We need better soldiers, Florida, so improve pre-K

Florida lawmakers tomorrow will hear an interesting pitch about improving early childhood education (read: voluntary pre-kindergarten) from an unlikely source: A retired U.S. Army general.

Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Perugino serves on the advisory board for Mission Readiness, a group of retired senior military officers that's pushing for targeted investments in kids, especially in early education. He'll be addressing the Legislature's Early Childhood Caucus and, according to a press release, telling them this:

General Perugino will discuss recent statistics released by the Pentagon showing that 75 percent of young Americans ages 17 to 24 are unable to serve in the United States military because they lack either a high school diploma, have a criminal record, or are physically unfit. In Florida, that would mean 1.4 million young adults cannot join. However, that may actually be a low estimate because, compared to the national average, Florida has more young people who are overweight and more young people without on-time high school degrees.

Will support for Florida's National Board-certified teachers disappear?

There's an odds-on chance that Florida lawmakers might end all financial support for the one teacher performance incentive program that educators actually like.

Senate Pre-K-12 Education Committee chairwoman Nancy Detert tells the Gradebook that her panel will be looking at the possibility of redirecting the millions that have gone into bonuses for National Board teachers. The likely candidate to receive the money?

A new performance pay plan tied to the state's Race to the Top application. You know, the one that most of the local teachers unions oppose.

Detert explained that she wants to see Florida's scarce financial resources used most efficiently, and not for "incentive money that we don't think is working."

Hey, Pasco teachers. What do you think about Race to the Top?

Almost a month after refusing to sign a Race to the Top memorandum of understanding, the United School Employees of Pasco wants to know what its members think about the ideas in the Obama administration's school reform plan.

After all, the School Board and superintendent have signaled their plans to move ahead with the program if Florida gets a share of the competitive grant. And state lawmakers have suggested they'll put into law most of the major RTTT components regardless, to have the state in good position to qualify for more federal education funds.

Without employee buy-in, though, getting some of the key items in place would prove difficult, because they require collective bargaining. These include such things as:

• Basing teacher pay and evaluations primarily on student results
• Removing struggling teachers
• Increasing teacher training
• Providing differentiated pay

The USEP has scheduled five meetings beginning this Thursday to get some input as to how to proceed. They all begin at 4:15 p.m.

• Thursday — USEP Assembly Room
• Feb 17 — Seven Springs Middle School
• Feb. 18 — Centennial Middle School
• Feb. 24 — Weightman Middle School
• Feb. 25 — Chasco Middle School

"I have a good understanding of the issues," USEP president Lynne Webb told the Gradebook. "Now it's time to listen."

Pinellas school board candidate Krassner lining up influential "fans" on Facebook

The election is months away, but Pinellas school board candidate Terry Krassner has already lined up 425 fans on her campaign Facebook page, including influential politicos from both sides of Tampa Bay.

Among them: State Reps. Jim Frishe, R-St. Petersburg, and Peter Nehr, R-Tarpon Springs; Pinellas county commissioners Nancy Bostock and Neil Brickfield; Pinellas school board member Carol Cook; St. Petersburg City Councilman Bill Dudley; former state senator and now state senate candidate Jack Latvala; former state Rep. Sandy Murman, R-Tampa; and former Tampa City Councilman and now state House candidate Shawn Harrison.

Krassner is running for the at-large District 2 seat being vacated by Nina Hayden. At this point, the only other candidate in the race is Jessica Summers of Largo.

Florida education news: Junk food, school taxes, students' civil rights and more

EAT HEALTHY: The Obama administration calls for a ban on selling junk food in schools, including vending machines. Tampa area school officials are working to meet such goals, but kids say they know the loopholes. (Times photo, Keri Wiginton)

FOCUS ON DISCIPLINE: Instead of expanding its fundamental schools offerings, Pinellas should put "fundamental-like discipline" in all schools, the Times editorializes.

BACK THE TAX? As the Sarasota school system looks for a renewal of its local-option property tax, supporters focus their campaign on frugal, older communities such as Venice, the Herald-Tribune reports. 

MIXED REVIEWS: Palm Beach educators and parents like parts, but not all, of what they're hearing about President Obama's plans to revamp No Child Left Behind, the Palm Beach Post reports. 

