Florida Education Commissioner Jim Horne spoke to members of the state Board of Education about the "embarrassing revelations" concerning the state's voucher system:
"There are things I'm not proud of that we've missed," Education Commissioner Jim Horne told members of the state Board of Education. "If you don't believe it's managed real well, the blame is with me," he said. "We will make sure these programs are more effective."...
More than 24,000 Florida schoolchildren participate in one of the state's three voucher programs. The majority, about 11,500, are in the newest program - the Corporate Tax Credit program for low-income children. A small number of high-profile problems have prompted critics to complain the state isn't keeping a tight enough rein on the programs.
A scholarship funding organization in Ocala, for example, is now under criminal investigation. Law enforcement is trying to discover what happened to $168,000 that was supposed to be spent on vouchers for low-income children but disappeared. In July, voucher funding was cut off to an Islamic school in Tampa. The school was co-founded by Sami Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor alleged to have terrorist ties...
Horne has proposed a package of changes that would tighten controls over the programs. But board member Bill Proctor said he is concerned the reforms don't go far enough. For instance, Proctor wants students who use vouchers at private schools to take the FCAT so their academic progress can be evaluated.
And speaking of the FCAT, Florida's BOE has decided not to raise FCAT standards this year:
A divided Florida Board of Education decided Tuesday to leave the standards where they are for now, despite a state rule that calls for adjustments this year. The lone dissenting vote was board member Charles Garcia, who called Tuesday's vote "the low point of my tenure on the board."...
The naysayers worried about the effect raising standards could have on morale, and were also concerned that they had not seen enough data showing the effect of using the FCAT as a promotion tool. I completely understand their desire to know more about the effects, but I wonder if they're just waiting to see how many of the 42,000 third-graders who originally flunked the FCAT will have passed it by the spring of next year.
There will be some changes, however:
Next school year, all students - including those with disabilities and limited English skills - will be included in the school grade calculations. Those changes are expected to lower grades for many schools, but a state study shows that 38 percent of Florida's D and F-rated schools would actually benefit from the change. Only 20 percent of A and B-rated schools would benefit.
The state standard for the writing test will be raised from 3.0 (on a scale from 1 to 6) to a 3.5 next school year. The standard will be raised to 4.0. in 2006-07. A 4.0 is the average writing score right now.
Also in 2006-07, science will be added to the school grading mix.
Parents in Florida also won't have access to test forms:
Florida's high-stakes exam that determines whether students graduate from high school or are promoted from the third grade will remain confidential, a state appellate court ruled Thursday [November 6th].
In a unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal, the judges determined that the questions from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test would remain secret, unlike the test scores that are released to students and parents...
Gov. Jeb Bush praised the decision, saying it upheld the state Department of Education's long-standing policy of keeping tests confidential. If the tests had to be released each year, the governor and DOE officials said it would have driven up the costs of the exam by forcing the state to revise it annually...
State officials said although the test booklets aren't released, parents get diagnostic reports and their children are offered remedial help if they struggle. They also said the FCAT was no different than other scholastic tests, such as the SAT or ACT, where only test scores and not the tests themselves are released...
Actually, the 1980 "Truth-in-Testing" bill gave examinees in New York the right to see SAT test forms; a 1982 study concluded that examinees who saw their test forms and then retook the SAT did not show a significant change in performance. Other organizations also release most or all of their test forms - the LSAC, for example, releases three out of the four LSATs it administers each year.
Nevertheless, releasing FCAT items would indeed drive the costs of the test up, and substantially more time and effort would be required to construct new tests that are properly developed and equated each year.