As a third-grade Pinellas County teacher, I am frustrated by the statements of those who make the "rules" in Tallahassee. Like many others, I agree that the abuse of social promotion had gotten way out of hand. But to dump all of this accountability and measurement into the lap of third-grade students and teachers is kind of like being a day late and a dollar short.
In third grade, students are expected to: identify five or six types of genre; infer and make statements about what they've read; compare and contrast people, things and ideas; recognize the author's purpose; determine the writer's tone; identify the writer's audience; pull information from tables, charts, diagrams and maps; answer questions based on cause and effect; and state the main idea as well as supporting details. "Reading" in third grade is not just decoding the words on the page.
If a student comes to third grade reading on a first- or beginning second-grade level, there is not much hope of reading well enough by the first week in March to pass the FCAT. When students enter third grade, they must read fluently, efficiently and with expression. Third grade is not the time to weed out those students who have not mastered decoding skills. By third grade, students are expected to extract subtle points from the text and acknowledge all aspects of its presentation or formatting. For third-grade teachers to accomplish this, the students they're sent must be reading at grade level when they enter the classroom. To ignore this reality tells me our state government knows very little about education and learning. If government officials want to call the shots regarding promotion and retention, they should get out from under the shroud of ignorance they wear so well. I'm thinking perhaps we need to revitalize the dunce cap.
-- Nancy L. Johnson, Pinellas Park
FCAT provides feedback, that's all
The governor is using the FCAT to grade schools and evaluate the progress of our students' ability to learn more each year. This is not what the test was designed to measure. The FCAT is a very good test, and it provides feedback about each student. It can be used to help our teaching community, but it cannot be used to grade schools or tell how well the material is taught to the students. If a student enrolls in a kindergarten class and then stays with that class until graduation from high school, the results would be more meaningful in the manner the governor states. This is not the way real life is. Students move from school to school, district to district or even state to state. The FCAT cannot even begin to factor in this data. Each year, the test is different, class composition is different and the environment is a little different, too. The scores from last year to this year may show an increase, but it may actually be a decrease because that group should have (could have) scored higher. If you want to measure a student's progress, you administer a test on Day One and then on Day 180, and an increase is truly an increase. Someone should tell the politicians and the governor about this, because if he uses last year's polls to run his campaign this year, then he wouldn't be governor.
FCAT is what it is: a good test to gauge a student's knowledge of what the Sunshine State standards say he should know for that grade level . . . and nothing more.
-- Chris Brantley, Homosassa
Stop government meddling
America's math and science education results remain dismal. Experts say the United States still lags behind the rest of the world in math and science test scores. This is the direct result of the waste and foolhardiness of 50-plus years of meddling by liberals and bureaucrats in our local education programs.
Our Democrat-inspired educational bureaucracy grows like an insidious cancer and spreads its tentacles into every nook and cranny of our local school systems. The U.S. Department of Education remains a bloated, slothful and expensive education bureaucracy whose sole focus is to develop and administer standardized tests.
Liberals don't trust teachers, don't trust parents, don't trust principals, and don't trust anyone at the local school level. They insist only those myopic bureaucrats in Washington can tell us what's right and wrong for our kids.
Rather than maintain this ostentatious, misguided and very expensive educational bureaucracy, the time has come to dismantle the Washington educational establishment. Local people know best what is required in our school systems. Local colleges know best what is required in academia, not pointy-headed bureaucrats.
If we really want to achieve smaller classes, better teaching, higher standards, more discipline and greater accountability, then we need to get this Washington bureaucracy off our local school system's backs. We need to quit sending useless reports back to Washington and start sending more intelligent young people into the workplace.
If we can reduce the Department of Education budget from $47-billion today, it would go a long way in paying for some of these tax cuts we desperately need.
-- Robert C. Gotshall, Jr., Palm Bay
Real-world accountability
Re: Rules vital or virtues of vouchers may be lost, May 19.
Thanks goes to Howard Troxler. He did what very few newspaper editors and reporters will do - visit a private inner-city school participating in the Corporate Income Tax Credit Scholarship Program. This program allows low-income children the chance to go to a different public school or from a public to a private school.