OVERCOMING THE ODDS: Several Broward low-income schools adopt a culture of excellence to earn consistently high FCAT marks, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

SAVING MONEY: Florida changes some of its FCAT procedures, but district officials say students should not notice, the Naples Daily News reports.

THANKS FOR COMING: Out-of-state students pay four times the tuition and fees that Florida residents pay to attend Florida public universities, the Fort Myers News-Press reports.

LABOR NEWS: Indian River teachers and the administration reach impasse in contract talks, the Vero Beach Press Journal reports.

MORE MONEY? Okaloosa officials consider asking voters to impose a half-cent sales tax for school capital projects, the Northwest Florida Daily News reports.

FIND A COMPUTER: Volusia schools move to online job applications, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.

VACANT? OR NOT VACANT? That is the question for Monroe's superintendent job, which might or might not require an election this fall, the Keynoter reports.

EQUAL ACCESS: The USDOE says Orange did not violate students' civil rights in its move of Evans High, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Want to be a National Merit finalist? Try Wyoming

FairTest, a nonprofit that opposes high-stakes testing, has tried for years to get the National Merit Scholarship Corporation to change the way it selects finalists. The group has alleged that there's bias in the competition, winning a handful of changes but not nearly as many as it has sought.

Now it has published a leaked document that shows that a student in Florida, for example, faces a different eligibility score (211) than one in other states. Teens in neighboring Alabama could score three points lower (208) while those in Georgia needed a score three points higher than in Florida (214). Students in Wyoming need the lowest score to get the award (201).

The highest score? 221 for kids in Maryland, Massachusetts, D.C. and New Jersey.

National Merit pressured a teacher in Virginia to remove the cut score document from her Web site. But Fair Test reposted it, saying the public should know how the system works.

“NMSC uses state quotas to assure geographic fairness. As a result, minimum test score requirements for scholarship eligibility differ widely across the country,” Bob Schaeffer, FairTest's public education director, said in a news release.

*

Art teachers not happy with No Child Left Behind

By huge majorities, art teachers think No Child Left Behind has not helped their students, has not made them better teachers and has not had a positive effect on art education, according to a national survey released last week.

That's probably not a surprise, given widespread concerns about narrowing curriculum and the arts and music being shortchanged by accountability programs. But the survey, commissioned by the National Art Education Association, is the first we've seen that sought to measure how much discontent is out there from this group of teachers specifically. More specifically, the survey found:

• 67 percent of teachers said NCLB has not helped their students become better learners.
• 89 percent said it had a negative impact on faculty morale.
• 73 percent said it had a negative effect on their attitude about being an art teacher.
• 58 percent said their workloads had increased because of it (apparently because they're backing up teachers in other subjects such as reading and math).

*

Voucher backer donates big bucks to charter school serving low-income students

John Kirtley, perhaps best known as one of Florida's biggest school voucher proponents, has turned his attention to RCMA Wimauma Academy, which serves some of Hillsborough County's poorest farm children.

Kirtley has donated $100,000 to the charter school's $1.6 million capital campaign, an amount matched by the Walton Family Foundation. Kirtley also offered to help the Redlands Christian Migrant Association connect with the many groups he works with to seek additional support.

"This school is a perfect example of how the distinctions of 'public' and 'private' are increasingly meaningless,” Kirtley said in a news release. “Just as in our tax credit scholarship program, here you have a nonprofit organization providing a customized education that low-income parents freely choose as the best for their children."

*

Do we really need a Fair Day?

Times photo / Stephen J. Coddington

Kids are back in west Hillsborough schools today after a nice, long weekend complete with free tickets to attend the Florida State Fair on Friday.

But after seeing violent weather bring a tent down on some of those same kids' heads at the fair Friday, we feel it's only proper to ask once again: Do we really need to have a Fair Day? Calendar committee, what say you?

*

A closer look at the fundamental school odds

As Saturday's St. Petersburg Times story noted, there's a big uptick in the number of parents wanting to get their kids into fundamental schools, and probably an uptick in the frustration ahead. Applications in Pinellas were up 23 percent this year, to a total of 8,450, while the number of available seats is about the same as last year.

