Another problem with merit-based funding on the sole basis of standardized testing is that it does not consider demographics. Many schools get lower scores simply because the population of children that they serve have parents that cannot or simply do not help them. This is not their fault and it certainly isn't the teacher's faults. And if you think demographics don't matter, why do we care so much how zones are created for voting? They matter and they make a difference.
Andrea - 14 years ago
My parents both work with the school system. My father is an art teacher in the high school I graduated from. My mother is a speech pathologist who works in many of the schools in our county, mainly with the most disabled kids. Many of her students are wheelchair-bound and severely learning disabled. As someone said before, these children take the FCAT too. And, yes, their scores count. Some of these kids are lucky enough to have families that support them and work along side them towards their success (even though many may not recognize it as success) but many more do not have this benefit. I have heard so many stories from my mom and it seems that the kids that need the support the most never get it at home and the little they do get comes from the teachers who care. Because they do not succeed in ways that the wonderful state of Florida would recognize as a success, their efforts will not get their teachers rewarded and the funding will not go where it is needed. Again, reiterating someone else's point, the funding would also not support the arts or sports for that matter. I beg you to consider how many students there are that would fall through the cracks without such classes and extra-curriculars to keep them motivated. You will begin to see higher drop-out rates and this may include students that would have been able to graduate successfully. Not every high-schooler is bound for college, and that's ok. There are other ways to be successful. This is coming from a girl who is in professional school getting her master's. The highest paid jobs don't require a college diploma, really. Look up some stats if you don't trust me. Forbes just came out with new ones, I believe. And if everyone did some research from time to time maybe our educational system (or many things, for that matter) wouldn't be so screwed up. Its not hard to do. You can start with the internet, and since you're reading this I know you have access to it. Let's let public schools do what they are supposed to do: help our country's children to grow and develop in safe environments in which their minds are stimulated and their thirst for knowledge is fed but never satisfied. Let us help them grow into adults that are success-oriented in their own ways and not in a way that a standardized test tells them they must be successful in.
denise b. - 14 years ago
Well, DR. STEVEN FELDMAN~~~
WHO TESTS YOU? Your patients can DIE, and you can still work.
"MERITOCRACY"? You DO know that School Principals and Superintendents left the classroom BECAUSE THEY COULDN'T HACK IT, or because THEY WANTED MORE MONEY?
THERE'S your "MERITOCRACY".
Steve Perry - 14 years ago
Dr. Feldman,
What does this sentence mean? "They assert that there are too teacher expectations..." You are an english teacher?
Now for a refutation. You stated "Their attendance exceeded 90%," That is a circumstance beyond the control of many teachers. For example, I have more than 20 of my 160 students that have started school more than two months late. Most of which were not in ANY other school. I have no control over illnesses, parents taking extended trips to central america or requiring their children to help work in the fields. If my students had such consistent attendance I too would have much greater success.
You stated that you took this class seriously and implied that you assigned an extra rigorous curriculum including "Dickens, Hawthorne, Shakespeare, Steinbeck and Edna St. Vincent Millay". With the exception of Hawthorne and Millay, you described my 7th grade curriculum in Chicago. How is it that you considered this to be a rigorous and relevant curriculum for 9th graders?
And finally, how could you teach a class for an entire year and be ignorant of what type of class it was? To use your own words, you should have been "summarily dismissed and tried for conduct unbecoming a teacher!"
Ada Hernandez de Varona - 14 years ago
Sorry, I thought previous comment was written by ... a Dr" Lawrence" Feldman and not a Dr.Steven Feldman my mistake!!...I wonder if they are related?? hmmm
My message is clear ..I disagree w/ SB6!!
Ada Hernandez de Varona - 14 years ago
I am not against rewarding good teacher and getting rid of bad ones. I am not in fear of this... I do agree that we need to make some changes...but SB 6 is not going to help! Instead, I see it as disrespect to the teachers that do work hard to ensure learning gains (which are in the majority)... but learning gains are not solely measured by a test. Especially, in the case of ESE/SPED students that are on the participatory levels in the Alternate Assessment. With an IQ of under 40!!! When will I ever see my pay increase?? Or is the district going to have to invest more $$ on other tests to see learning gains for these students?? Who is paying for these tests??? Last year our district was struggling with our budget...How is SB6 going to put more money into our district?? Here is where I see flaws in SB6!! It is erroneous and incomplete in it's current format.
Dr. Feldman, I have always admired you. I remember you as my Region Administrator and now sit on our School Board. Years ago you visited my school and classroom. You, if anyone, know these types of students that I am writing about here and the circumstances/background from which they come from. Teaching students has changed since I first started teaching. It is getting more difficult with less support and more paperwork/accountability. Should this bill pass, I hope that you will take my and the others concerns into consideration.
