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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Education Commissioner Pam Stewart thumbs her nose at the state’s school superintendents.

From the Miami Herald:  Public school superintendents hoping for a reprieve from the state’s polarizing school grading system won’t get any support from Florida’s education commissioner.

Commissioner Pam Stewart said flatly Tuesday that she is opposed to a request from local schools chiefs that the state suspend the issuance of school grades while grappling with new, controversial learning benchmarks and bringing in new statewide exams to replace the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

“I don’t think suspending school grading is the right thing to do for students,” Stewart said during a State Board of Education meeting held in the auditorium at Miami Lakes Educational Center.


I know she is the commissioner and all but that’s quite a bit of hubris there, “she doesn’t think it’s the right thing for all students.”

When she was appointed a fair amount of superintendents supported her because she had a reputation for working with people. I wonder how they feel now. I also wonder why she has the gung ho gut feeling that she is more in tune with what children need than the 67 superintendents who are actually in charge of educating them.

Maybe this didn’t come from her but instead came from somebody else like Jeb Bush whose entire identity rides on the success or failure of Florida’s accountability system. We know he has the ego to think he is the smartest person in the room despite the fact he has never taught and sent his children to exclusive prep schools.

Let me ask you a question if 67 experts in a field said, if we want to do it right then this is the way we need to do it, would you go with them or with your gut instead.

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