At the end of the day, there are probably about 800 truly open seats next year for families who aren't already in the system. And most of them are in two grades: kindergarten and sixth grade. There are few elementary and middle school slots outside of those two grades. And while there are 450 ninth-grade slots at Osceola Fundamental High School, so many rising fundamental eighth-graders applied for them (about 525, according to deputy superintendent Jim Madden) that it's not likely many nonfundamental kids -- if any -- will land one.

The district couldn't give the Gradebook a breakdown of the number of open seats at each school by Friday's story deadline, but Madden said there will be roughly 414 kindergarten seats total and 788 sixth-grade seats total (which includes 132 gifted seats at Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle). But remember, that's on paper. At least a quarter of the kindergarten slots (and maybe a third or more at some schools) will go to siblings of fundamental students, and a big chunk of the sixth-grade slots -- at least 40 percent by our estimation -- will go to rising fundamental fifth-graders.

Below you'll find the number of applications for kindergarten and sixth-grade slots at each school, according to district data. For the elementary schools, we included, in parentheses, the number of kindergarten slots that we believe are available on paper. If we're off, by all means let us know and we'll correct it. We didn't want to include the total number of sixth-grade slots available at each school until we heard back from the district, and we'll add them when we do. But if you don't want to wait, we're assuming the schools could give a parent that information pretty quickly.

Bay Vista Elementary: 459 (108)

Curtis Elementary: 387 (90)

Lakeview Elementary: 413 (54)

Madeira Beach Elementary: 506 (54)

Pasadena Elementary: 499 (72)

Tarpon Springs Fundamental Elementary: 197 (36)

Clearwater Fundamental Middle: 498

Madeira Beach Middle: 506

Thurgood Marshall Middle: 674

(Image from www.boardgamegeek.com)

*

Florida education news: school funding, FCAT changes, reading books and more

REINVEST IN EDUCATION: Gov. Charlie Crist has set the right priorities for Florida's budget by recommending more money for schooling, and that's where the debate should begin, the Times editorializes. Lawmakers so far have been dismissive, the Naples Daily News reports. (Image from centralillinoisnewscenter.com)

BACK TO SCHOOL: Polk State College sees an increase in older students enrolling, the Winter Haven News Chief reports.

TIME FOR CHANGE: Duval residents need to step up and demand better schools, the Florida Times-Union editorializes.

LOOK OUT BELOW: Florida and 19 other states are facing budget shortfalls as their share of federal stimulus funds is about to run dry, the N.Y. Times reports. Broward is already making plans to cut about $121 million, the Sun-Sentinel reports. • Meanwhile, concerns remain about Florida's Race to the Top application because of lack of teacher union buy-in, the Florida Times-Union reports.

FCAT CHANGES: The state rolls out some new FCAT rules as the testing season begins this week, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.• Results are mixed as to whether tutoring leads to better FCAT results, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

READING HELP: Some Collier middle and high school students kick off a book drive to help supply school media centers, the Naples Daily News reports.

OOPS: Broward accidentally paid out $290,000 for a project that never happened, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

SAVE THE OWLS: Florida Atlantic University students strive to protect the land on their campus that houses burrowing owls, the Palm Beach Post reports.

*

Coming up: FCAT Writing, legislative committees, school board meetings and more

Tuesday: Pinellas School Board, 10 a.m. • Hillsborough School Board, 3 p.m. • State Board of Education, conference call, 2 p.m. • Senate Pre-K-12 appropriations committee, 8:30 a.m. • House Full Appropriations Council on Education and Economic Development, 9 a.m. • House Pre-K-12 and State Universities and Private Colleges appropriations committees, 1 p.m.

Tuesday-Thursday: FCAT Writing

Wednesday: Senate Higher Education appropriations committee, 12:30 p.m. • House Pre-K-12 and State Universities and Colleges appropriations committees, 9:30 a.m.

Thursday: Senate Higher Education appropriations committee, 9 a.m. • House Pre-K-12 and State Universities and Colleges appropriations committees, 9 a.m.

Feb. 16: Pasco School Board, 6 p.m. • Hernando School Board, 7 p.m.

