Ron DeSantis is the first candidate seeking statewide office in Florida who is against common core. Having Ron DeSantis, as our Governor, is probably the only way we can finally stop common core in Florida. Other than, to promote the sale of common core aligned textbooks, common core serve only two purposes, which is sold to us as "accountability."
One reason we still have common core is to flunk third graders if they fail on one of the, end of year, Florida State Assessments (FSA). I suppose, traumatizing every third grader, as a failure, for messing up on one test may help pad the State's statistics later on; but how accountable can a little third grader actually be?
The other we reason Florida holds onto common core is to provide the assessment data, to the teacher evaluation algorithm called the Value Added Model (or Method) common called VAM. The VAM is, accountability on autopilot, which can fire teachers and close schools if the VAM finds them less compliant to the common core standards then their peers.
If you are a teacher, you probably have an opinion on common core, high stakes testing, and the VAM. There are so many studiesthat have raised important questions about the validity of test-based evaluation and the value-added model. Teachers unions, including the Florida Education Association, (FEA) have pointed out the problems with the VAM. As a teacher, you, no doubt, could point out your own issues with having your career depend on the results of two tests every year. In 2018, the situation, in Florida, is that no one is permitted to even raise the question of the VAM's validly, let alone removing it.
Which bring me to the reason I support Ron DeSantis because he said he wants to get rid of what does not work in our education system. Of all the candidates that ran for Governor, Ron DeSantis had the highest rating from the Stop Common Core Coalition of Florida, with an A. His opponent, Andrew Gillum earned a D.
As governor, Ron DeSantis gives us the best chance to make changes, up to and including, getting rid of the entire common core system. This includes the high stake assessments and the VAM teacher evaluations. Over the years, DeSantis has repeatedly expressed his belief in local control over education, parental involvement in education and autonomy for teachers.
DeSantis is uniquely qualified to break up the good ol' boy, crony, network that has been under the thumb of Jeb Bush for over two decades. When DeSantis beat Putnam, it signaled an end to Jeb Bush's control over Florida's education. In addition, with funding from Bill Gates into Jeb's foundations drying up, so too will their influence over Florida's education.
Maybe now is the time for Floridians to free our kids and our teachers from all the mandates coming from Tallahassee and the US Department of Education? Maybe now is the time to keep what works and toss out what does not. Maybe now, we can at least, start discussing what is best for our children and the teachers who care about them.
P.S If you doubt that Florida is still bound to the common core state standards (CCSS), check out the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition website for proof
Problems with the VAM
§ VAM Scores Raise Concerns, Criticisms and Questions on Teacher Effectiveness | Sunshine State News | Florida Political News
"http://sunshinestatenews.com/story/vam-scores-raise-concerns-criticisms-and-questions-teacher-effectiveness", 10/26/2018
The VAM data is an expensive boondoggle that is taking money from the classroom, FEA tweeted, calling the data worthless. It is ludicrous to try to determine the value of a teacher using a formula that is comprehensible only to a small number of statisticians, the FEA wrote in its talking points for union leaders. With the problems that the DOE has been having with data on testing and school grades, we have little confidence in these complex figures used to determine a teachers evaluation
§ Problems with the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers | Economic Policy Institute
"https://www.epi.org/publication/bp278/", 10/2/2018
"What is now necessary is a comprehensive system that gives teachers the guidance and feedback, supportive leadership, and working conditions to improve their performance, and that permits schools to remove persistently ineffective teachers without distorting the entire instructional program by imposing a flawed system of standardized quantification of teacher quality."
§ Weingarten slams teacher evaluation by student test scores - The Washington Post
"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/13/weingarten-slams-teacher-evaluation-by-student-test-scores/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.97652171e22c", 10/2/2018
'It's time to call the question.'
§ Learning from what doesn’t work in teacher evaluation - kappanonline.org
"http://www.kappanonline.org/learning-from-what-doesnt-work-in-teacher-evaluation/?utm_source=PDK+International&utm_campaign=7b26196801-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_08_21_02_36&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_867590cd6a-7b26196801-30089917", 10/26/2018
When rethinking their teacher evaluation systems under ESSA, education leaders will do well to look to the past for guidance on what not to do — and what to do better.
§ Why Standardized Tests Don't Measure Educational Quality - Educational Leadership
"http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar99/vol56/num06/Why-Standardized-Tests-Don%27t-Measure-Educational-Quality.aspx", 10/25/2018
Right Task, Wrong Tools Educators should definitely be held accountable. The teaching of a nation's children is too important to be left unmonitored. But to evaluate educational quality by using the wrong assessment instruments is a subversion of good sense. Although educators need to produce valid evidence regarding their effectiveness, standardized achievement tests are the wrong tools for the task.
§ A Florida Teacher Explains Why She Thinks VAM is a Scam - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher
"http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/06/a_florida_teacher_explains_why.html", 10/5/2018
Guest post by kafkateach, originally posted at her blog here. In my previous post about VAM, I chose to discredit value added models on a purely humanistic level and to leave the attacks on the validity and reliability of the algorithm to the mathematicians. In the past week, I have learned so much about how VAMs will now be used in annual teacher evaluations in Florida that I can completely leave the pseudo science behind the algorithm out of the equation. I do not even need to prove that value added models are merely overpriced tarot card readings to demonstrate...
