State of the District Part 1 for 2013

Each year the Superintendent and her staff present to the School Board the State of the District. These reports include a detailed data regarding our schools, students and programs throughout our district. Part 1 of the State of the District took place at our August 27th workshop.

The presentations were facilitated over by Mark Klauder, Executive Director of Educational Services and Patrick Simon, Director of Research & Accountability. The presentation began with stating the assessment challenges districts from around Florida have faced due to the moving target of state assessments. In 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 the Florida Department of Education (FL-DOE)and the Florida Legislator made changes to the Accountability System many of these changes were given little notice prior to implementation and other changes were made after the students had taken the assessment tests and the scoring was underway or complete. When I refer to state assessments I am referring to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and the End of Course Exams (EOC).

I must take this moment as an elect school board member to state that I take issue with the way FL-DOE and the Florida Legislator are utilizing assessments in our state and subsequently how the state and federal governments are using these assessments to provide funding or in most cases funding penalties to our teachers, schools and districts. I have not met a teacher that did not want to effectively measure their students’ using tests or assessments. What is at the root of the issue is the question, are these tests and assessments effectively measuring student learning and knowledge? I am not confident they are.

This said over the last decade Citrus County has consistently in nearly each grade level and/or subject area score significantly higher than the state average. What is interesting is that even through Citrus has scored higher we also parallel the state in trending in almost every grade level and subject area. What does that tell us? It brings into question if the assessments are being formulated to tell rule and policy makers what they want to hear, rather than what they need to know.

In the 3rd Grade Reading from 2007-2013 while consistent Citrus scored approximately 15 points higher each year above the state of Florida’s average. Citrus and the state paralleled each other in gains and closes over those same years. (See chart) This repeats itself in 4th through 10th grade reading for the same 2007 through 2013 years. This also repeats itself in math and in writing for the same 4th-10th graders from 2007 to 2013 years. Why? Why would children from every different walk of life in the state of Florida perform statistically identical? It again begs the question if these standardized tests and the billions they are costing Florida tax payers are valid.

Another clear reason for the public to be skeptical is the mere fact that Florida is now ranked 6th in the nation up from 11th in 2011 (See ‘Florida Public Teachers Ranked 4th in Nation, Schools Ranked 6th in Nation’, 1/17/2013), yet FL-DOE in 2013 has dropped the number of FL-DOE “A” ranked schools from 30 in 2011, to 17 in 2012 to now 5 in 2013. Yet the individual scores of the students largely stayed the same. What changed? What changed was the primarily formula that FL-DOE used to determine school and district grades. What does this mean? To me it reflects manufacturing of schools data, not the assessment of students’ learning.

This information frustrates and upsets me for students and teachers. I am so proud of the great work and accomplishments of students and teachers in Citrus. For years now Citrus Schools is one of the top preforming school districts in the state of Florida. At the same time we have the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students, classification as Title 1 (“Free and Reduced” lunch) students. I spend time in our schools and meet with our administrators and curriculum leaders. It is clear and I am thankful for the multiple assessments and differential learning data our teachers and school use to more accurately determine how our students are truly doing. In Citrus school we do not rely on one test on one day of a single school year such as the FCAT to reflect or determine who are students are and how well they are doing. As a local school board member it is my responsibility to support e successful strategies I witness being effective in our schools and to speak out against those that are not. I will continue to do this as I believe we must for our students and teachers.

If you are interested in seeing the video from this workshop, please visit: http://new.livestream.com/citrusschools/events/2347751

State of the District Part II, is to take place at the September 24th, 2013 board meeting.

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