Feb. 23: Pinellas School Board, 5 p.m. • Hillsborough School Board, 3 p.m.

March 2: Pasco School Board, 9:30 a.m. • Hernando School Board, 7 p.m. • Florida Legislature session begins

March 9-19: FCAT testing

March 9: Pinellas School Board, 5 p.m. • Hillsborough School Board, 3 p.m.

March 16: Hillsborough School Board, 5:30 p.m. • Pasco School Board, 6 p.m. • Hernando School Board, 7 p.m. • State Board of Education, time/location TBA

March 23: Pinellas School Board, 10:30 a.m.

Tuesday: Pinellas School Board, 10 a.m. • Hillsborough School Board, 3 p.m. • State Board of Education, conference call, 2 p.m. • Senate Pre-K-12 appropriations committee, 8:30 a.m. • House Full Appropriations Council on Education and Economic Development, 9 a.m. • House Pre-K-12 and State Universities and Private Colleges appropriations committees, 1 p.m.

Tuesday-Thursday: FCAT Writing

Wednesday: Senate Higher Education appropriations committee, 12:30 p.m. • House Pre-K-12 and State Universities and Colleges appropriations committees, 9:30 a.m.

Thursday: Senate Higher Education appropriations committee, 9 a.m. • House Pre-K-12 and State Universities and Colleges appropriations committees, 9 a.m.

Feb. 16: Pasco School Board, 6 p.m. • Hernando School Board, 7 p.m.

Feb. 23: Pinellas School Board, 5 p.m. • Hillsborough School Board, 3 p.m.

March 2: Pasco School Board, 9:30 a.m. • Hernando School Board, 7 p.m. • Florida Legislature session begins

March 9-19: FCAT testing

March 9: Pinellas School Board, 5 p.m. • Hillsborough School Board, 3 p.m.

March 16: Hillsborough School Board, 5:30 p.m. • Pasco School Board, 6 p.m. • Hernando School Board, 7 p.m. • State Board of Education, time/location TBA

March 23: Pinellas School Board, 10:30 a.m.

Florida education news: FCAT preparations, per-student funding, local-option taxes and more

FOCUSED ON FCAT: With the FCAT writing exam just days away, Pasco's River Ridge High gave all sophomores a daylong writing workshop to hone their skills. • FCAT prep is taking place in Lee, too, the Fort Myers News-Press reports. (Times photo, Brendan Fitterer) 

SECRET TO SUCCESS: Star principal Steve Perry tells Duval leaders to stop blaming parents and community for students' performance in school, saying good schooling can make the difference, the Florida Times-Union reports.

SHORTCHANGED? Some Florida school districts contend they don't get their fair share of per-student funding, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

JUST SAYING NO: Opposition mounts to an effort to renew Sarasota's local-option school property tax, the Herald-Tribune reports.

UNCERTAIN TIMES: Central Florida students and recent graduates try to figure out what the next hot job will be, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

A weekend interview about preparing for Haitian students with Myrna Hogue, Hillsborough schools homeless liaison

Florida schools continue to welcome a growing number of children who are escaping the ruin of Haiti since its major earthquake in January. Myrna Hogue is responsible for coordinating the effort in Hillsborough County schools. She spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the district's preparations.

How much of an influx has there been of children from Haiti coming to the school district in Hillsborough?

Currently we only know of a handful of families that have come. We don't see a large influx but we are definitely trying to be prepared ahead of time, so that if more families are coming. We are hearing they are coming into other districts, but they may be coming here.

Who is giving you updates on that? How do they know what to expect?

The Department of Children and Families is coordinating some of the effort along with the Health Department. So we did get word that we might possibly have 17 children coming, from the Department of Children and Families, that are not with their families. But that has not happened yet.

When they come to the school district, where do they go? Do you have specific schools they need to go to?

Florida education news: Fundamental schools, kindergarten readiness, template writing and more

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT: Applications are up 23 percent for an unchanged number of seats in Pinellas fundamental schools. (Times photo, Melissa Lyttle)

SAFE PASSAGE John Fugate, crossing guard at Blanton Elementary, is named Florida's Crossing Guard of the Year.

