News with a focus • March 2010 • SECTION B
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The State of STAFF
red & black’s
IN-DEPTH You have the right as a student to not just be aware of, but understand what is being done to change education and better prepare you to be successful in life. The Red & Black presents this issue of IN-DEPTH with the goal of presenting you information about various efforts to “reform” the education system.
REPORTING newsha DOWLATY elizabeth GWILT chrissy GESHEL savannah HOWARD nick O’CONNOR zack PETERSON karen RODRIGUEZ sarah VARNER
DESIGN taylor GONZALEZ jesse GUGGINO Editors-in-Chief: Taylor Gonzalez & Karen Rodriguez Adviser: Joe Humphrey, MJE
Our Schools
Reforms proposed from many sources by Sarah Varner
In his first State of the Union address, President Barack Obama told Congress that “a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity. It is a prerequisite. “We know the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow. That is why it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education, from the day they are born to the day they begin a career.” On Saturday, March 13, Obama proposed major reforms to the existing standards of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) passed under the Bush administration. Obama’s plans include making improvements in K-12 education, encouraging higher education standards, promoting innovation and excellence, recruiting and keeping better teachers and funding early childhood education. The Bush administration created the NCLB act with the idea of setting standards for education and with ways of measuring student‘s success to aid in improving education. The act required states taking federal money to have standardized assessments and achievement, without nationalizing education and leaving it as the responsibility of local governments. This concept of nationalized standards has been in the background for over 25 years and
“Overall you can get a good education in Hillsborough County as long as materials are present.” • Tom Paloumpis, social studies teacher
now critical steps are being taken by the education leaders to unite local and state officials to compose a draft of standards for states to adopt. Even though the federal government was not involved in creating the standards, but they used grant money from the Recovery Act as an incentive for joining the effort giving states bonus points on their applications for Race to the Top if they joined. Florida, who applied, is in the finals to receive the federally funded grant, Race to the Top. The contest began with dozens of states submitting their applications in attempt to receive a portion of the $4.35 billion up for grabs. The money is intended for recipients to better their K-12 schools. However the ongoing debate is whether Race to the Top -- and other education reforms under consideration -- will really help the system. “That [Race to the Top] is just passing our federal money. It has a slight connection to raising achievement. The Obama people are well intentioned, but they are too far from the schools to have much of an impact, and the Constitution leaves the power to make change in the hands of
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Proposal targets
the states, and most particularly the local schools and districts,” said Jay Mathews, an education writer for The Washington Post and one of the foremost authorities on covering school reform. “More money, we learned long ago, rarely changes bad habits.” Still, money is often seen synonymous with power, and Hillsborough County finds itself with $100 million to spend on its own reform. The Empowering Effective Teachers Grant is more casually called the Gates Grant because the money is coming from the foundation founded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda. The seven-year project to better equip teachers for classrooms to reach 90 percent graduation rate. That reform comes at the same time state leaders are eager to join a national movement to create consistent educational standards for students coast-to-coast. According to Denny Oest, Hillsborough County’s secondary education director, having equal education standards for all states “will then be like comparing apples to apples and not apples and oranges.” At the state level, lawmakers are considering an end to teacher tenure, arguing that it will make it easier to get rid of teachers who have no business being in the classroom. That’s politically sensitive territory for plenty of teachers who, naturally, worry about their own job security. So why are these education changes taking place now? Last May, the Center for Labor Market Studies published a report of nationwide dropout rates. The report, entitled “Left Behind in America: The Nation’s Dropout Crisis,” reported that there were nearly 6.2 million students between the ages of 16 and 24 that dropped out in 2007. Florida ranked third for the most dropouts, with 423,529 and ranked second for the highest dropout rates, with 20.1 percent. Couple that with the high number of graduates who find enter college or the workforce unprepared for the rigor, and there’s cause to worry.
“I feel that the present condition of our standard education system is deplorable. Students are pumped out year after year with a subpar education in comparison to the standards of other countries like Japan, Germany and the UK. Teachers are laughable. Classes are useless and the brain function of our American youth is depleting year after year.” • Madison Glenn, 12
What’s the present state of our schools?
