Bush wants Texas program to analyze school test scores
The program doesn't rely on test scores alone, instead factoring in differences such as wealth and race.
By Associated Press
Published August 17, 2003
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush has asked a Texas program to analyze Florida schools using more than just the state's standardized education test and to suggest more changes to improve the quality of education, a newspaper reported.
The program, known as Just for The Kids, compares not just test scores, but also weighs differences such as wealth, race and language skills, the Orlando Sentinel reported Saturday.
Bush met privately last week with the founder and head of Just for The Kids, Tom Luce, to discuss the free analysis of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The nonprofit program has received more than $1-million in federal funds so far and it also gets private funding. It had $2-million in revenues last year.
"I love it," Bush said. "They're a little bit different twist on our grading system, but it's very similar."
Critics say Just for The Kids puts too much emphasis on test scores and makes superficial recommendations that vary little from state to state.
"If all you're really doing is mixing some numbers in a computer and saying poor kids do worse, we all know that," said Al Kauffman, who teaches at Harvard Law School and led legal challenges against school testing in Texas. "It's important to look at demographics, but I don't think a greater emphasis on test scores is a way to do it."
Just for The Kids makes recommendations to states on ways to improve schools and puts its findings on a Web site for the public to examine.
Bush said doing so allows parents to comparetest scores of schools with similar demographics and looking at why some might do better than others.
Luce said his group has been studying Florida schools for months and preparing recommendations. He said he first met with Bush about a year ago, and the governor was interested immediately. Bush has made standardized testing a hallmark of his education policy.
Many top Florida education officials said this is the first they have heard of Just for The Kids.
"If this is a valid group and has credentials and can show they have the ability to give us some suggestions as to how to improve education, I'm open to the possibilities," said Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, who chairs the Senate Education Committee.
But evaluating such offers often is tricky, he said.
"The opportunities that people suggest to help you are a quagmire," he said. "You don't know which way to step and which one is really beneficial and which one is just a company out to make money."
Luce, a Dallas attorney, has ties to the Bush family and began the program when Bush's brother, President Bush, was Texas governor.
