Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Large Charter Chain buys republican votes in Florida

Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Large Charter Chain buys republican votes in Florida

Better Public Schools Or Else

Florida passed a Teacher Merit Pay bill and now refuses to pay for the Merit Pay portion of the bill

We want highly qualified teachers, we want to reward high performing teachers, but those in power refuse to foot the bill for Merit Pay for Florida Teachers.

Re-inventing public schools will surely require teachers and parents to do things better, but it will also require both a focus on excellent public schools and a willingness to fund excellence -- or else.

The "or else" should be a requirement that politicians be willing to fund excellent public schools or parents, teachers and other committed citizens will vote for those who will

Excellent Public Schools should be our first line of attack for creating a Better America, or we are going to do what we have always done and expect a different outcome -- the definition of insanity

Let's elect people who believe in excellent public schools and are willing to provide the political and financial drive to give our kids the education they need

Florida Learning Disabilities Dilemma

Encourage you to read my blog post on the National Center for Learning Disabilities Blog and to comment. Learning Disabilities community is under intense pressure in Florida as they formed a
Task Force to include students with disabilities and totally excluded parents, educators and students with specific learning disabilities -- please read The Florida Learning Disabilities Dilemma and comment

Task Force on Inclusion and Accountability Gets an F for Students with Learning Disabilities, ADHD and Language and Speech Impairments

The Inclusion and Accountability Task Force was set-up to address the inclusion of Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners. Having sat through both the phone conversations and the task force meeting, I can say they barely mentioned the 90% of the students with disabilities. All 4 parents on the task force represented students with more significant disabilities -- Williams Syndrome, Downs Syndrome (2 parents) and Autism - and for all intensive purposes, they excluded students with learning disabilities, ADHD, and speech and language impairments.

All these students with significant disabilities and their parents could and should have been included in one of the two task forces, but they were the only parents representing either Exceptional Student Education or Students with Disabilities

Left out of the discussion were students with learning disabilities, ADHD and speech and language impairments

Click here to read the conclusions of the Task Force on Inclusion and Accountability

As Co-President of the Learning Disabilities Association, a Parent Advocate for the National Center for Learning Disabilities and an Advocate for Students with Learning Disabilities, I am not just upset, I am downright furious.

This is not about me. This is about the 200,000 kids whose concerns are not being addressed. I welcome input from parents, advocates, professionals and others.

This is the 3rd time our kids have been left out of the mix.

1- When the School Grading System was started, Students with Disabilities were left out of the Performance Grading System

2- When Florida got a waiver to raise the subgroup size from 30 to 100 in 2006, students with disabilities in half our schools were excluded from the Federal Adequate Yearly Progress program

3- Now, the Florida Department of Education has excluded our kids one more time from the discussion

Unacceptable and we need to work together to right the ship

You can contact me at markhalpertldafl@gmail.com, or at 561-361-7495

Together, let's make the difference

Task Force on Inclusion and Accountability and Students with Learning Disabilities

Students with Learning Disabilities were barely discussed at the Task Force on Inclusion and Accountability.

As Co-President of the Learning Disabilities Association of Florida and a Parent Advocate for the National Center for Learning Disabilities I was very concerned. Then I looked at the Florida Department of Education Strategic Plan, and saw no mention of Students with Learning Disabilities

Then I decided to look at the School Grading Program -- Florida's A+ Program. Not mentioned there either.

Then I looked at the Grade 3 FCAT scores for students with learning disabilities -- 73% were at Levels 1 and 2, before the scoring changes -- expect that number to be over 80% in 2012

Tallahassee we have a problem!!!

Dramatically improving performance for students with Specific Learning Disabilities will take a fundamental shift in priorities, systems and implementation.

I am not an optimist, but there are signs things will change. When they do I will be the first to toast those who make the changes. Until then, we need to beat the drums and make sure our kids get the priority and education they deserve

Students with Disabilities Task Force without Discussing Learning Disabilities

We have raised the standards, we will include students with disabilities and second year ELL Students in the School Grading, and the last leg needs to be what we are going to do differently to help teachers and schools help our students succeed. Two days of Inclusion and Accountability Task Force meetings and very little focus on improving how we help kids succeed.

Today our kids learn differently, have far more attention challenges and are reading less --- fundamental changes are needed -- the scoring changes are only productive if our kids get a better education

I represent students with learning disabilities and in two days of discussions students with learning disabilities were barely mentioned and yet we make up 39% of the students with disabilities

A new task force representing students with learning disabilities, ADHD and related challenges needs to be formed

To Improve National Security -- Invest in Public Schools

Secretary Rice and Joel Klein make a strange argument for school choice -- read this article and consider why wouldn't we Invest in Public Schools

Our National Security would be best served by focusing on improving the quality of the programs in public schools. Technology, foreign language efforts and all initiatives are being de-funded as we support school choice at the expense of school quality. Many of our best and brightest students go to public schools, and they deserve to have their schools funded with world class programs

Invest in public schools Now!!!