KEEP KIDS ENGAGED: Pinellas board candidate Terry Krassner presses for more career and technical programs.

JUST KEEP WAITING: The waiting list for financial assistance for child care services grows in Pasco and Hernando counties, columnist C.T. Bowen writes.

READY TO LEARN: Collier exceeds the state performance in kindergarten readiness, the Naples Daily News reports.

SAFE EATING: The USDA stiffens school lunch quality requirements, a move that Florida school districts welcome, the Fort Myers News-Press reports.

WATCH YOUR WORDS: Manatee schools change their strategies on FCAT writing preparation to avoid anything that looks like template writing, the Herald-Tribune reports.

FILLING THE VOID: Community sports leagues take up the slack for canceled athletics in Volusia middle schools, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports. 

LABOR NEWS: A magistrate offers a compromise on merit pay to break impasse in Santa Rosa teacher contract negotiations, the Pensacola News-Journal reports.

BE WHO YOU ARE: The University of West Florida updates its nondiscrimination policy to include "gender identity," the Pensacola News-Journal reports.

Visit the Gradebook at noon for an interview with Hillsborough schools homeless liaison Myrna Hogue about preparations for Haitian earthquake refugees.

Pinellas student and her mom sue district over school bus "attack"

A St. Petersburg High student and her mother have filed suit against the Pinellas County School Board, claiming to have suffered lasting effects from a school bus incident three years ago.

Sharon Mayzik, now 17, was a 14-year-old Palm Harbor Middle School student in January 2007 when she was "berated and attacked" by an unnamed male student, leading to "bodily injury" and "mental anguish," according to the suit filed Jan. 26 in Pinellas circuit court. The suit doesn't say what prompted the attack, or detail what happened. But it says the bus driver "watched, stood by, and did nothing" and that the school board is negligent because it should have known of the boy's "violent proclivities" and taken precautions.

The suit say the girl's mother, Kelly Mayzik, was affected by the incident, too, and "has suffered expense of hospitalization, medical and nursing care and treatment, loss of earnings, the loss of companionship and services of Ms. Mayzik, and the loss of her filial consortium."

Poll: Bright Futures

Should the Florida Legislature change the eligibility requirements for the Bright Futures scholarship?
Yes
No

House minority leader Sands gets it half right on class size, Politifact rules

When Florida Republican leaders came out with a proposal to scale back the 2002 class size amendment, House minority leader Franklin Sands denounced the idea. In a statement, he said:

"I seriously doubt that Floridians will want to undo what they approved in 2002. I strongly support giving school districts the flexibility they need to deal with small increases in the student-teacher ratios. But it is important to remember that Florida still averages more students in its classrooms than any other state in the Southeast."

Politifact looked into his assertion and found it to be only partially true. Check it out.

Marion schools reconsider spanking policy

Corporal punishment has been going out of style in Florida schools lately. Even conservative Okaloosa County has banned spanking in the past year.

Marion's School Board isn't ready to go there, though.

Its split board decided to leave spanking as a discipline option for its principals after a lengthy debate, the Ocala Star-Banner reports. Some principals told the paper that even most of their parents support paddling, while others said there are much better alternatives.

Superintendent Jim Yancey has proposed the ban, calling the use of spanking "risky business."

Heck. We can remember the old days of 2003, when Hillsborough board member Jennifer Faliero proposed bringing paddling back, only to be roundly criticized as backward thinking. Nothing happened.

So what of it? Is corporal punishment needed? Or neanderthal?

(Image from Dallas Observer)

Cell phone use up in Pinellas school district, legislative survey says

Student-wise, the Pinellas school district is about half as big as the Hillsborough district. But according to a recent survey put together for Florida lawmakers, Pinellas issued twice as many cell phones to its employees this year - 1,053 to 495.

The Hernando school district, meanwhile, issued more than twice as many cell phones as Pasco - 202 to 87 - even though it's less than half the size.

The survey was on the agenda at yesterday's meeting of the Senate PreK-12 Appropriations Committee (you can find it beginning on page 8 here) so it goes without saying that some lawmakers aren't happy with what they think is out-of-control cell phone use.