Re: [FCARFORUM] NCLB Ratings Contradict Florida School Grades

[QCao009@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/9/2008 9:31:02 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
bobschaeffer@earthlink.net writes:

The  incredible contradiction between the two rating systems -- the vast  
majority of Florida schools are doing quite well according to Tallahasee  
but more than three-quarters are failing to do an adequate job based on  
Washington's standards -- is a graphic illustration of how arbitrary  
evaluations of educational quality based solely on test scores can be.  

What do these scores really tell Florida parents and taxpayers about  the 
performance of their schools?
Bob:
 
What they tell us is that both FCAT and NCLB are unreliable by their  
arbitrariness and lack of acocuntability.  Furthermore, these  "results" simply say 
nothing about how the curriculum and instruction has  been shifted to teach to 
the test at the expense of science, mathematics, social  studies, language 
arts, and PE.
 
In Palm Beach, while the papers tout an A score for the district, a closer  
analysis makes you wonder:  two schools in Riviera Beach, traditionally  with 
few resources, poor neighborhoods and high crime rate, went from a F grade  
last year to an A grade this year on FCAT, but have not moved an inch on  NCLB.  
Unless principals, teachers and parents have done an incredible job,  and we 
should not rule that out(these are the best practices we need to build on  in 
instruction and curriculum instead of concentrating on numerical scores and  
ignoring the teaching and learning practices at the classroom and school  
levels), it just shows FCAT's total unreliability and inability to improve the  
knowledge base of the children.  To paraphrase Jeb's technology metaphor,  it 
shows students can master an I-pod when given one, and it is Jeb and Jim  Horne's 
lack of imagination when they blame teachers, parents and  schools while 
wielding the baseball bat of testing.  Guess the  whipping will continue until 
morale improves, especially now that our current  Governor, the once Commissioner 
of Education, can continue to cut schools and  social services to build more 
jails in addition to drilling our  coastlines to improve his chances of running 
for his next job.
 
May be Jeb and Charlie should go back to school ?  The world would be  safer 
that way now that they have concocted all these November referenda to  
continue to suck the funding lifeline out of schools, colleges and  universities.  If 
it doesn't work here, they can take a page out of the  Philip Morris 
playbook: sell it to China, sell it to Colombia, and sell it to  Iraq.  In return they 
can start shipping poppies back stateside from  Afghanistan.  They certainly 
did it before from Vietnam and Cambodia in the  60s and 70s to sabotage the 
next generation without a blink of conscience.   The rich gets richer, the poor 
gets more children, and the grand capitalist  experiment continues to be 
touted for our excellent adventures looting from the  people, and certainly for the 
people !!!  More cake, anyone, before we take  the Bastille !!!
 
Quan



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