Patricia Asuncion - 14 years ago
The lottery claims to have given millions to education, but where are those dollars? My understanding is that Florida legislators cannot SUPPLANT education dollars by taking lottery dollars in the "front door" while removing our tax dollars for education out the "back door" and using it for other purposes. One slippery way that this trick is possible is by the legislature putting such funds into the GENERAL fund where dollars can be moved anywhere.
If, in fact, the lottery dollars were used to SUPPLEMENT existing tax dollars for education as intended by law, where are those extra millions advertised on the billboards? WHY are we in this mess now where teachers will be punished for Florida legislative mishandling of funds via SB6?
LAdudeD - 14 years ago
"Dr." Feldman,
It is obvious by your need to call yourself "doctor" that you have some self-esteem issues as well as a lack of understanding of how professional titles are used... You are possibly "Stephen Feldman, Ph.D" but almost certainly not "Dr. Stephen Feldman" (just a heads up to the English teacher). In regard to your triumphant tale of teaching excellence.. You display a rather startling lack of insight regarding how your personal experiences (the "man who" statistic) translates to the profession at large. Perhaps teachers are not against a meritocracy so much as they question the method by which "achievement" will be operationally defined. It appears as if the plan right now is to allow the Bush brothers determine a suitable metric for measuring outcome (say, wasn't Jeb a big supporter of FCAT, one of the most psychometrically limited tests of scholastic achievement ever?). It's easy to play the "accountability" card when talking about classroom teachers but a bit more difficult to demand true accountability from the lawmakers and powers that be to create reliable and valid outcome measures.
Your "old school", cold war era hyperbolic "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" meandering is quite entertaining and appears (if your story is an actual accounting of a real event and not a literary tool to make your point) played well to one class in one geographic location. However, your impressive command of the English language does not serve to hide your woeful lack of knowledge regarding the complexities involved in creating and implementing a large scale change to our education system.
PS, is Lifetime making a movie of your experience?
Juan Varona - 14 years ago
I have been teaching emotionally disturbed, elementary-aged children for 21 years. Most of our children make gains while they are with us. However, this test will not show the gains made by a 5th grader who rises from a first grade reading level to a third grade within a year. His test will be a fifth grade test and it will only show that he and the teacher are failures. Additionally, I have children who can engage in discussions and do okay. The, when they go to put the answers on paper, their is a disconnect. It is a learning disability that this test won't take into consideration. These are just two of the reasons this test is unfair. I could go on with dysfunctional homes, biological issues, classroom settings, priorities (behavior over academics first we are told-though I concentrate on both), movement to multiple schools during the school year, hospitalizations for emotional distresses.
Parent- Christine - 14 years ago
Since, I am the end user of the product our state is looking to manufacture I feel that I should have some input. I am a parent who is accountable; I expect and demand accountability from my children's teachers, school and school district. They know me well and when I have an issue with any of them I work WITH THEM for a solution. I do not file suit against them when my child gets hurt, I do not chastise them when my children are punished and I certainly do not hold them solely responsible for my children’s success or failure. I hold my children accountable for their actions. However, most parents are not like me.
During the debates of SB6, in the House, many comments were thrown around. Some about our children, humans, being a product or a stock; those items are bought and sold. My children are humans, not soulless trinkets or profit margins. I thank all teachers who work with children. I applaud the good and work hard to get rid of the bad. Do I agree that a poor quality teacher can remain in schools because a 3-year cushion protects them? Absolutely not, however, is it fair to assume a teacher is guilty out of the gate? Absolutely not. There is a balance and there is moderation. I see this and other bills as extreme measures to KILL the public school system. Most of the people who voted for un-funded mandates and for SB6 do not have a vested interest in the public school system. So, why would they care what the outcome or side affects are? They do not. Over 80 amendments were filed on SB6 and none were allowed. Our Governor asked that considerations be made and he was ignored.
I see things pretty clear and this goes well beyond my children, their schools and the performance of teachers. his is a legacy power grab. the collateral damage is my children.. I have looked and looked and I am finding that the Governor of our state is not Jeb Bush... it is Governor Charlie Crist. So, while Mr. Jeb Bush was an elected official he is no longer. Mr. Bush your services are no longer needed in the Great State of Florida. You are dismissed, fired or free to go whatever you would like to call it. I am speaking out against your stronghold on Florida.
