate adequate yearly progress can be penalized in ways that threaten their already vulnerable bottom line.
Parents can have their children transferred elsewhere, for example, causing the loss of the schools per-student allowance from the state, and adding to the district's transportation costs.
The federal government can also require that money be spent on costly tutorial programs.
That money will come from Title I grants, federal money for special programs in schools with a high proportion of low-income students. About 40 percent of Florida schools receive Title 1 money.
In Manatee County, Samoset and Frances Wakeland elementaries, both F schools in Gov. Bush's rankings two years ago, may have to shift Title I money out of a successful reading program to hire tutors, if their FCAT scores show them below the 31/38 mark for the second year in a row.
As state standards rise toward the president's goal of 100 percent grade-level performance in all public schools, penalties will become increasingly stiff.
And that, says Sue Travilla, who oversees an early-intervention program for first graders in Manatee, will "directly affect service to children."
Nowhere will the sting be felt more sharply, say some Florida educators, than in this state, which started out so far behind almost everyone else.
"We see the train that is coming and unless the playing field is level, Florida is going to get killed," Whittaker said.
But state officials downplay the importance of the reports to be released today.
"This is not a pass or fail system," said MacKay of the state education office. Falling short of the goals of No Child Left Behind "is not saying a school is a bad school."
According to some critics, Florida's aggressive approach to the program may actually be intended to demonstrate failure, thus rousing public support for the privatization of public schools or the voucher plans that let parents opt for private schools.
"That movement is very much alive and well in Florida," Whittaker said. "I don't know anyone who has had their eyes open who hasn't seen that going on."
"I don't see why giving choice to parents is a negative thing," MacKay countered, dismissing any suggestion that the state's high standards are meant to do anything but identify schools that need improvement.
To Doug Whittaker and others, however, an underlying flaw makes the whole premise of the No Child Left Behind act unrealistic and ultimately destructive.
"Do you think in every kid in the country that there won't be a child that falls behind?" Whittaker asked. "It is not reasonable.
"It's almost like saying that a doctor is never going to have someone die."
Schools await reports that will dictate their futures
By TIFFANY LANKES
tiffany.lankes@heraldtribune.com
MANATEE COUNTY -- Samoset Principal Scott Boyes was elated at double-digit increases in the percent of students passing this year's Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
Boyes hopes the number indicates a rise in the school's overall state rating, which rose from failing two years ago to average last year. Despite the improvements, however, Samoset isn't meeting some state standards.
It is one of two schools in the region that will have to pay for private tutoring if it fails to meet guidelines laid out in the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
"It's frustrating," Boyes said. "We have made such large gains in all of our grades."
The Florida Department of Education will release reports today that outline whether schools met standards mandated in the No Child Left Behind Act.
School and district officials aren't optimistic. They expect the district will have to spend $1.3 million to provide tutoring and busing to students at low-income schools.
"It's going to be a train wreck," said School Board member Harry Kinnan.
Last year, 85 percent of Manatee County's schools failed to meet the goals, which are measured by the FCAT. Statewide, 87 percent of schools didn't meet the standards.
If Samoset and Wakeland Elementary don't meet the standards this year, they will have to offer extra tutoring to low-income students. Nine other Manatee County elementary schools will have to offer students the option to transfer to higher-performing schools.
The No Child Left Behind act aims to have all students performing at grade level in reading and math by 2014. This year, the goal in Florida was to have 38 percent of students proficient in math and 31 percent proficient in reading.
Schools must meet that goal in eight different racial and socioeconomic subgroups to make adequate progress. Some administrators say the goals are unrealistic for schools that have a high number of poor students or large populations of children who speak English as a second language.
Others criticize the law on grounds that only schools with large numbers of poor students will have to offer costly extra academic services.
"It's a little demoralizing," said Wakeland principal Jackie West.
Last year, when Wakeland failed to meet the goals, about 40 students opted to transfer to another school. At Samoset, about 60 students transferred. Because enrollment decreased, both schools will lose teachers next year.
If the two schools don't make the goals this year, about 765 students will qualify for free tutoring.
Parents can choose between three state-approved providers: Sylvan Learning Center, Huntington Learning Center and Manatee Technical Institute.
Funding for tutoring will come out of the district's Title 1 budget, federal money it gets for special programs at low-income schools.
"This is a lot of money we have to be setting aside to do these things," said Brian Adams, who oversees the district's Title 1 programs. "And it's just the beginning."
