AP: Gov. Scott wants to look at changes to FCAT

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON (Follow Brendan Farrington on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bsfarrington)
Associated Press

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Rick Scott said on Friday schools might be doing too much of a good thing when it comes to student testing and he is talking with state education officials, school superintendents and teachers about possibly changing the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

The governor addressed a conference of newspaper editors from five Southern states and he defended his decision not to have Florida participate in an expansion of Medicaid under the health care overhaul recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. He also said government needs to be more transparent and Florida has job openings that can’t be filled because the state doesn’t have enough graduates with the needed degrees to fill them.

On student testing, Scott said the state received more parent complaints this year than in past years, especially about the FCAT.

“Parents and taxpayers expect measurement. We’ve got to measure, we’ve to find out who the best schools are,” Scott said. “We have to have a good measurement system but we have to make sure we don’t have too much of it.”

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Independence Day

When speaking about our United States’ Independence Day and the Declaration of Independence, little is often said about two of the founding fathers, John Adams and Ben Franklin. These two are known in history for many accomplishments, but without the dedication to a different way of life that these two founding fathers had, we might celebrate Independence Day differently.

John Adams fought for our nation’s independence, and in spite of the difficult battles he never wavered in his support of our nation becoming free from tyranny. Because of Adams dedication to our nation becoming free, he risked being executed for treason. He was considered a traitor to the English Crown. John Adams risked all his worthy possessions, including his own life, to see our nation become independent and free.

In 1776 as a delegate to the Continental Congress John Adams was trying to convince some of his fellow delegates that America would be better off to separate from England. This time that was not an easy task as the American Revolutionary war was in full motion, and many people were against opposing England and felt it would be better to stay part of England rather than to form its own country. Adams after much debate convinced all twelve of the delegates that becoming independent was the best course of action. In July of 1776 there was a unanimous vote to make America an independent nation by adopting the Declaration of Independence.

“I must study Politics and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematics and Philosophy. (12 May 1780)” ― John Adams

Ben Franklin another founding father of the Declaration of Independence and a major contributor in getting the Declaration of Independence approved and adopted by the Continental Congress. Ben Franklin’s mission was to secure France’s assistance, both financially and militarily, in America’s fight against Britain for independence. Franklin’s job while very different from Adam’s was as challenging because both men had to use their powers of persuasion to convince others that opposing Britain was in everybody’s best interest. In order to convince France to join the colonies in their fight against England, Franklin had to use skillful diplomacy, and he also had to employ the use of spies. In the end, he almost single-handedly was able to convince France to join America.

Both John Adams and Ben Franklin were two of the five people who were asked to write and consult on the Declaration of Independence. And because of their hard work and dedication to the Declaration of Independence we are able to celebrate the Fourth of July every year. It was John Adams that predicted that every year after the Declaration of Independence was signed people around the United States would celebrate with fireworks, music, toasts, speeches, etc.

In 1776 after the Declaration of Independence was signed many places in America had modest celebrations because the war was still raging on, but celebrations were held after the document was signed. The first real organized celebration was in 1777, a year after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. That celebration was one a most elaborate celebrations and had many elements that would be included in future celebrations.

… Dr. Franklin was asked at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, “…what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?” Dr. Franklin responded sharply, “A Republic, if you can keep it.

(Thanks to www.IndependenceDayFun.com for providing information for this blog.)

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2012 FSBA Annual Springs Conference

In mid-June I went down for the day to the 2012 FSBA Annual Springs Conference in Tampa.  The FSBA Conference can be an excellent opportunity to learn more about the issues we as board members are facing and to learn more about how we can better serve our students and communities.

On the day I attended the featured speaker was Dr. Willard R. Daggett, Ed.D. from the International Center for Leadership in Education. Dr. Daggett spoke to the school board members about the move to Common Core and why he felt it was critical.  He began by asking, “Which kids in the U.S. do we educate?” He went on to say that, “equality and excellence in education is real expense and that is just the reality”. Dr. Daggett stated that it is important that we are educating students to be able to compete globally.  He cautioned that Florida needs to re-evaluate its testing standards because, in his opinion, “Florida has never met a testing standard it didn’t like”.  He explained that we have more testing standards than any other state in the union and that we are too broad in our testing standards and, rather than that, we need to go deeper with our testing standards.  He believes that we can accomplish that with Common Core Standards.  While I can agree with many of the points Dr. Daggett made, I am still concerned regarding the data which was used to determine the selection and development of the Common Core Standards and using them as our national standards.  I am not opposed to assessments (see my blog post: Standardized High Stakes Testing: Where do you stand Thomas?), but I am concerned at the manner which standardized tests are being used to penalize students and educators.

During the conference I attended Learning Sessions on; Digital Classrooms, Compensation under Fla. SB 736, and putting Your Advocacy Skills to Work. I learned some informative information that I will be sharing more details about in the future

While at the conference I was present when Florida Education Commissioner, Gerard Robinson, had requested on his own to speak before us specifically as school board members. I was most disappointed by Commissioner Robinson’s comments, “Our kids are not born innately being adverse to tests and assessments.” Robinson went on to say, “They learn that from adults who tell them that this test is going to be punitive.” I respectfully disagree with the Commissioner.  I believe we now have a system of assessing students that was developed by both the Florida Department of Education and the Florida Legislation, which is punitive to both the students and the teachers.  The Commissioner further stated, “You can express as School Board Members your opinion, but let’s also remember that the local School Board’s obligation is to implement the laws approved by the Florida Legislation and to implement the regulations that are approved by the State Board.”  The Commissioner said later that, “Assessments are part of being an educated citizen in our society across the board. I support that the FSBA was given the opportunity to express their opinions, and now I feel it is appropriate that I express mine”.  State-Impact reported in its story: Florida School Board Members Say Education Commissioner Challenged Their Authority, that Leon County School Board Chairman, DeeDee Rasmussen, said that Robinson’s comments show the issues that school board members and the state agency have talking to each other about FCAT. “We don’t have any intention of not upholding the law or the constitution of the State of Florida”, she said, “But for our Florida Department of Education not to be willing to listen to the concerns from parents, students and school board members all across the state of Florida, then we have a problem. We do have a communication problem, we have a messaging problem.”

Later that very afternoon the General Membership passed a Resolution expressing FSBA’s concerns about high stakes testing in Florida and offering recommendations to address those concerns.  (Click here to readthe FSBA’s resolution)  I believe that it was Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson’s words that only served to reinforce school board members concerns of the State of Florida’s over emphasis on high stakes testing. As a member of the FSBA, I voted and supported the resolution.

For more information from the FSBA on High Stakes Testing visit: http://www.fsba.org/briefsupdates.asp#accountability_testing

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