Teachers should be given bonuses and they are if the school performs well. This is a collaborative effort that all are responsible. Our school earned it and yes it was based on the FCAT. However, the sample size was adequate. It was based on 400-students not 20 as SB6 testing would be. The system is flawed. It takes 5% off the top away from schools, which is unrealistic. However, to fund the merit pay guess where that money will come from? You guessed it property owners.
This is a bad bill and it should not be legal to create mandates that are impossible to follow due to funding issues. Stop unfounded mandates and Senate Bill 6.
I will remember in November and I do not vote party lines.
Alejandro D. Lugo - 14 years ago
I am a student at Felix Varela Senior High school, and I can tell you the effects this bill is gonna have on me and my classmates. School is a place where I can escape any problems I may have at home, or any other place and just focus on my studies and other activities. I am in the band and when I graduate I plan to become a musician. When this bill comes to effect they will be cutting many of the funds for extra-curricular activities, such as band, so they can pay for these tests and any preparations needed for them. Our music department is already endangered as it is, we don't have the money for essential supplies such as music to perform or new instruments. We have been using the same music for the past couple of years and the same instruments since the school opened in 2000, many of which are broken now and in need of repair that we can not afford. If this Bill comes into effect then the band program won't have the proper funds to even exist and will probably be removed just like the chorus and orchestra programs were removed in the past. These problems don't just pertain to me and the band program at my school, they pertain to every child and most extra-curricular programs in nearly every public school. By passing this bill you are prejudicing the future of many children.
Other problems will arise as well. As you can see, students aren't the only ones that are upset with this matter, so are the teachers. There are two types of teachers: The teachers that are well qualified, do what they do for the right reasons, and know what they are talking about; and then there are the teachers, that don't care about their students, do what they do for the money, and have no idea what they are talking about. These are the teachers we will get stuck with, if this bill is approved because the other teachers don't deserve to get treated this way and will either move to another state, or are qualified enough to switch professions.
What I'm trying to say is, this bill will have a more negative effect on us students than a positive one. I hope this comment has had an effect on who ever is reading it and could some how reach Gov. Christ so he can see the bill from the perspective of a student who would be greatly affected by it. Thank you for your time, I will gladly discuss this matter with anyone, my email is alejandrodaniel11@hotmail.com
Will Rogers - 14 years ago
Well, there is a simpler answer to all of this. It used to be that each teacher prepared lessons to cover the state objectives for the course. The teacher then prepared exams to check on the learning of the lessons. At the end of the semester, the teacher prepared a final examination to determine the overall learning for the semester.
The key to all this is that the school’s principal and assistant principals would ensure that each teacher was covering the state objectives for the courses taught. They also verified the semester exams covered all of the objectives for the semester.
The most important part of all this, which most folks seem to have forgotten, is that the responsibility for learning fell upon the student, with strong encouragement (read discipline) from the parents. Students MUST come prepared to learn, and when I was a kid, God help me if I failed in this!
There also needs to be strong support from the principals and assistant principals for discipline in the classroom. When a student dropped the “F” bomb at me in a middle school class, I sent him to the dean’s office with a referral. The student was brought back by an administrator who then proceeded to inform me, in front of my class, that the school did not consider the above infraction a discipline problem. I retired shortly after that, as I saw no way to maintain any kind of decorum conducive to learning.
All of these things are essential to the providing and receiving of a superior and useful education. It is like a four-legged stool. With all four legs it is useful. If one or more of those legs are missing, it is just wood scraps.
Dorothy Hammer, NBCT - 14 years ago
Senate Bill 6 stinks and does not help the students or teachers of Florida. You do not need to take my opinion. We can listen to Diane Ravitch who states that "SB 6 is profoundly disrespectful toward the education profession." She is a historian of American education at New York University and served as Assistant Secretary of Research and Improvement in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. She believes that this bill would "dumb down" the education of Florida's students. She has a new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. She says that "pay-for-scores schemes don't work." "Teachers are not solely the cause of student progress. If students fail to make progress in their studies, there are many reasons for their failure. The causes of academic success or failure include the students' own effort; the students' regular attendance or lack thereof; the family's support or lack thereof; the family's poverty and its effects on the student's health and well-being; the school's resources; the district's oversight or lack thereof; and the quality of the test itself, which may be subject to random variation. It makes no sense to hold the teacher alone accountable when student performance is affected by so many different influences."
"Our nation has now had eight consecutive years of rising reading scores at the state level, yet the national scores for 8th grade students have not budged from 1998-2009. The reason for the discrepancy is that students are learning test-taking skills, but they are unable to understand complex materials or to demonstrate their progress on a test that is not the state test."
