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Monday, May 22, 2017

Florida sets teachers up to fail and then charges them to do so.

I have heard up to 500 teachers in Duval County have not passed all or part of the general knowledge test, something they must do by June 30th if they want to keep their jobs.

Before you think that maybe if they can’t pass the test they shouldn’t be teachers you should know there has been an 800 percent increase in failure over the last few years and yes, I meant to write 800.

It however gets even worse, from WPTV.com

Prior to 2009, the FTCE and FELE tests costs examinees $25 per section to take.  Both the FTCE and FELE have various sections depending on teacher specialties.

Prior to 2009, retakes didn't cost a penny more. Today, portions of Florida's teacher tests cost up to $200 per section to take and retakes are an additional $20 more.

The increase in costs since 2009 represent nearly an 800% increases in less than ten years.

We discovered Florida's teacher certification exam is one of the priciest teacher certification tests in the country.


Not only has the state dramatically increased what is considered passing, but they have used it as a revenue stream, siphoning money from those that are already grossly underpaid compared to their peers.

Florida has a teacher recruitment and retention problem and at this point I have to think it is by design as private schools, even those that take vouchers aren’t saddled with the same requirements.

The Florida Legislature isn't just setting teachers up to fail, it is charging them hundreds of dollars to do so.

The state legislature want’s it’s public schools to fail and this is even more evidence of that.

7 comments:

  1. I agree that it seems as those a group in legislature wants public, not-for-profit schools to fail. What I still don't understand is why?

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  2. Well, anyone educated after NCLB started in 2000-2001 has received a poor education. When I was in HS Geometry, we did proofs. Now they learn in 10th grade that triange angles total 180 degrees. The curriculum has been so dumbed down, it's absurd.

    But they hire young'uns because they're cheap and they don't have tenure, so they can be bullied into inflating grades and ignoring discipline.

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    Replies
    1. Sadly i remember a teacher friend back in 1985 who was told to change a grade or be fired.

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    2. We're still doing proofs in HS Geometry.

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  3. I don't think the test is harder. I think we have been churning out uneducated and undiscipled graduates. They can neither read, nor write, nor do basic math. They drive through crowds of people when they feel angry and shoot each other at the Landing. They show up late or not at all. They don't practice or study.

    They learn that this is acceptable at school, as well as at home. They don't distinguish between the two; they make themselves at home wherever they are. The only thing that matters are their feelings and not anybody else's.

    I see a lot of smoke and mirrors. I see a lot of teachers pretend to teach and a lot of students pretending to learn, a lot of teachers pretend to grade papers and a lot of students pretending they earned it, a lot of deans pretending to discipline and a lot of union reps pretending to represent. They whole system is just fraudulent. I don't know what the solution is, but public schools aren't working. I'm not blaming teachers. Too bad SDMC is just pretending teachers have a voice. Something needs to give.

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    1. They started revamping the tests in 2009 and new tests were introduced in 2014. They have progressively become more difficult. I've passed four (general knowledge, English 6-12, Professional and ESOL K-12) and these are not easy tests. The test pass rates went from over 90% in 2009 to closer to or below 50% for particular subject areas.

      Anyways, I follow the data and the data shows these tests are expensive and much more difficult to pass now.

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  4. There should be no General Area Exams in Florida. If you graduated from a State University in Florida, then you should not have to take the General Area Exam. You should only have to take the Subject Area Test for the subject that you want to teach. All of these exams in Florida are administered by a private for profit company, Pearson Education. There should be an investigation into this company and how they run these exams. There have been news reports that teachers with Master's Degrees have not been able to pass part of the General Area Exams (even after taking them multiple times). Then there is the cost: If the State of Florida has a teacher shortage, then why do they make people pay for these exams? There should only be a nominal fee of $10 and the State pay the rest until the teacher shortage is resolved. To me, this is a very serious problem and no Florida politician is aware or doing anything to change this testing.

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