Said no teacher ever!

Things that made me go hhmmm at the school board forum.

Samuel Hall district 2: The JPEF sets the priorities for the school system. Um they may think they do and they may after the next election but right now they don’t, that’s still the school board. ahh who am I kidding.

Darryl Willie district 4: Preparation, preparation, preparation. He must have mentioned preparation a half dozen times if not more. Ironic because the organization he works for Teach for America takes non education types puts them through a five week access course and then plops them down in the cities neediest classrooms. Um isn’t that the opposite of preparation?

Wright district 4: Some schools are mandated to have an extra hour of reading instruction and there was nothing the district could do. Yes some are but the district chose to add eleven schools to the list. When Shannon Russell (D2) pointed that out, Mrs. Wright corrected herself and let the audience know that at the eleven additional schools there would be an opt out option for families. Good to know. 

Daryl Willie sees no problem selling out to charter schools.

At the young democrat's school board forum I asked a question about charter schools. Here it is verbatim. I know because I had it written down.

My question is about charter schools, local writer Julie Delagul just did a piece about how as a group charter schools in Jacksonville perform worse than their public school counterparts. In Florida over 260 have opened taken public money and closed leaving communities in a lurch, including 13 in Jacksonville alone and finally superintendent Vitti often complains how their proliferation has siphoned millions from the district making it more difficult to operate. With all that being said have any of you taken campaign contributions form charter schools or their representatives and if so would you recuse yourself from votes that may benefit them.

Samuel Hall said he hadn’t and wouldn’t because he didn’t want to be beholden to anybody. Shannon Russell echoed his sentiment. Darryl Willie on the other hand had a very different answer.

At first he went on about choice and how our local public schools weren’t doing very well, totally ignoring the amount of charter schools that have failed and the fact that in Jacksonville they are under achieving. He then informed the crowd that he had taken money from people involved with charter schools but that wouldn’t stop him from voting on issues that might influence them.

Isn’t that one of the battles we are having right now, one of the concerns? I think the proliferation of money from the rich or business interests in politics, using money to sway policies that benefit them is of great concern to me and hopefully you too. 

Wright answered last and she said the district needs to better inform the public about how charter schools are doing and how they siphon badly needed resources away, she also pointed out that Willie had taken money from people that own charter schools something Willie had seemingly tried to down play.

This is my thing, love charter schools, support charter schools, write songs about and have parades for charter schools, heck take their money too if you like but then recuse yourself from votes that would benefit them. If they are worthy then six other members can vote aye and take up your slack. If not, not only have you just been bought and paid for but you have sold out your community as well. 

Why are a bunch of rich white people trying to get rid of Paula Wright?

I could have written, why are a bunch of rich white people who don’t live in district four trying to get rid of Paula Wright but that would have been a heck of a title.

If you look at Paula Wright and Becki Couch’s voting record I bet they are identical except for their vote for superintendent. Couch wanted Vitti and Wright wanted Kriner Cash out of Memphis, but other than that I can’t recall when they have disagreed.

Furthermore these are the only two school board members that I can see that are asking really tough questions about the budget, Teach for America, charter schools and other matters. Okay Lee throws one or two out too occasionally as well but for pulling agenda items for discussion it is generally Couch and Wright. It’s not like Wright is pulling them and Couch is sitting back rolling her eyes or they spar taking opposite sides.  

I can see them backing Shine at the beach, this group doesn’t like teachers, and Shine seems like a younger less gray version of Lee who also endorsed him, but heck both Couch and Wright were both teachers.

So why have the same people who donated to Wright’s opponent Darryl Willie also given thousand and thousands to Couch’s campaign too and friends she didn’t even have an opponent. Seem like quite the grudge to hold against Wright for not voting for their anointed one.

At the young democrat school board forum, I thought Mrs. Wright did the best job; she was knowledgeable and had evidence to back up what she was saying, unfortunately even though he spoke in generalities, her opponent Willie did the next best job, preferring style over substance he has lots of money and powerful friends backing him up. 

I suspect its because they want to create a block of four school board members they can count on to back their pro-privatization agenda, you see these people also donated to Ashley Smith-Juarez's campaign in 2012. If they had a black of four members there wouldn't be anything they couldn't do. 