Diane Rabitch also goes on to say that “test scores do not identify the most effective teachers. A teacher who produces big score gains one year may produce none the next year, depending on which students happen to be in his or her class.” This has been shown to be true in one study that included Duval County, “literally 30 percent of the teachers identified as the least effective (bottom quintile) in 2001, were ranked in the top two quintiles in 2002 (reported by Barnett Berry from the Center for Teaching Quality, Teacher Effectiveness: The Conditions that Matter Most and a Look to the Future).
According to Barnett Berry, and others, “today’s value-added systems for measuring teacher effects can provide very useful information, the data are not always reliable measures for making high-stakes decisions.”
Teaching children is complicated. Teaching children is hard work. I feel very strongly that society can not tell a teacher when to teach; where to teach; what to teach; how to teach; and who to teach; then when the students do not do well – it must be a BAD teacher. It takes an entire village to raise a child. We must also all work together if we want our children to have a great education!
Governor Charlie Crist needs to veto Senate Bill 6/ House Bill 7189.
Ali - 14 years ago
Dr. Steven Feldman,
Thank you for that nice tale. You know what I got from it? If this is indeed true, you didn't know anything about your students. Since I started teaching, I chose to refer to my students as young mathematicians, authors, scientists, etc. They love being called such titles; it certainly gives them confidence and pride. These students want to learn and I really want to teach them. I have regular parent conferences with the parents that want to be involved; and I plead with the uninvolved parents all the time. I have a variety of brilliant little minds in my classroom. However, unfortunately, they have learning disabilities, various disorders, and terrible issues at home. There's rarely a day that goes by without at least one of them breaking down. Do I let this bring the students down? NO! Those outbursts have gotten better over time, as we all learn more about each other. But, it's unrealistic to think that their learning isn't affected by life outside of the classroom.
Supporters of this bill are clearly ignorant. What's even more disappointing is that they do not care about these children. Teachers certainly deserve better pay, it's long overdue. But, to judge us based on standardized tests that do not care for the students' personal issues is simply ridiculous. No one, except those people that want to see our students fail, would benefit from SB6.
Alina Armas - 14 years ago
As a Special Education teacher I can attest that ALL students CAN and WILL learn....BUT, they do not learn at the same rate, they do require a lot more accommodations and adaptations, they many need to master behaviors first, or physical disabilities may impact what and how much they learn. This Bill takes none of these things into considerations. As it stands now...the FCAT must be administered to ALL students on THEIR actual grade level. How fair is that, when I have a student (4th gd) that is severely learning disabled (functioning on a 1.2 gd) but does not meet the criteria set by DOE for exception to the FCAT. She must STILL take the test and if she doesn't pass she is still failed. She is being penalized for her disability, with this Bill it will be both of us. However, she has made great progress, she is able to read short simple passages, she can write a simple sentence, which she couldn't before, she can do simple math, which she was unable to do before...these are all learning gains, THAT WILL NEVER BE SEEN OR MEASURED ON AN FCAT or any other standardized test.
This bill needs to be VETOED for the children's sake!
DR STEVEN FELDMAN - 14 years ago
To the Editor:
How unfortunate that so many are fearful of a meritocracy. Teachers have long taught their students that hard work and well-honed skills are the key to success, both in life and in one’s career. Nevertheless, many now argue that they should not be held accountable for their pupils’ performance. They assert that there are too teacher expectations play a seminal role in student outcomes. Any teacher who declares that students cannot learn should be summarily dismissed and tried for conduct unbecoming a teacher! In my first year of teaching high school English, I was given a program stating that among my classes was a 9th Grade Honors class. I took that class especially seriously, assigning them Dickens, Hawthorne, Shakespeare, Steinbeck and Edna St. Vincent Millay. I administered an old NY State-wide Senior English exam to them in early June, and everyone passed. I constantly reminded them that they were gifted young people and that they should have no difficulty with the tough stuff. Their attendance exceeded 90%, and they all passed with grades of B or higher. I thanked my department head for giving me the honor of teaching so talented a group of young people, and he looked me in the eye, declaring “it was a misprint. You didn’t have an honors class.” I learned then and there that my expectations had more to do with my students’ success than any external variable, including poverty, family and society. Let that be a lesson to those who oppose merit salary for our teachers.
sharon tring - 14 years ago
As a parent and grandparent, I do not think the passage of this bill iis in the best interest of my children or grandchildren. To base the child's educational future and define the child by a test score seems unsound. To use taxpayer dollars 900 million to achieve this needs full input of the taxpayer. Rushing to pass this without developing a plan with educators and parents and implemneting a model and evaluating the results is irresponsible. The welfare of the student was certainly not taken into consideration. Who knows a child better than the parent?? Parents should have been consulted about these new end-of-course tests. Had parents been consulted about the FCAT we would not be in this mess and forking over more money( 900 million) for more tests. Who really stands to profit....the companies making the tests of course.
