Operation Neptune 75 years later

On this the 75^th anniversary of ‘Operation Neptune’ and often referred to as D-Day, that began on June 6, 1944. The Normandy landings was the largest seaborne invasion in history. We cannot begin to thank enough the ‘Greatest Generation’ in all of history for their sacrifice for our freedoms and opportunities.

Comments Off on Operation Neptune 75 years later
Filed under: News & Updates

State Graduation requirements must stop being about passing a test

“Failing to pass one or more of these required tests is a tragic consequence for a student’s lack of test taking skills or a myriad of other reasons why a student can pass a course, demonstrate mastery of the subject but fail a standardized test. It is a lifelong penalty.”

This week Citrus County Schools will graduate approximately a thousand high school students.  Most are excited about their future and the opportunities that await them.  Sadly, we had a number of students that walked for graduation but that will not receive their high school diploma. One might think it is because they didn’t finish all their courses, or didn’t have a high enough GPA— they would be wrong. Yes, there are a few of those students, but we have dozens and dozens of students in Citrus, and thousands around the state of Florida who have completed all the requirements to graduate but because they cannot pass one or two required tests, even though they have passed the course, they will not graduate. These are students that when I was in high school would have successfully graduated, but for the last decade these student must pass these high stakes tests and if not cannot graduate.

Jeffrey Solochek, education reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, today wrote another excellent article sharing about this issue and the numbers this year in Florida. (See; “How many Florida seniors are stalled by graduation exams?” – https://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/2019/05/31/how-many-florida-seniors-are-stalled-by-graduation-exams/). Again, keep in mind when reading this article and viewing these figures that for the most part the statistics he’s sharing are students who have essentially met all the requirements for graduation except one or more of the barrier tests (Algebra 1 EOC or 10th grade ELA FSA).

In Citrus, I will share that our schools have become successful in helping many (but not all) of our students to find some alternative option so that they may graduate and meet all the testing requirements. To do so it takes significate amounts of extra academic preparation, additional cost, and more importantly LOST time that could have been used towards preparing the student for industry certifications or other post-secondary opportunities. Instead, the student must endure often discouragingly failure after failure just to master a test, rather than mastery of skills that could be more positively beneficial.

While to some these numbers may seem insignificant and small, they were enormous when you look at seniors and even worse juniors that are not on track to graduate because of these two tests.

I have continually advocated for a common-sense alternative assessment option using student academic portfolios of sample works and/or data to demonstrates mastery of the students’ skills in meeting the 10th grade ELA and/or the Algebra 1 standards requirements for high school graduation. Student academic portfolios are permitted in Florida Statute for third grade promotion for “good causes” and should be an option for high school students for the 10th grade English Language Arts (ELA) Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) graduation requirement and for the Algebra 1 End of Course Exam (EOC).

Failing to pass one or more of these required tests is a tragic consequence for a student’s lack of test taking skills or a myriad of other reasons why a student can pass a course, demonstrate mastery of the subject but fail a standardized test. It is a lifelong penalty.

Comments Off on State Graduation requirements must stop being about passing a test
Filed under: News & Updates

A Darling to ALL

Ray Darling received the “Superintendent’s Making a Difference” award by Superintendent Sandara “Sam” Himmel and the School Board at the October 14th, 2015, School Board Meeting.

Recently Citrus County lost a great caring, passionate person, Raymond “Ray” Darling, at the age of 98, who as profoundly impacted thousands of Citrus County students’ lives.

Ray Darling a retired United States Army colonel, accomplished a great deal during his lifetime, but perhaps the most impacting was to the students of Citrus County, where, Mr. Darling as a Rotarian founded the Citrus County Rotary Upward Bound Student Award Program.  In recent years the Rotary Clubs established the “Ray Darling Upward Bound Scholarship”, providing additional opportunities for Upward Bound alumni to receive college scholarships.

As a school board member, one of my favorite activities is to attend this quarterly award, given to students at the elementary, middle and high school level by their schools for making individual strides and accomplishments. Many students in our school system quietly make significant improvements in their academic and personal lives.  These accomplishments might go unrecognized if not for the Upward Bound Award.  Mr. Darling would share that while many students received awards for academic and athletic accomplishments, many students that might have even worked harder to achieve a personal or academic goal should also be awarded for their hard work. Now each year the award is given to approximately 500 students from grades 4th through 12th who have been selected by the staff of Citrus County schools, both public and private.  Parental attendance has grown to approximately 600 a year. This award is now over 25 years old.

Mr. Darling for years was the master of ceremonies at the event, later in years fellow Rotarian Tommy Thomas would step up to help emcee the awards.  Throughout the years no matter what was happening Mr. Darling would make every effort to attend, including at the most recent Upward Bound Awards this year, you would find Mr. Darling clapping, cheering and telling people about “these young people”. It wasn’t uncommon for Mr. Darling to bring flowers to some of the students he felt worked additionally hard to overcome lives challenges.  Many of these Upward Bound students have become teachers, mentors, and business leaders, and now positively impacting other students lives. If you asked Mr. Darling about that he would say something like, “that is how it is supposed to work”.

Thank you Ray Darling for your passion, vision, and heart. Citrus County students (and we) are better off because of you!

Comments Off on A Darling to ALL
Filed under: News & Updates