For a little more than a decade, Florida has been recognized as a model for modern education reform. And at the Foundation for Excellence in Education’s Annual National Summit, held this week in Washington, D.C., two policy representatives of the Jeb Bush-chaired foundation shared Florida’s “Formula for Student Achievement” to an audience of educators and policymakers from across the country.
During the Summit’s 10th Strategy Session, Dr. Matthew Ladner, the Foundation’s senior advisor of policy and research, and Dr. Christy Hovanetz, the Foundation’s senior policy fellow, both noted that there were many keys to Florida’s success in student achievement including school grading and school choice. Former Florida Board of Education member Julia Johnson moderated “The Florida Formula for Student Achievement” panel.
Before Florida became the model state for education in the early 2000’s, it was ranked 45th in high school graduation rates, according to Hovanetz. She said that in 1999, when the first school grades were issued, the Sunshine State had nearly twice as many D and F schools as schools earning A’s and B’s.
“You are not very popular when you come home and say you have more D and F schools than A or B schools in the state of Florida,” she began. “But it was a very, very important statement for Florida to make.”
Shortly after the state made that announcement at what Hovanetz described as a “tough” press conference, Florida began its journey to reforming its low-ranked education system.
School Grading
When it comes to increasing student achievement, Hovanetz said that Florida looks at what percentage of students are proficient in core subjects such as reading, writing, math and science as well as a heavy focus on the students that are unable to read and do math.
She also mentioned that the state places special emphasis on the lowest performing 25 percent of students in individual schools across Florida.
“Florida does not look at school subgroups. We do not look at economic disadvantaged groups, racial or ethnic groups, or gender groups. We look specifically at the lowest 25 percent of students,” Hovanetz said. “Every single school in Florida has a bottom 25 percent. Not every school has all of the racial subgroups and economic disadvantage subgroups.”
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Much school reform comes from here.
http://billmoyers.com/episode/encore-united-states-of-alec/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council
Duh. Focus on the bottom works. Don’t need charter for profit schools to do that.
This is pure crap. Public school nation -wide has taken a B-dive in the past ten years. I am a parent with children who attend public school, so who would know better. I spend more time at home teaching my child what they should have learned in school!
This rationale escapes me. No matter how many times you look to improve does the bottom 25%, there will always be a bottom 25%. Does this group include children with learning disabilities (physical and intellectual) who are being mainstreamed? What is the criterion for evaluation of the bottom 25% (test scores and or grades)? At what point do we focus on allowing CHILDREN to DEVELOP (using their natural curiosity and enthusiasm) their creative sides and inventiveness, etc. without forcing them all into a mold?
you are absolutely right….the ‘no child left behind’ fixed that, Now they expect the smarter kids to help the slower ones. Top that off with trying to reach their standardized test scores so they can get their money….go figure, no wonder kids are pregnant at 14, n the world is going to hell in a hand basket! I don’t know any little girls over the age of 11 that play with dolls anymore….SMH
Barbara – the beauty of the bottom 25 percent threshold just what you said– there is always a bottom 25 percent, which means schools with wealthier student bodies and higher proficiency levels could no longer mask the poor performance of their lowest 25 percent of students. All schools, no matter how rich or poor and no matter their racial makeup have a bottom 25 percent. Florida’s formula adds extra weight by not only measuring what percentage of all kids in a school made a year’s worth of progress in a year’s worth of time in reading and math, but also, measuring what percentage of every school’s bottom 25 percent of students made a year’s worth of progress in a year’s worth of time in reading and math (as defined by the state), regardless of whether they were proficient. Florida’s state test has five achievement levels. Levels 1 and 2 are below proficient. A child can make a year’s worth of progress in terms of developmental scale score points on levels 1 or 2 and still not be proficient. Because the grading formula a) puts equal weight on both proficiency and growth and b) forces every school to pay attention to its bottom 25 percent of students, it levels the playing field for everyone. Schools that have high percentages of proficiency won’t automatically earn an A grade in Florida unless their bottom 25 percent improves (because they’ve traditionally gotten AYP regardless); and schools filled with kids who are below grade level have the opportunity to earn a passing school grade if enough of their kids make adequate growth, even if their proficiency numbers aren’t high.