Another problem with merit-based funding on the sole basis of standardized testing is that it does not consider demographics. Many schools get lower scores simply because the population of children that they serve have parents that cannot or simply do not help them. This is not their fault and it certainly isn't the teacher's faults. And if you think demographics don't matter, why do we care so much how zones are created for voting? They matter and they make a difference.
My parents both work with the school system. My father is an art teacher in the high school I graduated from. My mother is a speech pathologist who works in many of the schools in our county, mainly with the most disabled kids. Many of her students are wheelchair-bound and severely learning disabled. As someone said before, these children take the FCAT too. And, yes, their scores count. Some of these kids are lucky enough to have families that support them and work along side them towards their success (even though many may not recognize it as success) but many more do not have this benefit. I have heard so many stories from my mom and it seems that the kids that need the support the most never get it at home and the little they do get comes from the teachers who care. Because they do not succeed in ways that the wonderful state of Florida would recognize as a success, their efforts will not get their teachers rewarded and the funding will not go where it is needed. Again, reiterating someone else's point, the funding would also not support the arts or sports for that matter. I beg you to consider how many students there are that would fall through the cracks without such classes and extra-curriculars to keep them motivated. You will begin to see higher drop-out rates and this may include students that would have been able to graduate successfully. Not every high-schooler is bound for college, and that's ok. There are other ways to be successful. This is coming from a girl who is in professional school getting her master's. The highest paid jobs don't require a college diploma, really. Look up some stats if you don't trust me. Forbes just came out with new ones, I believe. And if everyone did some research from time to time maybe our educational system (or many things, for that matter) wouldn't be so screwed up. Its not hard to do. You can start with the internet, and since you're reading this I know you have access to it. Let's let public schools do what they are supposed to do: help our country's children to grow and develop in safe environments in which their minds are stimulated and their thirst for knowledge is fed but never satisfied. Let us help them grow into adults that are success-oriented in their own ways and not in a way that a standardized test tells them they must be successful in.
Well, DR. STEVEN FELDMAN~~~
WHO TESTS YOU? Your patients can DIE, and you can still work.
"MERITOCRACY"? You DO know that School Principals and Superintendents left the classroom BECAUSE THEY COULDN'T HACK IT, or because THEY WANTED MORE MONEY?
THERE'S your "MERITOCRACY".
Dr. Feldman,
What does this sentence mean? "They assert that there are too teacher expectations..." You are an english teacher?
Now for a refutation. You stated "Their attendance exceeded 90%," That is a circumstance beyond the control of many teachers. For example, I have more than 20 of my 160 students that have started school more than two months late. Most of which were not in ANY other school. I have no control over illnesses, parents taking extended trips to central america or requiring their children to help work in the fields. If my students had such consistent attendance I too would have much greater success.
You stated that you took this class seriously and implied that you assigned an extra rigorous curriculum including "Dickens, Hawthorne, Shakespeare, Steinbeck and Edna St. Vincent Millay". With the exception of Hawthorne and Millay, you described my 7th grade curriculum in Chicago. How is it that you considered this to be a rigorous and relevant curriculum for 9th graders?
And finally, how could you teach a class for an entire year and be ignorant of what type of class it was? To use your own words, you should have been "summarily dismissed and tried for conduct unbecoming a teacher!"
Sorry, I thought previous comment was written by ... a Dr" Lawrence" Feldman and not a Dr.Steven Feldman my mistake!!...I wonder if they are related?? hmmm
My message is clear ..I disagree w/ SB6!!
I am not against rewarding good teacher and getting rid of bad ones. I am not in fear of this... I do agree that we need to make some changes...but SB 6 is not going to help! Instead, I see it as disrespect to the teachers that do work hard to ensure learning gains (which are in the majority)... but learning gains are not solely measured by a test. Especially, in the case of ESE/SPED students that are on the participatory levels in the Alternate Assessment. With an IQ of under 40!!! When will I ever see my pay increase?? Or is the district going to have to invest more $$ on other tests to see learning gains for these students?? Who is paying for these tests??? Last year our district was struggling with our budget...How is SB6 going to put more money into our district?? Here is where I see flaws in SB6!! It is erroneous and incomplete in it's current format.
