Capital Soup: FCAT corruption probe is needed

MIAMI – Rep. Dwight Bullard (D-Miami) has called for an inquiry into the reports that the Pearson Foundation (non-profit arm of the Pearson Corporation) has paid for junkets so various state officials to meet with Pearson’s international counterparts.

Florida currently has a multi-million-dollar contract with the Pearson Foundation, who provides the controversial FCAT test.

In two articles (published September 18, 2011 and October 9, 2011), The New York Times reported that certain state education leaders traveled to London, Helsinki, Singapore and Rio de Janeiro. 

Rightardia is aware that there are numerous diagnostic tests that the state uses to gauge student performance. One of the national tests could be used in lieu of the FCAT which would save taxpayers million in fees that are paid for the home grown FCAT. 

You could also use the grab bag of tests the state uses each year in schools to gauge a school's performance. We also think teachers, principals and administrators know who the best teachers are in a particular school. The FCAT is not needed to grade a teacher's or school's performance. 

We think all of the tinkering the Republicans have done with the public school system for he past decade has not borne any fruit. 

See http://capitalsoup.com/2011/11/07/rep-dwight-bullard-urges-legislative-leaders-to-examine-the-pearson-foundation/

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State Education Commissioner fudges public school test scores

Republican Governor Rick Perry is a Confederate and Secessionist by nature, and he has a problem. He has a formidable Democratic opponent, ex-Houston Mayor Bill White. And, of course, Texas has a mediocre public education system.


Perry's State Education Commissioner Robert Scott has added points to the scores on the The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Test, based on "likelihood to do well in the future," to increase the passing rate on the test to the target. The details can be found in many newspaper stories and, succinctly, in the Rightardia source.

Rightardia is not  endorsing the notion of standarized tests as the measure of school performance. But, I have a question: 


If a Democratic Governor up for re-election had changed student test scores, claiming the students would "do better next time," would O'Reilly, Hannity and FoxNews have run a series of stories on this? Would Breitbart be all over it? Drudge?

I think you know the answer.

In Florida there are numerous school district concerns regarding the 2010 The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test® (FCAT) results, the Florida Department of Education has sought additional independent reviews to evaluate the statistical viability of this year’s assessment results. 

These reviews are supposed to focus on the learning gains of our most struggling students, as well as the overall assessment process.

sources:  
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/casey/7096582.html

From: Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names <PopUlist...@hotmail.com>

Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 19:09:17 -0400

Local: Sat, Jul 24 2010 7:09 pm

Subject: GOV Rick "Secesh" Perry caught falsifying school test scores

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http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com Posted by Rightardia at 7:07 PM

Right in a lather on cancellation of DC voucher program

Right wingers are suggesting that President Obama  cancelled the DC voucher program.

The effort to preserve D.C.'s school voucher program - which pays parents to send their children to private schools - died Tuesday evening when the Senate rejected a Republican amendment to the $410 billion omnibus spending bill.

The amendment from Sen. John Ensign, Nevada Republican, to strike language in the bill restricting voucher funding and to reinstate funding for the 2009-10 school year went down in a 58-39 vote. Sen. Ensign is the infamous C-Streeter who had an affair with one of his staffers that led to a national scandal. Ensign has connections to Doug Coe, the Stealth Evangelist, who founded The Family.

Mr. Ensign said the omnibus bill would "effectively kill" the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which allows qualified low-income families to claim up to $7,500 per student toward a private education of their choice. Only 1,700 students are currently enrolled, and they will have to return to D.C. public schools.

President Obama said the following about vouchers:

"If there was any argument for vouchers, it was 'Alright, let's see if this experiment works,' and if it does, then whatever my preconceptions, my attitude is you do what works for the kids," the senator said. "I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn. We're losing several generations of kids and something has to be done." 

Measuring performance of private schools is tough because they usually  function under different regulations. For example, The FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) are administered annually, in late February and early to mid-March, to all public school students in grades three through eleven.

Students in grades three through ten are required to take the reading and math portion every year.  Private and parochial school students are not required to take the FCAT; most of these schools administer another standardized test instead, such as the Stanford Achievement Test . . . (Wikipedia)

The problem with vouchers is that most private schools are religious based and that can create First Amendment issues. 

The major had his child in private school for two years and the history teacher was teaching Old Testament ancient history instead of American or World History. 

Did my son really need to know the lineage of ancient Israelites or would he have been better off understanding the lineage of the American Constitution? Many of the Stories in the Bible are not accurate based upon archaeological or geological  discoveries.

For example, the Bible was written during the Babylonian Captivity. Abraham was the Father of Ur (modern Iraq), not necessarily the Israelites. The story of Noah's ark occurred in the Persian Gulf area. Geologists know there never a Great Flood in Israel. It is unlikely these 'details' will be mentioned in a Christian school.