But I want to know why, I want them to say it. I want to know why have these rich white families, families that don’t live in district 4 targeted Wright for replacement? I would also like to know if district four is going to stand for it.

What is Duval County hiding about discipline?

From the Tampa Times, by Michael La Forgia

On his way to becoming superintendent of Florida's sixth largest school system, Nikolai Vitti specialized in turning around some of the worst-performing schools in the state.

A job like that requires attention to detail and a good grasp of how things like race and poverty can affect how students get an education. And it would have taught Vitti that inequities in how discipline is handed out can be one major barrier to learning in low-performing schools.

School discipline often has been a hot topic, with stories like this one in the Washington Post periodically focusing attention on the issue.

The Times is interested in how schools handle discipline, too. As part of a still-ongoing, statewide study of how districts are faring on this front, the newspaper in March asked for basic data from the state's largest districts, including a breakdown of how many students were suspended in the past 15 years and whether they were black, white, Hispanic or some other race.

Most of Florida's largest districts keep this information at the ready, and they're able to consult it to make decisions and gauge how effective their policies are. Not Duval County.

There, neither Vitti nor any other administrator nor any member of the school board ever has requested a look at these numbers in the past decade, according to Assistant Superintendent Andrew Post. What's more, he said, an "antiquated" records system makes it impossible to pull this and other basic information without expending a monumental amount of time and energy.

How monumental?

It would take a top-paid district employee more than 80 hours over five weeks to fulfill the Times' public records request, and it would cost about $3,000, he said.

In a conference call, a Times reporter noted that other districts had quickly provided the same information at no charge.

Though Duval officials declined to discuss their student information system, Genesis, other than to call it antiquated and to say that it's being replaced, most systems of its type are designed to allow information to be extracted easily. The Times asked the district to consult one of its computer experts, who could determine whether the IT department could pull out the information more easily. The district refused.

"We have provided you with an estimate of the time and cost related to producing the information you have requested," spokeswoman Tia Ford wrote in an email on Friday afternoon. "Thus, we are not inclined to provide any additional information beyond the fact that queries will be made in order to retrieve the information requested."

Duval County might not gather and scrutinize discipline data on a regular basis, but the Florida Department of Education does. Examining these records last week, the Timesfound that Duval’s rate of giving black students in-school suspensions was the highest of the state's large urban districts in the 2011-12 school year. In fact, Duval County schools handed in-school suspensions to about 19 percent of its black students that year -- almost double the average rate of suspensions among the state's other big districts.

Regularly gathering and analyzing the district's own data can be fuel for good decision-making, said Mike Casserly, head of the Council of Great City Schools, a nationwide coalition of large urban public school systems. If a school system isn’t analyzing its own data, Casserly said, then it's missing out on opportunities to get better.

In a voicemail left for a Times reporter, Vitti described his district as “very data-driven” but held back by its record-keeping software.  “I’m always talking about data and the achievement gap, and using data to talk about where we are in Duval and what we need to do differently,” Vitti said. “Our dilemma is that our data systems are archaic.”

The system might be old, but it’s still a database -- and a user with the right skills should be able to pull the data in question with relative ease. The Times tried to reach Vitti again to make this point but was unsuccessful. If we get in touch, we’ll post an update then.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/is-duval-over-suspending-black-students-the-district-doesnt-know-and/2190676

Are we being obtuse or incompetent here?

Duval County, you so crazy

I was a reader growing up. I loved King, Tolkien and Howard among others. As an adult I have often wondered what would have happened had I been forced to take an extra hour of reading as the state wants to do with 300 schools and the county with 50. I might have felt like it was a punishment and it might have impacted my love for reading.

I have very mixed feelings about the extra hour being required. It’s probably great for families that need it and want it but probably the opposite for those that don’t.

Last night the district announced that the families at Holiday Hill will be able to opt out which begs two questions, why wasn’t an opt out option available from the beginning not just at all Holiday Hills but all the schools and this is where the district wanted to draw the line with parents?

It wanted to make parents send their kids to an extra hour of reading, which is weird because sending kids to school on time and regularly, having them provide the basics and being involved with their kids academics up to now had been optional for way to many of our parents. Who cares about all that and so much more but they had damn better send their kids for an extra hour of reading.