Dr. Feldman, I have always admired you. I remember you as my Region Administrator and now sit on our School Board. Years ago you visited my school and classroom. You, if anyone, know these types of students that I am writing about here and the circumstances/background from which they come from. Teaching students has changed since I first started teaching. It is getting more difficult with less support and more paperwork/accountability. Should this bill pass, I hope that you will take my and the others concerns into consideration.
The lottery claims to have given millions to education, but where are those dollars? My understanding is that Florida legislators cannot SUPPLANT education dollars by taking lottery dollars in the "front door" while removing our tax dollars for education out the "back door" and using it for other purposes. One slippery way that this trick is possible is by the legislature putting such funds into the GENERAL fund where dollars can be moved anywhere.
If, in fact, the lottery dollars were used to SUPPLEMENT existing tax dollars for education as intended by law, where are those extra millions advertised on the billboards? WHY are we in this mess now where teachers will be punished for Florida legislative mishandling of funds via SB6?
"Dr." Feldman,
It is obvious by your need to call yourself "doctor" that you have some self-esteem issues as well as a lack of understanding of how professional titles are used... You are possibly "Stephen Feldman, Ph.D" but almost certainly not "Dr. Stephen Feldman" (just a heads up to the English teacher). In regard to your triumphant tale of teaching excellence.. You display a rather startling lack of insight regarding how your personal experiences (the "man who" statistic) translates to the profession at large. Perhaps teachers are not against a meritocracy so much as they question the method by which "achievement" will be operationally defined. It appears as if the plan right now is to allow the Bush brothers determine a suitable metric for measuring outcome (say, wasn't Jeb a big supporter of FCAT, one of the most psychometrically limited tests of scholastic achievement ever?). It's easy to play the "accountability" card when talking about classroom teachers but a bit more difficult to demand true accountability from the lawmakers and powers that be to create reliable and valid outcome measures.
Your "old school", cold war era hyperbolic "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" meandering is quite entertaining and appears (if your story is an actual accounting of a real event and not a literary tool to make your point) played well to one class in one geographic location. However, your impressive command of the English language does not serve to hide your woeful lack of knowledge regarding the complexities involved in creating and implementing a large scale change to our education system.
PS, is Lifetime making a movie of your experience?
I have been teaching emotionally disturbed, elementary-aged children for 21 years. Most of our children make gains while they are with us. However, this test will not show the gains made by a 5th grader who rises from a first grade reading level to a third grade within a year. His test will be a fifth grade test and it will only show that he and the teacher are failures. Additionally, I have children who can engage in discussions and do okay. The, when they go to put the answers on paper, their is a disconnect. It is a learning disability that this test won't take into consideration. These are just two of the reasons this test is unfair. I could go on with dysfunctional homes, biological issues, classroom settings, priorities (behavior over academics first we are told-though I concentrate on both), movement to multiple schools during the school year, hospitalizations for emotional distresses.
Since, I am the end user of the product our state is looking to manufacture I feel that I should have some input. I am a parent who is accountable; I expect and demand accountability from my children's teachers, school and school district. They know me well and when I have an issue with any of them I work WITH THEM for a solution. I do not file suit against them when my child gets hurt, I do not chastise them when my children are punished and I certainly do not hold them solely responsible for my children’s success or failure. I hold my children accountable for their actions. However, most parents are not like me.
During the debates of SB6, in the House, many comments were thrown around. Some about our children, humans, being a product or a stock; those items are bought and sold. My children are humans, not soulless trinkets or profit margins. I thank all teachers who work with children. I applaud the good and work hard to get rid of the bad. Do I agree that a poor quality teacher can remain in schools because a 3-year cushion protects them? Absolutely not, however, is it fair to assume a teacher is guilty out of the gate? Absolutely not. There is a balance and there is moderation. I see this and other bills as extreme measures to KILL the public school system. Most of the people who voted for un-funded mandates and for SB6 do not have a vested interest in the public school system. So, why would they care what the outcome or side affects are? They do not. Over 80 amendments were filed on SB6 and none were allowed. Our Governor asked that considerations be made and he was ignored.
I see things pretty clear and this goes well beyond my children, their schools and the performance of teachers. his is a legacy power grab. the collateral damage is my children.. I have looked and looked and I am finding that the Governor of our state is not Jeb Bush... it is Governor Charlie Crist. So, while Mr. Jeb Bush was an elected official he is no longer. Mr. Bush your services are no longer needed in the Great State of Florida. You are dismissed, fired or free to go whatever you would like to call it. I am speaking out against your stronghold on Florida.