The right has tried many experiments to weaken public education: The Edison Schools and charter schools. Neither experiment produced results better than the public schools. Funding appears to be the limiting factor. In addition, many private schools will not accept vouchers because they often cover less than half of the private school's tuition.

Private schools also increase the work load on the family. Parents often have to spend 10 of more hours in the schools each term. Parents also have to buy uniforms and attend numerous fund raisers throughout the year. This is not for everybody. 

In Old America, the public supported public schools with tax levies and the schools thrived. We now live in an era where one political party runs on tax cuts and schools are underfunded. 

The right seems to believe that everybody is better off if the affluent pay less taxes. It wasn't this way in Old America of the the 1950's and the 1960s. In the 1950s, one in 30 Americans was wealthy and the top income earners were in the 90 per cent Income Tax bracket. 

Income tax rates are now about 35 per cent with a 15 per cent capital gains tax for the most fortunate Americans. Why do people wonder why the federal government can't balance the budget?


source: See http://www.nysun.com/editorials/obama-and-vouchers/71798/

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Are you tired of the 'party of stupid's' attack on public education?

The right has been described as anti-intellectual. This anti-intellectualism is personified by Rush Limbaugh who uses emotional rants with few facts in his diatribes. Limbaugh was enrolled in college for two term but failed every course including ballroom dancing according to his mother.

This is a party that seems to embrace ignorance for ignorance's sake, as if "facts and figures" are inconvenient annoyances better left to eggheads who read books. Stephen Colbert's parody of modern Republican leaders rings true for good reasons.

Nicholas Kristof noted that Obama's election, among other things, may mark the end of "the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life."

In August, Paul Krugman had a fairly devastating piece identifying the GOP as "the party of stupid." As the Nobel Laureate explained, "What I mean ... is that know-nothingism -- the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there's something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise -- has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party's de facto slogan has become: 'Real men don't think things through.'"

According to Steve Benen f the party is sincerely looking for a way out of its self-dug ditch, taking facts, reason, and evidence seriously again would be a good start.

GOP ideology

To make matters worse, the party that is the least equipped to deal with Americans educational problems has been tinkering with it. Because of the GOP ideology about privatization and deregulation, the GOP has experimented with corporate Edison Schools which are private schools funded by the state. It has also tried magnet schools which have a specialized curricula like art, music or accelerated classes.

Charter schools are similar to Edison Schools but they are locally organized and not affiliated with a corporation like Edison schools. Charter schools receive startup funds but after the initial year, they are funded identically like public schools by the state.

Funding is the key issue. Whether the school is public, Edison or a charter school, the funding is the same and the educational outcome is very similar for all of these schools.

The Florida Example

Because many Republicans leaders have spent their careers in corporations, they believed that schools could be more effective if they were evaluated. In Florida Governor Jeb Bush got funding for a new test called with The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test® (FCAT). There are many educational assessment tests that could have been taken off the shelf. Undoubtedly some happy conservative institution got the contract to reinvent the wheel with the FCAT.

The FCAT was too long and too hard for Florida students. After a couple of years the test was shortened and 'dumbed down.' Even worse teachers started to teach the test, particularly English and math teachers, because they were being evaluated based on their classes performance on the FCAT.

The governor also decided that the 'good teachers' needed to be paid more than the average teachers. Unfortunately when Florida tax revenues crashed after the real estate meltdown, many of the 'good teachers' lost their jobs because they were making too much money. This was the supreme irony in the grand GOP experiment with education in Florida.

To make matters worse, young people are moving from Florida to states with better pay and better schools. As a result of the declining school enrollment, Florida is closing public schools as well.

State senators had approved a $428 million four-year corporate income tax break after it had given out more than $1.5 billion in tax breaks since Jeb Bush's election in 1998 .

Charlie Crist, the current Florida governor, hasn't done much better. He fiddled with real estate taxes which produced an even worse deficit once the sub prime mortgage crises hit Florida. At one time Florida was advocating removing the school system from funding by local real estate taxes. Fortunately Florida voters defeated this bad idea.

Florida was ranked 29^th in the nation in 2006-2007 school year. It is likely its ratings will fall in the next Morgan Quinto rankings because of teacher lay offs and school closures. The real problem with Florida schools is funding. In the 2003-2004 school year Florida spent $8,084 and was ranked 36^th in the nation. The latest per pupil statistic indicated funding is now $6,056 and Florida's rank has dropped to 44^th in the nation.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that the there is a crises in Florida schools and that cannot be resolved with corporate style management or standardized tests. More spending is needed to fix the state school system. It is unlikely that the 'party of stupid' will fix the problem. This is why Florida needs to start electing progressive leadership that will fix the state's school system. Spending more on students is essential in Florida. 

resources:

http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank.htm

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_11/015591.php

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