Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson resigns

[seafan]

Source: Tampa Bay Times

TALLAHASSEE — Florida's education commissioner, Gerard Robinson, has resigned from his position.

Robinson notified Gov. Rick Scott of his intention to resign Tuesday as the head of one of the nation's largest public school systems.

"I appreciate Gerard's service to the state of Florida and his commitment to ensuring Florida's students receive a first class education," Gov. Scott said in a statement. "He has been a tireless advocate for creating quality learning opportunities for all of Florida's students and he will certainly be missed. I wish Gerard the best and I know he will continue to make a positive impact on students and educators."


(very short news item)

Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/article1243492.ece

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FCAT writing scores plummet, prompting school grade concerns, May 15, 2012

Fewer third-graders pass critical FCAT reading test, May 25, 2012

FCAT fiasco points up failures at the top, May 16, 2012




Jeff Bryant at the California Progress Report cuts to the heart of this debacle:

.....

The Pied Piper of school choice is undoubtedly Jeb Bush, who recently declared "school choice is a catalytic converter for rising student achievement" in a speech delivered to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

Like so many "signs of progress" that school "reform" enthusiasts like to crow about, Bush's recipe for "reform" is little more than a policy checklist that invariably includes instituting some form of school choice (Parent Trigger, charter schools, etc.), grading schools A-F, and evaluating teachers based on test scores.

Hardly ever do Bush and his followers connect this checklist of reforms to actual positive impacts on children -- because, in fact, they can't.

The results of Bush's program for public schools -- what he likes to refer to as "the Florida miracle" -- are very thin indeed. The "miracle" claim is derived primarily from the fact that Florida fourth graders, especially black fourth graders, out-gained the national average on the National Association of Education Progress in 2003 and 2005.

Impressive perhaps, until education researcher and testing expert Walter Haney looked into the situation. What Haney uncovered is that NAEP results for Florida fourth graders spiked because the population of fourth graders had been significantly changed.

It turns out that the scores for Florida fourth graders had improved mostly because the state suddenly started flunking large numbers of third graders, so low-achieving third graders were still in third grade when the fourth grade test was given. "With only the higher-achieving students taking the test, the scores jumped," according to an article in NEA Today.

"What’s more," the article continues, "the state flunked a much higher proportion of black than white students -- no wonder the achievement gap shrank."

Bearing out Haney's findings, sure enough, Florida's results on more recent NAEPs have shown that the gains Bush loves to cite have now stalled. So much for the "miracle."

Aside from Jeb Bush's Magical Mystery Tour, the longest running choice programs in America -- voucher programs in Milwaukee and Washington DC -- have done little to improve student achievement.

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Diane Ravitch: Note to Jeb Bush: Florida Loses Its Bragging Rights



And this, is what unadulterated failure looks like.


It's time to flush all of the Bushes and all of their hordes of operatives who are determined to decimate public school education in this country.