School officials hope the state will revise its measurement standards. Next year, schools must meet tougher standards and face more severe consequences.
Schools that fail a fourth year must restructure staff, hire outside consultants to advise the school and extend the school year or school day.
"It's not a pretty picture to look at," West said. "It's going to be an uphill climb from here."
Education report expected to fuel debate
Florida again looks likely to be near the bottom of all states in complying with the No Child Left Behind Act.
BY CHRISTINA DENARDO
Strike two.
For the second year in a row, most Florida schools are expected to fall well below the reading and math goals of President George W. Bush's national schools policy.
Advance speculation about the federal reports, to be released today, puts Florida again near the bottom of all states in complying with the President's No Child Left Behind Act.
And for the second year in a row, parents will ask how schools that rank high on the state's own report card, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, can fare so miserably on No Child Left Behind.
While today's reports will fuel the national debate over No Child Left Behind, that debate may be particularly intense in Florida, where some say the state's ambitious strategy for complying with the act has doomed the state's schools to failure.
Florida's compliance with No Child Left Behind law is so poor because "Our criteria for meeting the standard is so much more difficult than the rest of the country," said Doug Whittaker, Charlotte's director of elementary education.
The goal of No Child Left Behind, passed in 2002 as the keystone of the Bush administration's federal education package, is to have every student in every state doing grade-level work by 2014.
Schools are evaluated according to how students in grades 3 through 10 perform on standardized tests in reading and math.
Under the law, test scores of certain at-risk student groups -- minorities, low-income and disabled students -- are broken down separately. If just one of those groups does not meet the state's criteria, the school fails to meet No Child Left Behind.
Each state sets its own pace for reaching the goal, and each plots its own system of markers for measuring what the No Child Left Behind Act calls "Adequate Yearly Progress" toward the goal.
Florida set as a base-line the requirement that 31 percent of its students should be reading at grade level on the FCAT tests, and 38 percent doing grade-level work in math.
As a result, three out of four Florida schools failed to meet the 31/38 criteria last year, placing the state in last place.
The pass-fail ratio is to increase to 46/53 next year, but for the 2003-2004 school year, 31/38 remains the bar to meet.
Figures released today are expected to show little change from last year, when nearly nine out of 10 schools in Southwest Florida didn't measure up -- including several that got A's and B's in Gov. Jeb Bush's A-Plus schools ranking.
"Most of our schools made A's and B's, where under No Child Left Behind we are failing," said Charlotte Superintendent Dave Gayler. "It is confusing to the public."
One reason for the confusion: both ranking systems use FCAT scores to measure academic performance of schools as well as individual students.
Gov. Bush's program reflects a school's improvement from year to year based on students' FCAT scores.
No Child Left Behind judges only whether a school's FCAT scores demonstrate adequate yearly progress toward the ultimate goal.
Florida has set standards that are among the toughest in the country -- six times tougher than Michigan's, according to Jimeson MacKay, a spokesman for the state Department of Education.
This year, in light of poor performance by schools across the country, about 40 states are seeking permission to modify their adequate yearly progress goals, according to the national trade paper Education Week.
Florida is not among them.
"Other states are lowering their standards and that is not doing anything but hurting students," said MacKay. "We have high standards and we have high expectations for our children, and that's not a bad thing."
Harsh consequences
While some Florida educators blame the mass failure on the way the state measures adequate yearly progress, others say widespread failure suggests that Florida's schools need improvement.
"Educators in Florida and kids and parents have work to do in terms of getting every student to read and do math on grade level," said Kerri Briggs, liaison to Florida's schools for the U.S. Department of Education.
Federal education officials point out that all states share the same expectations: full grade-level proficiency by 2014 or else, with possible consequences ranging from staff firings to administrative takeover of individual schools by outside managers.
"Some states are easing into it," Briggs said. "Florida is jumping right in."
But critics say there is a risk in taking the plunge so early.
"It would be noble, if there wasn't such punitive measures for the schools," said Whittaker of Charlotte County.
Schools that do not demonstrate adequate yearly progress can be penalized in ways that threaten their already vulnerable bottom line.
Parents can have their children transferred elsewhere, for example, causing the loss of the schools per-student allowance from the state, and adding to the district's transportation costs.
The federal government can also require that money be spent on costly tutorial programs.