Teachers should be given bonuses and they are if the school performs well. This is a collaborative effort that all are responsible. Our school earned it and yes it was based on the FCAT. However, the sample size was adequate. It was based on 400-students not 20 as SB6 testing would be. The system is flawed. It takes 5% off the top away from schools, which is unrealistic. However, to fund the merit pay guess where that money will come from? You guessed it property owners.
This is a bad bill and it should not be legal to create mandates that are impossible to follow due to funding issues. Stop unfounded mandates and Senate Bill 6.
I will remember in November and I do not vote party lines.
I am a student at Felix Varela Senior High school, and I can tell you the effects this bill is gonna have on me and my classmates. School is a place where I can escape any problems I may have at home, or any other place and just focus on my studies and other activities. I am in the band and when I graduate I plan to become a musician. When this bill comes to effect they will be cutting many of the funds for extra-curricular activities, such as band, so they can pay for these tests and any preparations needed for them. Our music department is already endangered as it is, we don't have the money for essential supplies such as music to perform or new instruments. We have been using the same music for the past couple of years and the same instruments since the school opened in 2000, many of which are broken now and in need of repair that we can not afford. If this Bill comes into effect then the band program won't have the proper funds to even exist and will probably be removed just like the chorus and orchestra programs were removed in the past. These problems don't just pertain to me and the band program at my school, they pertain to every child and most extra-curricular programs in nearly every public school. By passing this bill you are prejudicing the future of many children.
Other problems will arise as well. As you can see, students aren't the only ones that are upset with this matter, so are the teachers. There are two types of teachers: The teachers that are well qualified, do what they do for the right reasons, and know what they are talking about; and then there are the teachers, that don't care about their students, do what they do for the money, and have no idea what they are talking about. These are the teachers we will get stuck with, if this bill is approved because the other teachers don't deserve to get treated this way and will either move to another state, or are qualified enough to switch professions.
What I'm trying to say is, this bill will have a more negative effect on us students than a positive one. I hope this comment has had an effect on who ever is reading it and could some how reach Gov. Christ so he can see the bill from the perspective of a student who would be greatly affected by it. Thank you for your time, I will gladly discuss this matter with anyone, my email is alejandrodaniel11@hotmail.com
Well, there is a simpler answer to all of this. It used to be that each teacher prepared lessons to cover the state objectives for the course. The teacher then prepared exams to check on the learning of the lessons. At the end of the semester, the teacher prepared a final examination to determine the overall learning for the semester.
The key to all this is that the school’s principal and assistant principals would ensure that each teacher was covering the state objectives for the courses taught. They also verified the semester exams covered all of the objectives for the semester.
The most important part of all this, which most folks seem to have forgotten, is that the responsibility for learning fell upon the student, with strong encouragement (read discipline) from the parents. Students MUST come prepared to learn, and when I was a kid, God help me if I failed in this!
There also needs to be strong support from the principals and assistant principals for discipline in the classroom. When a student dropped the “F” bomb at me in a middle school class, I sent him to the dean’s office with a referral. The student was brought back by an administrator who then proceeded to inform me, in front of my class, that the school did not consider the above infraction a discipline problem. I retired shortly after that, as I saw no way to maintain any kind of decorum conducive to learning.
All of these things are essential to the providing and receiving of a superior and useful education. It is like a four-legged stool. With all four legs it is useful. If one or more of those legs are missing, it is just wood scraps.
Senate Bill 6 stinks and does not help the students or teachers of Florida. You do not need to take my opinion. We can listen to Diane Ravitch who states that "SB 6 is profoundly disrespectful toward the education profession." She is a historian of American education at New York University and served as Assistant Secretary of Research and Improvement in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. She believes that this bill would "dumb down" the education of Florida's students. She has a new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. She says that "pay-for-scores schemes don't work." "Teachers are not solely the cause of student progress. If students fail to make progress in their studies, there are many reasons for their failure. The causes of academic success or failure include the students' own effort; the students' regular attendance or lack thereof; the family's support or lack thereof; the family's poverty and its effects on the student's health and well-being; the school's resources; the district's oversight or lack thereof; and the quality of the test itself, which may be subject to random variation. It makes no sense to hold the teacher alone accountable when student performance is affected by so many different influences."
"Our nation has now had eight consecutive years of rising reading scores at the state level, yet the national scores for 8th grade students have not budged from 1998-2009. The reason for the discrepancy is that students are learning test-taking skills, but they are unable to understand complex materials or to demonstrate their progress on a test that is not the state test."