This incredible program serves kids who fell through the cracks in the public schools, who had learned not to expect much of themselves - until Florida legislators gave them a chance.
Mr. Troxler raised some concerns about accountability with this program. At Yvonne C. Reed Christian School, we are accountable to the children and parents. We administer the Stanford-10 Test, a national norm-referenced test, the test which actually is used to judge the reading skills of public-school third-graders who have failed the FCAT. We always share those results with the parents.
Norm-referenced tests, in addition to various other assessments done throughout the year, enable the parents and school to determine the progress the student has made during the year.
These scholarships for up to $3,500 are given to the students, not schools - if parents are unhappy with the job we do, they can take the scholarship to another school. If we don't perform, we lose the customer - just like in the real world. We have to earn the right to teach these students every day.
This is true accountability.
-- Yvonne C. Clayton, principal, Yvonne C. Reed Christian School Inc., St. Petersburg
Teachers shouldn't accept gifts
Re: Gratitude to teachers becomes fancier, May 19.
Patricia Rodriguez may find her gift certificates ("hint, hint") appealing, but I find it appalling.
Maybe it's because I grew up poorer than most of my classmates and wore hand-me-down clothes that the principal gave us, but I can only imagine the anguish of a child who may really want to be remembered by his teacher but couldn't afford a generous gift. Hunter's Green Elementary serves affluent citizens. Surely, however, a less financially endowed child occasionally shows up.
All I could read from the quotes in the article was: "I love and expect expensive presents. It is my right." Wrong.
Perhaps the School Board could end this practice the way the county has. No employee may take anything of value from the public. Teachers are underpaid and in most communities underappreciated. However, this practice of extorting expensive gifts from the parents in affluent neighborhoods merely serves to make teachers who work under really bad conditions want to flee. Perhaps the kids can go back to being kids and make hand-written thank-you notes.
-- Mary Lou Tuttle, Tampa
The gifts that keep giving
Re: Gratitude to teachers becomes fancier.
I have taught in elementary and middle school for 31 years, and I agree that it is always lovely to be the recipient of a useful and practical gift. However, I can say unequivocally that the most wonderful gifts of appreciation I have ever received have come in the form of sincere notes and e-mails from parents, alumni and students.
I have a manila folder at school and a virtual folder on my computer in which these treasures are kept. When I have a tough day or am feeling ineffective, I open those folders and reread the messages of thanks I have received, and I am once again convinced that my years as an educator have truly made a difference.
Eating out is great, but the messages of thanks and appreciation are "the gift that keeps on giving."
-- Marty Brinsko, St. Pete Beach
Keep search within our state
Re: Superintendent search.
While I understand the desire by some members of the community and Pinellas County School Board to conduct a national search for a replacement for superintendent Howard Hinesley, I think it is time for a reality check.
Education is a state responsibility. While certain powers are delegated to local boards of education, the ultimate authority rests with the state. An educator from any other state would take years to learn the nuances so important in obtaining the necessary resources to support local efforts. It would make more sense to try to find a well-connected state legislator or lobbyist and offer him or her the position. This approach appears to work with higher education in this state and holds the same degree of promise for Pinellas County schools.
The second reality is that the job of superintendent of Pinellas County schools is not very attractive to educators outside the state of Florida. Quality candidates from outside Florida would look at both salary and the resources available to do the job. No one is going to move to a position that costs them both money and the opportunity to be part of a quality program. The fact that John Stewart, Hinesley's current top deputy, has indicated that he is not interested in participating in a national search is a clear indication that he might well be the best candidate for the job. That statement indicates that he knows how the game is played and wants no part of a charade designed to appease and not enhance the quality of school life for students, faculty and parents.
-- John H. Mason, Clearwater
Questionable news judgment
I picked up the May 19 edition of the St. Petersburg Times and on the front page are the results of a reality television show, The Bachelor. Is this really front-page news? Don't you have an entertainment section? Maybe next week you can put in the results of all of the reality shows.
With all that is going on in the world today - the slashing of funds for education, the economy in terrible shape, acts of terror, etc. - there are many other much more important news stories. But it appears that the St. Petersburg Times is going the way of network television by putting on the front page of its newspaper the results of a reality TV show . . . Shame on you.
-- Joe Stanley, St. Petersburg
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