Senate president Don Gaetz says Florida’s school accountability system is in danger of collapse. He is right for the wrong reasons.

By the way, various teacher’s unions and education experts have been saying for quite some time that Florida’s school accountability system is a looming disaster. Senate President Geatz thinks it is in danger of collapse because to many teachers are rated as effective of better.

Complaining about our school accountability system, Mr. Gaetz said in the Florida Current, “If you have a C school, 90 percent of the teachers in a C school can’t be highly effective. That doesn’t make sense.”

Well if it doesn’t make sense to Gaetz then how can it make sense to anyone? (sic)

Here is the thing that Gaetz and other teacher haters don’t get, the best teacher in the world can’t control if their students have enough to eat, if their parents are involved or not, if they are to worried about where their next meal is coming from or violence in their neighborhoods to focus on school, if the policy makers have decided to eliminate those classes like art and music that make schools enjoyable to kids or if every kid is shoved into a one size fits all curriculum regardless of desire or ability or not. There are so many factors that teachers can’t control it’s not hard to believe that there are lots of great teachers at schools even where their kids do poorly on standardized tests.

What, Gaetz, and Rhee, and Gates and so many others don’t get is teaching is a form of art that cannot be quantified by some mathematical formula or replicated on a standardized test.

Gaetz is right, the school accountability system here in Florida is all jacked up but he got it right for the wrong reason.

http://www.thefloridacurrent.com/article.cfm?id=31265140