Diane Rabitch also goes on to say that “test scores do not identify the most effective teachers. A teacher who produces big score gains one year may produce none the next year, depending on which students happen to be in his or her class.” This has been shown to be true in one study that included Duval County, “literally 30 percent of the teachers identified as the least effective (bottom quintile) in 2001, were ranked in the top two quintiles in 2002 (reported by Barnett Berry from the Center for Teaching Quality, Teacher Effectiveness: The Conditions that Matter Most and a Look to the Future).
According to Barnett Berry, and others, “today’s value-added systems for measuring teacher effects can provide very useful information, the data are not always reliable measures for making high-stakes decisions.”
Teaching children is complicated. Teaching children is hard work. I feel very strongly that society can not tell a teacher when to teach; where to teach; what to teach; how to teach; and who to teach; then when the students do not do well – it must be a BAD teacher. It takes an entire village to raise a child. We must also all work together if we want our children to have a great education!
Governor Charlie Crist needs to veto Senate Bill 6/ House Bill 7189.
Dr. Steven Feldman,
Thank you for that nice tale. You know what I got from it? If this is indeed true, you didn't know anything about your students. Since I started teaching, I chose to refer to my students as young mathematicians, authors, scientists, etc. They love being called such titles; it certainly gives them confidence and pride. These students want to learn and I really want to teach them. I have regular parent conferences with the parents that want to be involved; and I plead with the uninvolved parents all the time. I have a variety of brilliant little minds in my classroom. However, unfortunately, they have learning disabilities, various disorders, and terrible issues at home. There's rarely a day that goes by without at least one of them breaking down. Do I let this bring the students down? NO! Those outbursts have gotten better over time, as we all learn more about each other. But, it's unrealistic to think that their learning isn't affected by life outside of the classroom.
Supporters of this bill are clearly ignorant. What's even more disappointing is that they do not care about these children. Teachers certainly deserve better pay, it's long overdue. But, to judge us based on standardized tests that do not care for the students' personal issues is simply ridiculous. No one, except those people that want to see our students fail, would benefit from SB6.
As a Special Education teacher I can attest that ALL students CAN and WILL learn....BUT, they do not learn at the same rate, they do require a lot more accommodations and adaptations, they many need to master behaviors first, or physical disabilities may impact what and how much they learn. This Bill takes none of these things into considerations. As it stands now...the FCAT must be administered to ALL students on THEIR actual grade level. How fair is that, when I have a student (4th gd) that is severely learning disabled (functioning on a 1.2 gd) but does not meet the criteria set by DOE for exception to the FCAT. She must STILL take the test and if she doesn't pass she is still failed. She is being penalized for her disability, with this Bill it will be both of us. However, she has made great progress, she is able to read short simple passages, she can write a simple sentence, which she couldn't before, she can do simple math, which she was unable to do before...these are all learning gains, THAT WILL NEVER BE SEEN OR MEASURED ON AN FCAT or any other standardized test.
This bill needs to be VETOED for the children's sake!
To the Editor:
How unfortunate that so many are fearful of a meritocracy. Teachers have long taught their students that hard work and well-honed skills are the key to success, both in life and in one’s career. Nevertheless, many now argue that they should not be held accountable for their pupils’ performance. They assert that there are too teacher expectations play a seminal role in student outcomes. Any teacher who declares that students cannot learn should be summarily dismissed and tried for conduct unbecoming a teacher! In my first year of teaching high school English, I was given a program stating that among my classes was a 9th Grade Honors class. I took that class especially seriously, assigning them Dickens, Hawthorne, Shakespeare, Steinbeck and Edna St. Vincent Millay. I administered an old NY State-wide Senior English exam to them in early June, and everyone passed. I constantly reminded them that they were gifted young people and that they should have no difficulty with the tough stuff. Their attendance exceeded 90%, and they all passed with grades of B or higher. I thanked my department head for giving me the honor of teaching so talented a group of young people, and he looked me in the eye, declaring “it was a misprint. You didn’t have an honors class.” I learned then and there that my expectations had more to do with my students’ success than any external variable, including poverty, family and society. Let that be a lesson to those who oppose merit salary for our teachers.
As a parent and grandparent, I do not think the passage of this bill iis in the best interest of my children or grandchildren. To base the child's educational future and define the child by a test score seems unsound. To use taxpayer dollars 900 million to achieve this needs full input of the taxpayer. Rushing to pass this without developing a plan with educators and parents and implemneting a model and evaluating the results is irresponsible. The welfare of the student was certainly not taken into consideration. Who knows a child better than the parent?? Parents should have been consulted about these new end-of-course tests. Had parents been consulted about the FCAT we would not be in this mess and forking over more money( 900 million) for more tests. Who really stands to profit....the companies making the tests of course.