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teacher tenure,
raises test stakes
by Savannah Howard
For years, teachers have had stability in their career through tenure.
NICK O’CONNOR
The staff of IN-DEPTH interview leaders in education, including Hillsborough County Superintendent MaryEllen Elia.
Tenure is a process that guarantees a teacher’s job after so many years of teaching, and this is being threatened by the state Legislature. Naturally, some teachers aren’t happy about this plan. The bill also proposes that teacher’s pay be based on their students exam grades, FCAT grades and performance on other tests. In the past, teachers have just been evaluated by fellow teachers and administration. One of the many things looked at is how their students perform, but it’s not been a central part in determining how much money they make. Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee, such as state Sen. John Thrasher, are proposing this bill because of countless situations when teachers ignore their responsibilities and neglect to teach their students what they need to know. Thrasher told the St. Petersburg Times, “It’s a Nixon-goes-to-China type of thing. It’s a major move and there’s nothing wrong with that. According to the Times, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is backing the bill. “I think that, you know, it’s really all about how the students perform at the end of the day anyway,” Crist said. “So if we base how we compensate our teachers on how their students perform, it seems like a very natural thing.” Still, not everyone is sold on it. “It’s not fair to teachers because after all, the success of a student ultimately comes down to the motivation of the student, a teacher can only do so much,” said Linda Wilson, an English teacher. Many other teachers at Hillsborough feel the same way such as Jen Fiore, who said, “I think teachers who work hard and have their student’s best interest at heart don’t deserve to
be fired if their students don’t perform well.” But Katherine Griffin, said she liks the plan. “Merit pay is the way to go! It’s not the first time teachers have been paid for how their students perform. Plus, it’s not as if they would be comparing the teachers students to other teachers students. It would all be based on baseline statistics of their class only,” she said. *** If this bill is passed and becomes a law there will be drastic changes within the school system. With a passing bill, teachers will be required to work for a five-year probationary period followed by a single-year contract in which their pay is determined by performance evaluation. In the past, if a teacher worked for at least three years, they were given a “professional services” contract that -- for the most part -- protected their jobs. Along with this primary change come many others. Starting in 2014, teachers who are National Board Certified will no longer be able to collect bonuses; and, starting directly after the bill is passed, districts that do not comply with new rules will be penalized by having funding cut and requiring the district to raise the lost money by adding a new local tax. Removing tenure will hurt teachers in more than one way, Fiore predicted. “Tenure has always allowed teachers to have creativity when they teach. If this bill passes, we won’t be able to do that anymore,” Fiore said. This bill will affect any teacher hired after July and will be phased in to affect all teachers by the 2013-2014 school year. Florida would be the first state to rid their teachers of tenure. While teacher groups have spread the word against the bill through Facebook and other means, Griffin said the proposal might just do what Thrasher and other supporters are hoping. “Maybe it will be a wake-up call to teachers who aren’t doing what their supposed to do,” Griffin said.