Oy vey.

The same people that manage with a straight face to say parents know best with their kid’s education options, so they can justify vouchers and charters, are often the same people that point out that all to many parents have abdicated their responsibilities.

To read more click the link: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/education/2014/07/29/vitti-holiday-hill-elementary-extended-hours/13345365/

The cost of Florida handicapping the teacher profession is 130 million a year.

From the Orlando Sentinel, by Leslie Postal
Florida may lose more than $130 million a year because so many teachers leave the profession or at least move to new schools, according to a new national study. The nation likely loses more than $2 billion a year because of teacher attrition, the study found, a problem that most hurts schools in low-income neighborhoods.

The study, released by the Alliance for Excellent Education, says "the very culture of how teachers are supported must change," if states and school districts want to stop having to hire and train so many new instructors.

That instructional churn not only cost money, but it frequently means the neediest students -- who often attend "hard-to-staff" schools -- end up with the least experienced and skilled teachers, the study says.

Nationally, about 13 percent of teachers move or leave the profession each year.

In Florida, the rate has been higher in recent years, state data shows, with 15 percent or more of new teachers leaving. And if they don't leave after their first year, they leave soon after. About  40 percent of new teachers have left the classroom five years after they began their teaching careers, a report by the Florida Department of Education shows. About half have left by 10th year.

The new study says more comprehensive "induction programs" are needed so that teachers in even the most-challenging schools feel supported professionally. Such induction programs include "high-quality mentoring, common planning time, and on-going support from school leaders."

Such programs have reduced by half the turnover of new teachers, it notes.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/blogs/school-zone/os-florida-cost-teacher-attrition-study,0,1028167.post

What research is Vitti looking at? Is he making it up as he goes along?

Do you ever feel like Vitti is like a really smart tenth grader just making things up that sound good? 

"Research indicates this, that the number one factor that influences student achievement — meaning students doing well academically — is teacher quality," Vitti said.    

http://news.wjct.org/post/district-talks-quality-education-parents-students-first-qea-community-meeting

Not so fast.

It’s true that every child deserves an excellent teacher. Yet, Goldhaber and colleagues have discovered that around 9 percent of variation in student achievement is due to teacher characteristics. About 60 percent of variation is explainable by individual student characteristics, family characteristics, and such variables. All school input combined (teacher quality, class variables, etc.) account for approximately 21 percent of student outcomes.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/04/how-much-teachers-affect-student.html

So called experts say all the time, teacher quality is the number one "in school factor" determining how students do, to which I respond, duh! But the truth is there are much bigger factors out there, poverty anyone? Furthermore  the evidence says merit pay reflects the quality and motivation of the student and not the quality and motivation of the teacher.

I maintain that moving these teachers that have had success at schools with different issues, which I think is a good idea if measures are put in place to assist them, will have no effect unless we put in behavioral and academic supports and as of yet I haven't heard about any of those things. I also maintain that if proper academic and behavioral supports were in place then we wouldn't need to spend millions on transfers but could spend that money instead where it would truly do some good like on guidance counselors, mental health counselors and social workers because often why children act up or do poorly in school has nothing to do with school and on more teachers so we could have smaller classes the one reform with evidence that actually says it works.  

If it sounds like I am frustrated it's because I am. We could really turn things around here in Duval and reach our potential but instead of doing what we should be doing, what the evidence and research says, we're trying pie in the sky solutions based on the guts of wealthy donors and a super either to weak or to uninformed to insist we do things the right way.

Does anybody else feel like Duval is making up as it goes along?

The open enrollment suggestion came and burned out quickly but not before throwing the entire community into upheaval. Then there is the constant turnover of senior staff with dubious or often zero reasons given, like the Simac-Davis switch that leaves ESE without a director, so soon after a major investigation into the department. Throw in the half hearted attempts at discipline and making sure kids have electives and the QEA initiatives which I don’t think are all supported by data but which also led to the greatest amount of surpluses in Duval history and I can’t help but feel we're making things up as we go along either that or we’re doing to much at one time.