That money will come from Title I grants, federal money for special programs in schools with a high proportion of low-income students. About 40 percent of Florida schools receive Title 1 money.
In Manatee County, Samoset and Frances Wakeland elementaries, both F schools in Gov. Bush's rankings two years ago, may have to shift Title I money out of a successful reading program to hire tutors, if their FCAT scores show them below the 31/38 mark for the second year in a row.
As state standards rise toward the president's goal of 100 percent grade-level performance in all public schools, penalties will become increasingly stiff.
And that, says Sue Travilla, who oversees an early-intervention program for first graders in Manatee, will "directly affect service to children."
Nowhere will the sting be felt more sharply, say some Florida educators, than in this state, which started out so far behind almost everyone else.
"We see the train that is coming and unless the playing field is level, Florida is going to get killed," Whittaker said.
But state officials downplay the importance of the reports to be released today.
"This is not a pass or fail system," said MacKay of the state education office. Falling short of the goals of No Child Left Behind "is not saying a school is a bad school."
According to some critics, Florida's aggressive approach to the program may actually be intended to demonstrate failure, thus rousing public support for the privatization of public schools or the voucher plans that let parents opt for private schools.
"That movement is very much alive and well in Florida," Whittaker said. "I don't know anyone who has had their eyes open who hasn't seen that going on."
"I don't see why giving choice to parents is a negative thing," MacKay countered, dismissing any suggestion that the state's high standards are meant to do anything but identify schools that need improvement.
To Doug Whittaker and others, however, an underlying flaw makes the whole premise of the No Child Left Behind act unrealistic and ultimately destructive.
"Do you think in every kid in the country that there won't be a child that falls behind?" Whittaker asked. "It is not reasonable.
"It's almost like saying that a doctor is never going to have someone die."
Schools await reports that will dictate their futures
By TIFFANY LANKES
tiffany.lankes@heraldtribune.com
MANATEE COUNTY -- Samoset Principal Scott Boyes was elated at double-digit increases in the percent of students passing this year's Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
Boyes hopes the number indicates a rise in the school's overall state rating, which rose from failing two years ago to average last year. Despite the improvements, however, Samoset isn't meeting some state standards.
It is one of two schools in the region that will have to pay for private tutoring if it fails to meet guidelines laid out in the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
"It's frustrating," Boyes said. "We have made such large gains in all of our grades."
The Florida Department of Education will release reports today that outline whether schools met standards mandated in the No Child Left Behind Act.
School and district officials aren't optimistic. They expect the district will have to spend $1.3 million to provide tutoring and busing to students at low-income schools.
"It's going to be a train wreck," said School Board member Harry Kinnan.
Last year, 85 percent of Manatee County's schools failed to meet the goals, which are measured by the FCAT. Statewide, 87 percent of schools didn't meet the standards.
If Samoset and Wakeland Elementary don't meet the standards this year, they will have to offer extra tutoring to low-income students. Nine other Manatee County elementary schools will have to offer students the option to transfer to higher-performing schools.
The No Child Left Behind act aims to have all students performing at grade level in reading and math by 2014. This year, the goal in Florida was to have 38 percent of students proficient in math and 31 percent proficient in reading.
Schools must meet that goal in eight different racial and socioeconomic subgroups to make adequate progress. Some administrators say the goals are unrealistic for schools that have a high number of poor students or large populations of children who speak English as a second language.
Others criticize the law on grounds that only schools with large numbers of poor students will have to offer costly extra academic services.
"It's a little demoralizing," said Wakeland principal Jackie West.
Last year, when Wakeland failed to meet the goals, about 40 students opted to transfer to another school. At Samoset, about 60 students transferred. Because enrollment decreased, both schools will lose teachers next year.
If the two schools don't make the goals this year, about 765 students will qualify for free tutoring.
Parents can choose between three state-approved providers: Sylvan Learning Center, Huntington Learning Center and Manatee Technical Institute.
Funding for tutoring will come out of the district's Title 1 budget, federal money it gets for special programs at low-income schools.
"This is a lot of money we have to be setting aside to do these things," said Brian Adams, who oversees the district's Title 1 programs. "And it's just the beginning."
School officials hope the state will revise its measurement standards. Next year, schools must meet tougher standards and face more severe consequences.
Schools that fail a fourth year must restructure staff, hire outside consultants to advise the school and extend the school year or school day.
"It's not a pretty picture to look at," West said. "It's going to be an uphill climb from here."