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Out of 41 initial applicants, these states are striving to earn Race to the Top funding: Colorado Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Illinois Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts New York North Carolina Ohio Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Source: Ed.gov / ILLUSTRATION BY JESSE GUGGINO
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by Elizabeth Gwilt & Chrissy Geshel
Among other criteria the four essential areas include: • better preparation for college • more efficient data systems • rewarding productive teachers and principals and • Improving the aptitude of even the least proficient of schools. After an in-depth analysis of the applications, 16 of the 41 candidates proceeded to Phase 2 of the competition, with Florida being one of them, Duncan announced March 4. “At least half, if not more of the money will be available in Phase 2” said Duncan, who encourages even the states that didn’t qualify the first time around to reapply. However, he adds “It’s a fair statement that the winners are to be in the single digits.” Along with integrity, Duncan stresses the “historic level of transparency” that has been present throughout the Race to the Top program. A major concern was that the state governments would use the money awarded to them for purposes besides education. “Once [the states] become finalists, we hold them accountable” he said. The money, if granted, would not be awarded all up front. Duncan assures that any prize money would only go towards the states’ plans for education reform, after some people expressed concern that the money would be spent for uses other than education. These worries are understandable, considering what happened last time the government threw money at people and hope it fixed their problems (i.e. the recent bailout of banks and investors). The Secretary of Education also hinted at a Phase 3 in the future. Recently, President Obama has requested $1.35 billion for his 2011 budget to continue Race to the Top. Overall, Florida has become one of the chief competitors in the finalist line-up. According to the Sunshine State’s application, state Board of Education goals already correlate to the requirements of Race to the Top. Essentially, Florida has been practicing some of the criteria for years now, which gives them a competitive edge, Florida leaders said. Improving low-achieving schools, raising the quality of
It’s a topic that has split the country, triggered fiery debates in Congress and sent Obama’s administration scrambling for a solution. Education reform is an issue to which America desperately needs an answer. A total of $4.35 billion is up for grabs, which has state educators and politicians alike striving to put forth their best ideas in order to get a piece of the prize. Race to the Top is the proposed remedy that has been put into action under the Recovery Act of 2009. Out of President Obama’s entire annual budget, the Department of Education was the single division spared drastic cuts according to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The Education Department is receiving unprecedented resources, Duncan said, because “Mr. Obama sees it as investing in the future.” There were 41 applicants applicants (40 states and the District of Columbia) in Phase 1 of the Race to the Top. Each state devised plans to improve the status of their education system. Panels of judges reviewed and scored the applications on a 500-point scale.”We’ve been getting great applications, but every state has its relative strengths and weaknesses.” Duncan said on a conference call with reporters. “No state had a perfect application, there’s always room for improvement.”
Race to the Top is the latest education reform offered by the federal government and intends to distribute $4.35 billion to winning states. Thus far, 40 states and Washington D.C. applied for a slice of the money, and the government is slowly dwindling down its list. So far, Florida is still alive for the funding. JESSE GUGGINO
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teaching, and preparing students for college have all been areas that Florida has been aspiring to accomplish that are directly related to the Race to the Top guidelines. In Florida’s application the previous initiatives, what the initiatives lacked, and the details for filling the gap are all clearly illustrated. An example is described in Strategy #6 (The turnaround of low achieving schools), a category in which Florida had ample room for improvement. Former efforts included combining state and federal requirements, as well as assembling teams with a strong record of “turning around” schools with low performance rates. The gap was comprised of “limited time and funding” in addition to a shortage of adequate teachers. Now that Race to the Top is in the picture, Florida officials are recruiting and training more teachers. Tom Butler, press secretary for Florida’s Department of Education, also said that the Florida Legislature is striving “to double the percentage of incoming high school freshman who ultimately achieve college credit by 2020.” Additional efforts are being made to eliminate the achievement gap by 2020. The establishment of the Race to the Top program will impact the way America deals with education, and teachers at Hillsborough are no exception. Neal Mobley, a physics teacher at Hillsborough, has heard about Race to the Top, but wasn’t entirely convinced. “I think it’s a good idea in theory, but in practice it would be hard to implement fairly” he said. Mobley also has concerns about the fact that teachers would be rewarded based on performance, not by the number of years they have worked. “The difficulty is comparing teachers who don’t teach the same subjects or students” said Mobley. Jason Rogowski, however, believes that this modern way of awarding educators is beneficial to most everyone. “Teachers sometimes get caught in ruts. It’s all about making yourself better for both you and your students,” the social studies teacher said. Until the winners are announced in April, Race to the Top will continue to bring about controversy, new ideas, and change to America. Changes, like the ones that Florida is undergoing, are what Duncan wanted to see through the duration of the program. “Race to the Top is a catalyst for conversations that desperately needed to be said.” Duncan added, “We don’t have a single state in the U.S. whose graduation rate is high enough. We can’t afford not to push for reform now.”