Read these passages from a recent WJCT article about the QEA:

The QEA funds are housed at local nonprofit the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida. In general, education policy research nonprofit Jacksonville Public Education Fund serves as the grant-writing arm for the funds.  

But Tuesday, Couch and other board members questioned who would administer the incentive program funds to teachers and who would collect on them if teachers or principals failed to keep their end of the bargain.

“Who collects the funding if the teacher resigns early,” School Board Chairwoman Becki Couch asked. “Who is now the collection agent? Would it be the district or would it be the district or would it be the Community Foundation?”   

Vitti said the district would collect the money, but he said the details on how that would happen still needed to be worked out.

“We can work with (Community Foundation) to create a structure on how to do that,” he said.

Also of concern to board members was whether or not the incentive pay would count toward teachers’ retirement benefits.

Sonita Young, the district’s chief human resources officer, said the money would not count towards retirement. Originally, the district expected that it would, she said.

“We did desire that it would, but when we looked at the IRS language, we discovered that it could not be,” she said.

That came as a surprise to Duval Teachers United union President Terrie Brady. Brady said the union was under the impression that the extra money would count toward the employee benefits when it entered into an agreement with the district to implement the program. The memorandum of understanding was also never revised to reflect the change, Brady said.

School Board member Ashley Smith-Juarez questioned whether any fees would be attached to the administration of the funds.

“Has any type of administrative fee been discussed along with that? I know JPEF charges a 6 percent administrative fee for anything that is passed through,” she said.

When asked about the fee Smith-Juarez was referring to, JPEF President Trey Csar said the group does not charge any fees for writing grants tied to the QEA funds due to a previous agreement entered between JPEF and the Community Foundation.

Csar said that a contract between JPEF and the district specifying how money for the performance incentives program would be administered has not been finalized yet.

“Everything is preliminary at this point,” he said.

Couch said she was concerned with the lack of oversight the school board has had on the matter, so far.

“I think the board is certainly appreciative of the stepping out of the box that the superintendent has done with creating this initiative and working with partners,” she said.  “There’s a lot of oversight that the board needs clarity on with payment schedules and the money flowing into the district because that does fall under the purview of the school board.”

The point of Tuesday’s questions was to raise those concerns ahead of time.

“We’re asking them now before the school year starts,” she said.

http://news.wjct.org/post/questions-linger-start-duval-teacher-incentives-program-nears

Yeah just a few weeks before the school year starts and lets be honest we don’t have flawless openings here in Duval, even before all these changes, transfers and class changes are more the rule than the exception at a lot of schools even weeks into the new year.

Wanting to do a lot is admirable, we need a lot of stuff to be done but to be honest I wish we slowed down and made sure we did some stuff right before heading to the next big thing. 

Throwing money at the probem.

I saw an Internet meme, which asked the question, why is giving more money to public schools “throwing money” at the problem, but giving more money to charter schools and private schools “investing” in the future.

There are undoubtedly problems in public education but most of them have been created by starving schools of resources, attacking and marginalizing our teachers and by ignoring poverty. Getting rid of work protections for teachers and doubling down on the expensive and untested Common Core is not going to fix poverty my friends. Florida has in effect handicapped our public schools, ignored societies problems and then blamed our schools and teachers for not being able to fix those problems.

The solution should not be to outsource our children’s education to institutions that care more about the bottom line, charter schools or that resist accountability, private schools that take vouchers. The solution should be to address and fix our problems, many of which were created by individuals and politicians who now seek to privatize our schools and profit off our children.  

Charter Schools USA proves its all about the CASH!

Bob Sykes from Scathing Purple Musings did some reporting about my old friends at CUSA which flies in the face about their assertions that their schools always improve and hey it's the children they really care about and gosh I hope they don't threaten to sue me again.

Florida Law Firm Requests More Cash From Indiana for Florida-Based Charter Schools USA

by Bob Sikes

Charter Schools USA executive Sherry Hage boasted last month about “opening schools in areas of highest need,” but all isn’t going so well in three Indiana schools she and her husband took over in 2012. From reporters Eric Weddle and Scott Elliott in theIndianapolis Star:

The four takeover schools in Indianapolis lost huge numbers of students — between 35 and 60 percent at each school — between the start of classes in 2011 and when the takeover operators took over in 2012. Schools are mostly funded on the basis of their enrollment, so the departures came at a steep cost for the private operators.