§ A ‘value-added’ travesty for an award-winning teacher - The Washington Post
"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2012/12/03/a-value-added-travesty-for-an-award-winning-teacher/?utm_term=.84eb62f205a3", 10/2/2018
There are numerous problems with using VAM scores for high-stakes decisions, but in this particular release of data, the most obvious and perhaps the most egregious one is this: Some 70 percent of the Florida teachers received VAM scores based on test results from students they didn’t teach and/or in subjects they don’t teach.
§ Performance or Effectiveness? A Critical Distinction for Teacher Evaluation - On Performance - Education Week
"http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/on_performance/2011/10/performance_or_effectiveness_a_critical_distinction_for_teacher_evaluation.html", 10/26/2018
Guest post from Rod McCloy & Andrea Sinclair Teacher evaluation has become a major focus of reform at the highest levels of education policymaking. The Obama administration awarded states more points for plans to improve teacher evaluation in their Race to the Top applications than for nearly any other policy area. The administration's Blueprint for Reform for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (i.e., NCLB) would require states to revamp teacher evaluation to receive significant amounts of federal funding. The administration has also allocated federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) money for "persistently low-performing" schools adopting the Transformation model, which...
§ The fundamental flaws of ‘value-added’ teacher evaluation - The Washington Post
"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2012/12/23/the-fundamental-flaws-of-value-added-teacher-evaluation/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d3938cde87e1", 10/26/2018
Evaluating teachers by the test scores of their students may seem to some like a common sense way to see if teachers are actually doing their jobs. It isn't. Here's why.
§ Some question state's measurement of teacher effectiveness
"https://www.jacksonville.com/news/education/2017-09-15/some-question-state-s-measurement-teacher-effectiveness", 10/26/2018
Days before the school year started, state education officials forced Duval County Schools to remove 35 teachers from eight high-need schools. Those teachers’ so-called “VAM” scores were too low, the state said, and they shouldn’t teach at schools trying to turn around persistently low grades.The controversial move cast light on the main way Florida measures a teacher’s effectiveness, VAM scores.VAM stands for value-added measure or value-added model. It features a
§ Paul Horton: Why We Need to Tell Stories About Our Lives | Diane Ravitch's blog
"https://dianeravitch.net/2014/01/19/paul-horton-why-we-need-to-tell-stories-about-our-lives/", 10/4/2018
Paul Horton, who teaches history at the University of Chicago Lab School, here ponders a famous remark by David Coleman, architect of the Common Core standards. Coleman said while giving a speech in New York that was taped, that students need to learn that no one gives a s--- about what you think or feel,…
§ The most meaningless teacher evaluation exercise ever? - The Washington Post
"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/25/the-most-meaningless-teacher-evaluation-exercise-ever/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.231de4841907", 10/26/2018
Again, Florida evaluates teachers on kids they didn't teach. And it isn't the only state that does this.
§ Reliability and Validity of Inferences About Teachers Based on Student Test Scores
"http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/PICANG14.pdf", 10/26/2018
Using a test validation methodology in assessing VAMs, Haertel examines questions of validity, reliability, prediction power, and potential positive and negative effects of particular uses of teacher value-added scores. His lecture, which includes cautionary notes about using value-added scores in making high-stakes decisions, adds to the public policy discussion of teacher performance evaluation methods
§ Florida's testing contractor loses $4.8 million for 2015 exam problems - Orlando Sentinel
"https://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-florida-testing-contractor-fines-fsa-20160819-story.html", 10/4/2018
The testing company that administers Florida's key standardized exam has lost nearly $5 million because of problems that marred the roll out of the
Third Grade Retention
§ Retention: 3rd GRADER FACING MANDATORY RETENTION IN FLORIDA | The Wrightslaw Way
"http://www.wrightslaw.com/blog/retention-3rd-grader-facing-mandatory-retention-in-florida/", 10/22/2018
Lea: My son is in the 3rd grade and has had an IEP since first grade due to dyslexia and ADHD. He failed the FSA and earned a level 1, but he missed a level 2
Florida Stop Common Core
§ Florida Stop Common Core Coalition
§ Florida Candidates for Governor Differ Widely on Education - Florida Citizens Alliance - Liberty
"http://floridacitizensalliance.com/liberty/florida-candidates-for-governor-differ-widely-on-education/", 10/2/2018
Clashing on everything from private school vouchers to education spending, Florida’s two main contenders for governor have laid out vastly different promises when it comes to the state’s schools. Florida’s schools are facing a teacher shortage, fights over funding and questions over security since the Parkland shooting this year…
§ Major Problems with Common Core
"https://www.flstopcccoalition.org/major-problems-with-common-core/", 10/2/2018
There are significant problems with Common Core Standards, not least of which is unprecedented data collection on our children, accessible by private companies.
§ Florida Stop Common Core Coalition
"https://www.flstopcccoalition.org/", 10/2/2018
Florida Stop Common Core Coalition was created to fight for the complete removal of Common Core from the state of Florida and to restore parent and locally controlled education.
§ K-12 Education Resources - Florida Citizens Alliance - Liberty
"http://floridacitizensalliance.com/liberty/common-sense-not-common-core-resources/", 10/2/2018
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