Race to the Top aims to adopt a standardized set of world-class education guidelines to prepare students for their given future careers.
Additionally, the money will help various school districts recruit and finance the most capable teachers to enhance student achievement.
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$100 million dollars from the Gates Foundation aims to reform teacher effectiveness in Hillsborough County.
March 2010
Gates donates $100M with teacher reform in mind by Zack Peterson
Bill and Melinda Gates are well known for their generous donations to various industries throughout the world. Last November, the couple put a combined $335 million dollars towards educational reform, distributing $100 million of it towards Hillsborough County schools over a seven-year span. $90 million was also given to Memphis schools, $60 million to five charter schools in Los Angeles and $40 million to Pittsburgh schools. Known casually as the Gates Grant, the new money will give the county the opportunity to implement educational reforms that have long been in the works. “I think [the Gates Grant] gives us the chance to completely reshape the school district,” said Dr. David Steele, the Chief Information Technology Officer as well as the Project Director for Empowering Teachers. “It’s our attempt to focus on teaching as the most effective way to improve student achievement.” During January last year, the Gates Foundation performed a nationwide search of school districts. Overall they identified about 20 that they were interested in, and then narrowed the selection down to 10. At this point, the Gates Foundation invited the 10 districts to apply for a piece of the grant. “We were brought together over three different times, and we were all interviewed by the members of the foundation,” Steele said. Upon further collaboration and final eliminations, Hillsborough County was selected along with Memphis, Pittsburgh and the Los Angeles charter schools. Omaha was additionally selected, but turned down the offer due to a lack of funding (districts must match the Gates gift). “In the selection process, we were helped by doing what they were already looking for. We were already pushing for AP classes and incentive pay,” Steele said. “They picked out
districts with reforms in place that they wanted to see. Additionally we have good relations with the union as well as the School Board. But ultimately, they really wanted a place with teachers on board for their style of reform.” With the new funding from the grant the county plans to improve student education and bolster the percentage of college ready students by altering new teaching standards. “We are changing the recruiting, support, and feedback process for teachers everywhere,” said Stephen Hegarty, a communications officer for the county involved in the Gates Grant. “We believe having a great teacher is the greatest factor. We say we have plenty of them, and we do, but we want to ensure every kid has a great one.” Now, school board officials are working toward creating this three prong approach. “One of the biggest initiatives is to start a cadre of peer and mentor evaluators,” Steele said. “Those are teachers hired for a two year period to work with other teachers. They’ll coach first year teachers with new approaches to teaching. If we go through with that intense staff development, they’ll grow into more effective teachers.” The county first proposed pulling 200 outstanding teachers out of the classroom’s to become peer evaluators. That number has decreased to approximately 115 now. “Just like a teacher gives a student a grade, we’re going to give teachers a grade and tell them what needs work,” Hegarty said. “We’re focused on giving important feedback.” The new evaluations are designed to draw teachers and students by creating a clear link between them. “The evaluations will give teachers more support and new strategies to bring success. We don’t want any students to be unsuccessful, we want to help professionals be the best they can be,” said Superintendent MaryEllen Elia. “New teachers will now get better feedback from mentors and more tips on how to connect to students. What the whole project will do is change the way information is given
Will the Gates grant be effective?