On top of that, the takeover schools saw their share of a pot of federal funds for low-performing schools that is controlled by the state shrink as more state schools became eligible to claim that money. Tindley lost $212,000, and Charter Schools USA’s three schools lost more than $601,110 because of across-the-board reductions.

Together, the cuts have left takeover operators with much higher costs than they anticipated.

Sherry Hage, CSUSA’s chief academic officer, says the operator is planning to stick with its schools despite the costs

This hasn’t stopped the Hage’s from asking Indiana taxpayers for more money and do so last month via a letter from its, get this, Florida law firm, Tripp Scott of Fort Lauderdale. On June 4, senior partner Edward J. Pozzuoli wrote to Indiana Superintendent Glenda Ritz on the Hage’s behalf:

The undersigned represents the Turnaround School Operator, Charter Schools USA. We write on behalf of the students of Emma Donnan Middle School (Donnan}, Thomas Carr Howe Community High School (Howe}, and Emmerich Manual High School (Manual). On behalf of our students and because of our commitment to them, we feel duty bound to express our grave concerns with the pending recommendation to the State Board of Education that significantly reduces School Improvement Grant (SIG) funding to Donnan, Howe and Manual (collectively he “Turnaround Schools” ) over the next two years.

There’s something creepy about and out-of-state law firm lobbying another state’s elected official, isn’t there? At any rate, the Hage’s Charter School USA adventure into Indiana hasn’t gone well from the start.

The three schools received an “F” in their first year of operation,  prompting Sherry Hage to outrageously claim that “while we may have received an ‘F,’ our schools are most definitely not failing any longer.” Moreover, a December 2012 story reported that the Hage’s received $6 million more than they should have from then Superintendent of Public Education Tony Bennett. Just six month after the Hage’s deal with Bennett for Charter Schools USA was revealed to have no profit limits nor minimum classroom expenditure levels, Red Apple Development, the real estate development arm of Charter Schools USAdonated $5000 to Bennett’s campaign.

Charter Schools USA Nets $2.9 Million Haul For Two Louisiana Schools

by Bob Sikes

Small wonder the wife of Charter Schools USA CEO Jonathan Hage was touting their test scores in an Orlando Sentinel opinion piece last month. Sherry Hage and her husband take in a lot of taxpayer money to run schools. Consider this story from Marsha Sills inThe Advocate

LAFAYETTE — Two new charter schools opening on opposite sides of Lafayette Parish in two weeks together will pay nearly $1.2 million to their management company, Charter Schools USA, and more than $1.7 million in rent to a sister company for the new school buildings and the land they sit on.

As with most of CSUSA’s facilities, lines between controlling entities are, at best,  blurry. Sills indicates that both “sites eventually will be purchased by Charter Schools USA’s sister company, Red Apple Development” and will “become the schools’ landlord.” It’s also clear that the board foundations which oversee each school are CSUSA controlled entities as well. The Lafayette Charter Foundation utilizes CSUSA’s sales pitch format in its web site.

http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/

My random thoughts on the Davis promotion

First you should know I had a judgment from the state against me and I was on five years of probation. Two things, I really think I got hammered compared to other judgments I have seen and where I didn’t think it was fair after two years of wrangling with the state I just gave up and agreed. So when Davis says he just went along, I can see it, though at the same time, people go to jail and are forced to register as sex offenders for doing what he was accused of. I may have fought that a little harder

When Vitti points to his promotions as evidence that he did nothing wrong it makes me laugh a little. This is Florida and Jacksonville in particular, often promotions have nothing to do with ability and everything to do with whom you know. 

At the end of the day it’s Vitti on the line and not Davis. He obviously wanted somebody he likes and feels he can trust and Davis fits that bill. I still think many of his appointments are random and many don’t make sense but I guess that’s his bosses prerogative but think about this, if people were still infatuated with Vitti, then nobody would care about this transfer.

