McKay Scholarship

The McKay Scholarship allows parents to take a child who has an IEP or a 504 Plan for the last year and to go to either another public school or to a McKay Private School.

The Miami Times did a piece last year on the financial challenges of McKay Schools -- I will not comment on this since I have no knowledge.

My concern is with the need for academic accountability.

Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education is a leading organization on school choice. In a page they created they promote:

Measurement: To provide an accurate depiction of where our students are, annual standardized testing must be continued and expanded in all 50 states. Measuring whether students are learning a year’s worth of knowledge in a year’s time is essential for building on progress, rewarding success and correcting failures. To accurately measure progress, modern data and information systems should be utilized, and there must be maximum transparency across the board.

Data-Driven Accountability: Holding schools accountable for student achievement – measured objectively with data such as annual standardized tests and graduation rates – improves the quality of an education system. Success and learning gains no longer go unnoticed and problems are no longer ignored, resulting in efforts to effectively narrow achievement gaps.

Teacher Quality: Study after study show the quality of teaching is paramount to student achievement. It is past time for America to move away from a union-dominated system that places tenure before the needs of students. Financially rewarding educators for their expertise and their excellence will attract and retain the best and brightest to the teaching profession as well as to the greatest challenges in providing a quality education, including teaching in high-poverty and low-performing schools. Educators should be licensed, measured and compensated in diverse and flexible ways that put a premium on raising student achievement.

My concern is there is no academic measurement, no data driven system and no requirements for teacher quality at McKay Schools.

I hear comments like, "There are very few schools with problems", "these are private schools, so we have no right to regulate them", and "the parents can make an informed choice".

I see students come from McKay Schools who are far below grade level in their reading and math, and the parents were not fully aware of their child's present performance. The challenges appear to be widespread and it is difficult for educators to determine which programs are academically the best, how could a parent be expected to sort it out.

I believe all private schools have the right to be private, but once they take public funds, that should change - McKay Schools presently get close to $150 million a year. I do not favor FCAT testing, but if the McKay students were required to take a nationally normed test, for example the SAT 10s, it would give parents insight into how students are performing and hold McKay Schools to a fair and reasonable standard.

Note -- when former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings was asked if she would support a voucher program without academic accountability her answer was a simple, "No".

Let's get Academic Accountability into the McKay Scholarship Program, let the schools who do well shine, and the schools that do not pay the price for poor performance.

Award For Biggest Step Backwards in Florida Public Schools

Florida public schools have been going through a systematic effort to defund them and to make charter schools, voucher programs and virtual schools more attractive

In trying to identify the worst move for public schools, there were three in the running:
1- Cutting funding by 8% in addition to the decrease in funding from the stimulus money going away

2- Expanding the McKay Voucher Scholarship Program to include students with 504 Plans -- often a child with ADHD. This made little sense because private schools do not have to provide the protection that public schools do, but with Response to Intervention decreasing the number of Special Education Students, the private schools were going to see a decrease in students, unless the change was made

3- Making it much easier for Charter Schools to expand, even though there is little proof the students get a better education, and there is mounting proof of heavy duty lobbying for people close to the legislators

What the public schools needed least of all was a Christmas Present from the new Commissioner of Education who overrode a group of 300 who had recommended a more balanced approach to FCAT passing scores -- their suggestions included smoothing out the scores so that students did not do well in 7th, 8th and 9th grades only to fail the 10th grade Reading or 10th Grade Math FCATs that are required to earn a high school degree.

The commissioner made three significant changes:
- He made it more difficult to pass to pass the all important 10th grade FCAT in reading and math-- the projections are that 48% of the students will now fail the 10th grade reading FCAT

- The changes at 3rd grade were more subtle. Passing the 3rd Grade FCAT is required for promotion and the new scores are only projected to increase the failing rate from 16 to 18%. The subtle change was that there would be a sharp increase in the students needing remediation -- from 12% to 25%. They doubled the number of students who would now be classified as reading below grade level. Similar changes were made in other grades.

- Then, they made these changes effective immediately. When governments usually make changes, they give industry 1, 2 or 3 years to prepare. In this case the changes will take effective with the 2012 FCATs to be given in April 2012

This is in the face of sharp cutbacks in resources for at-risk students.

We really do need to raise the standards, and it will take an innovate approach, real teamwork and more resources to make it happen

The people of Florida will need to apply pressure on the legislature to invest in public education, or the changes will result in the students, teachers and schools being rated as "failing", when it is the Governor and the Legislature who will have failed our students, teachers and schools.

Let's hope the Governor and the Legislature are open to the challenge