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to teachers and students.” However, Jay Matthews, a well known education writer for the Washington Post regards the current reforms as “passing out federal money.” “We need a cultural and attitudinal change at the school and classroom level, and that can only happen gradually; more money won’t do much unless the attitudinal mentality changes,” he said. But, according to Steele, the new teacher evaluations will be based on the work of Charlotte Danielson, a scholar who Steele regards as the best expert in the teacher evaluation field work). Her work “has rubrics to guide those doing the evaluations. In this new system, we want all principals and peer evaluators alike
“The Gates Grant allows us to do things we’ve wanted to do, but never could. It gives us that little push.” to be consistent. We want a better definition of effective teaching,” he said. Along with new evaluations, the county also plans to recruit better teachers based on their evaluation system and support and aide them in any way possible. “We want to support them and give them everything they need. Teaching isn’t easy, and sometimes teacher’s aren’t around for long; we just want to give them all the help they can get,” said Hegarty. However, recruiting, support, and evaluation are not the only aspects of the plan. Steele and his co-workers not only want to improve teacher effectiveness with the Gates Grant money, they wish to initiate a system where teachers are paid on a merit
“If you empower teachers to make them more effective, you’ll have more enhanced students.” • Tee Solomon, assistant principal
style basis. Right now, teachers are only paid for “having a birthday” Hegarty says. “Teacher’s currently get paid for their level of education and how many years they’ve been teaching. The Gates Grant wants to move towards an incentive pay.” Although the pay structure won’t be put into effect until the 2013-2014 school year, the concept is “built for long range” Steele says and will emphasize better pay for those teacher’s who have visible achievement results. Currently, the money is being utilized in accordance to the goals the grant had in mind and a great edla’s been accomplished so far. The rubric for the new teacher evaluation system has almost been completed as well as the process for hiring peer evaluators. Additionally, the project for Empowering Teachers has contracted to purchase a new computer system that’ll help track teacher recruitment and staff development. Along with this, two key changes have been made in the evaluation field: school officials have begun using Datacourse, a program that will help schools get a better handle on how to process student data such as test scores, and they’ve contracted to allow the intense evaluation training in place. “By next year, the new teacher evaluation systems and mentor evaluations will set in place,” Steele said. Currently, Steele and his co-directors have outlined the program at a seires of meetings around the county in an effort to improve the communications amongst the teacher’s and officials in the county. “It’s exciting,” Elia said. “We’re taking different approaches to how effective we’re making teachers and by providing tools for them to be their best, this can be achieved and increase student success.” “Teaching’s hard and teachers need all the support possible. The Gates Grant allows us to do things we’ve wanted to do, but never could. It gives us that little push,” Steele concludes.
“I think this should help a lot because most students say the reason they cant learn is because of the teacher.” • Jasmine Seales, 9
More from the Gates Foundation by Zack Peterson
Another reform enacted by the Gates Foundation that affects Florida education is known as the MET project, or Measures of Effective Teaching that is designed to increase teaching instruction and intuition. Similar to the Gates Grant, the project intends to empower teachers who bear the brunt of teaching failures. To support teachers, the project strives tocreate a set of standards that will properly measure the impact good teaching habits have on a student. Participation in the project itself is voluntary, and approximately 3,700 teachers have been enrolled in the program from Hillsborough as well as Denver (Colo.) public schools, Pittsburgh (Pa.) public schools, New York City public schools, Memphis (Tenn.) City schools and Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) public schools. Nine teachers at HHS have been selected to work with the project, where it will be carried out over the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years. The first year will focus upon recruiting teachers and collecting seven different types of data such as student feedback, student work, supplemental student assessments, and teacher feedback on working conditions, as well as teacher assessment on fixing student problems. The second year will focus on following through with its validating promises that $45 million dollars have been funded towards. The MET Project acknowledges that there is no agreed standard for teacher effectiveness but that through the project they hope to improve student achievement through teacher empowerment.
“ I think the whole educational system is based off the quality of teachers and the grant should improve that.” • Tom Travis, 11
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National groups propose uniform expectations by Karen Rodriguez & Newsha Dowlaty
If education leaders in most of America’s 50 states have their way, students from coast-tocoast may soon be exposed to uniform math and English standards.
An idea proposed a quarter-century ago is on the train track toward approval. Next Stop, April 2, when the drafts and feedback will be reviewed, finalized and readied for state adoption. Now, the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) are trying to get the United States aboard the national education train, without the federal government’s help. Education in the United States has been criticized for not being able to compete with the rest of the world. “The goal is to make sure every student, no matter where they live, receives the same quality of education and same opportunities,” said Krista Zaharias, press secretary of the National Governors Association. In order to change this, the NGA the CCSSO recently released the draft of the proposed K-12 standards which are part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative to equalize education in the United States. This effort is led by governors and chief states school officers of 50 states, territories and the District of Columbia. The standards promise to encourage development within the classroom, replace the existing testing systems that don’t work and provide teachers with common expectations and guidelines to be incorporated into their lesson plans.
