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Schools

Mandate given two chronic F schools

A state board's action may severely undercut freshman enrollment in the high schools in Orlando and Miami.

By RON MATUS
Published June 22, 2005

SANFORD - When nothing else seems to work, maybe a dose of retention will help.

The Florida Board of Education took the extraordinary step Tuesday of directing the Orange and Miami-Dade school districts to hold back low-scoring eighth-graders headed to either Jones High School in Orlando or Edison High School in Miami.

Jones and Edison are the only schools in Florida to earn F grades four years in a row. And unlike other failing schools, their FCAT scores continue to sink.

"Someone needs to draw a line in the sand," said T. Willard Fair, the board's vice chairman and a Miami resident.

The board considered imposing the new policy immediately, but in the end decided to give the districts a year to turn things around.

"Our hearts are telling us to do it now," said board member Donna Callaway.

The move highlights the lengths to which the board is pushing districts to fix the state's worst schools - and its frustration with the handful of schools that won't budge.

Tuesday's action will apply to students who score at the lowest level, Level 1, on the reading portion of next year's Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. At both schools in question, more than 70 percent of last year's freshmen were Level 1 readers.

"What (the new retention policy) will do is close our school," said James Lawson, area superintendent for Orange County schools. But if board members "say for us to do it, we have to do it."

For the most part, board members are pleased with the progress of Florida's F schools. Of 41 that received F's last year, all but 11 earned better grades this year, including 11 of the state's 15 double-F schools. F schools made far bigger FCAT gains than A, B, C and D schools.

"Something's working," said board chairman Phil Handy.

To help those schools, the state has directed districts to put more focus on reading, hire tutors, extend class time and offer quarterly progress reports. On Tuesday, the board voted to tighten state requirements.

But it stopped short of considering whether to hire private companies to step in. Earlier this year, it asked a handful of private companies and other potential managers to submit information packets, sparking concern that the state was gunning for a takeover.

"It's so sensitive to the communities involved," Handy said. And "there is no compelling evidence that a private manager could get a better result."

Like many F schools, Jones and Edison have high levels of poor and transient students. Both also have significant Haitian populations - a demographic distinction Fair singled out as being worthy of closer consideration.

In Miami, he said, some critics are pointing fingers at Haitian children for bringing down scores. "There's a belief going around ... that all Haitians are dumb," Fair said. "I'm frustrated."

Among other efforts, Department of Education officials are trying to find textbooks in Haitian Creole for those Haitian students who have not yet mastered English.

Tuesday's discussion isn't the first time the board has indicated a desire to expand its retention policies. In January, it voted to ask the Legislature to allow it to phase in retention, now confined to third grade, to other grades.

The Legislature did not act on that request.

"We have to start somewhere," Fair said. "Once people see what happens at these two schools, they'll demand" that the policy apply to their schools, too.

[Last modified June 22, 2005, 01:08:17]