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“The standards are internationally benchmarked and our goal is to have higher, fewer and clear instructions for teachers to follow,” Zaharias said. However, the standards do not dictate the teacher’s methods of teaching the required material, allowing educators to create a unique lesson plan that satisfies the requirements. These standards are also only fundamental, meaning the teachers are free to teach more then what is required. “In the past, complaints were made at the national level that teachers were finding it difficult to understand the standards being set. So by making the standards specific, makes them more teacher friendly,” said Todd Clark, bureau chief of Curriculum and Instruction for the Florida Department of Education. The lengthy mathematics and English Language Arts standards stray away from being broad and can be viewed as quite specific, depending on the grade level. The mathematics section includes distinct sample problems which students must know how to do. While K-8 graders have specific standards for each respective grade level, standards for high school students are broader. They are not divided per grade level, but are grouped based on topics that students should learn before college. For example, high school students must know algebra, but specifically they must know about expressions, equations and inequalities which are then subdivided into smaller categories that each have their own specific requirements. The English Language Arts section is similar to the mathematics section in regards that the high school requirements are also broad compared to the lower grade levels. For example, requirements for ninth and 10th graders are grouped together and the 11th and 12th graders are grouped together. English teacher Garland Mitchell said that the changes are “similar to the ones we have now” and that these changes are not necessary. “They should look at each community and make sure their needs are met. Comparison of schools is not going to work out. States having the same standards will not take into consideration the socio-economic environments of each student,” he said. “For now the standards only apply to English and Math, but eventually we want to expand them to include other subject areas,” said Zaharias. Florida education leaders expect to join a chorus of other states in adopting these standards, a proposed educational reform so significant that it led the national news a few weeks ago. “Chances are very high for Florida. We have been involved
“They don’t give states the option to match their own education standards to the Common Core. It’s either their way or the highway,” • Spkeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.
March 2010
with this from the beginning. We were one of the first states to get involved,” Clark said. The current Sunshine State Standards for English and Math will be replaced by the Common Core State Standards if adopted by the state of Florida, and that means the FCAT will be modified to satisfy the standards (there are already efforts underway to modify that test). Students have mixed feelings about the new standards. “FCATs are incredibly easy for a lot of kids, which says that our state standards aren’t high enough, and that kids aren’t being challenged, and are wasting their potential. But then again, there are kids who repeatedly fail the FCAT. It seems like there is a large gap in education,” said senior Erica Maag. “I think it’s necessary. If all students in the nation are being taught the same things, and are held to high standards, it could definitely be beneficial to students.” “I don’t think they are necessary since I am quite satisfied with my current curriculum, but it would be beneficial. I think each state having the same standards is actually better, because all American students can have the same curriculum. I
“The standards make sure that our students will be competitive globally” think that’s beneficial for us, because if we plan on pursuing college out of state or in state, we can all have the same standards,” said freshman Nadiya Fakhar. If adopted, the standards will not be implemented right away. There will be a transition period of about four years where teachers and students will continue to focus on Sunshine State Standards, while the state aligns FCAT according to the new standards. Although the majority of the states have committed to consider the Common Core State Standards, Texas and Alaska refused. “We feel that the standards are being mandated. And it will be too expensive to replace all of the new materials that we recently purchased. It would be about $3 billion to accommodate our 4.7 million students,” Marchman said. Marchman said the national groups are taking a “their way or the highway” approach that doesn’t give states the option of the being flexible. Florida leaders did not share that concern, and Clark said Florida is moving ahead with plans to join the movement. “The standards make sure that our students will be competitive globally,” Clark said.
“Chances are very high for Florida. We have been involved with this from the beginning. We were one of the first states to get involved.” • Bureau Chief of Curriculum and Instruction for the Florida Department of Education