Vitti’s wearing thin with a lot of people. I thought Pratt-Dannals was terrible as super, though I hear he was a great guy at a party, and one of the reasons he lasted so long was he flew under the radar. Vitti on the other hand is out there constantly and usually at the center of a controversy. Maybe that’s a byproduct of so much being needed to be done but maybe it’s a byproduct of him not having a handle on how to do things. The fact his quotes in the media often deflect blame from himself and dump on teachers and principals probably doesn’t help either.

Teachers who vote for Rick Scott vote against their and their students interests.

From the Palm Beach Post

The latest Rick Scott television ad about his fondness for education and teachers surely is enough to motivate anyone who cares about children to act. This most recent commercial purports to have “teachers” praise some type of educational funding increase fantasy. Can they really be serious? Are they really teachers, or paid spokespersons?

There are two main reasons that people vote against their own best interests. Ignorance is the most common. People have not taken the time to thoroughly investigate the issue, or do not currently have the ability to fully understand the consequences or ramifications of complex problems. Education can cure both of these situations.

The other reason that people do not act in their own interest is poor self-esteem. Unfortunately, selling out for the proverbial 15 minutes of fame can be harmful to others. Who are these women praising the increase in state education dollars? Why are they using only their first names? Not only are they incapable of simple math, their faulty logic could be taught in our classrooms. That is, if they are even classroom teachers in Florida.

His first year in office, Gov. Rick Scott cut $1.3 billion (that’s “billion” with a “B”) from the state education budget. He also eliminated teacher tenure, implemented confusing and arbitrary merit pay that evaluates teachers on the performance of students they have never met, and imposed a 3 percent perpetual pay cut on teachers.

Florida remains in the bottom 10 states for per-pupil spending. Returning a billion dollars after removing a third more than that is not an increase in spending. We are still below the adjusted spending from the first year of the Crist administration. This year’s cutback in Bright Futures scholarship money is, of course, not even mentioned in this latest TV fairy tale.

In related actions, Scott decimated the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) that was an attractive option for teachers approaching retirement age. He is still trying to eliminate the entire Florida Retirement System for public employees, and force dedicated state and local government workers into risky investment fund options.

I do have empathy, however, for these women who will forever be linked to the Scott propaganda wagon. Maybe someday they can recoup their $10,000 (and climbing) pay cut and buy some legitimate television time, or a magazine advertisement that their family can point to with pride. In the interim, there is always Facebook, or Twitter or Instagram and myriad other social media sites available if you have a burning desire to embarrass yourself. Please, though, have mercy on our profession and don’t call yourselves teachers.

JULIE JOYNER, WELLINGTON

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/opinion/point-of-view-teachers-in-scotts-ads-are-an-embarr/ngmJ6/

Vitti's rotating of admins wastes money and doesn't make a difference.

From a reader

In my 8 years in Duval, it never seems to matter who takes the "top" positions. They could put my cat in the position, and students would perform how they would with or without the cat. They don't care who is in charge. These obsolete positions are useless and a waste of millions of dollars. They will never solve the real problems, and if Vitti were smart, he would eliminate them. He should talk to the principals himself, or better yet, he should just let principals freedom to enact change within their schools without so much insignificant oversight. 


All of the "changes" he is making will not mitigate the issues many of our children face. Until he understands that the real issues are not school-based, he will continue to make decisions that mean nothing. Make some good changes.


1. Limit class size for the most struggling schools.
2. Allow teachers to be leaders in their own schools, not merely peons of the system.
3. Provide more counselors for the most struggling schools; most of our kids want an academic future, but they and their parents don't know the process. We have 4 counselors for 1800 students. That is 450 per counselor, which is insane!
4. Put a social worker and a psychologist in EACH struggling school.
5. Have a graduation coach for each grade level, not just 12th.
6. Revert 8 classes every other day to 4 per semester.
7. Encourage students to participate in after school clubs and provide some supplements for sponsorships.
8. Require every parent to complete OnCourse training, so they can help their children.
9. Take away ISSP and implement detention after school. We have after school buses; we may as well get our money's worth.
10. Provide more, not less security. 
11. Eliminate academic coaches and allow experienced teachers to have a planning period off to provide support to those teachers. It would be a fraction of the cost of an academic coach.
12. Eliminate ALL intensive reading classes, and allow ELA teachers to teach double-blocked classes, so ALL students have more time to practice their literacy skills.


Trust me, I have more, and guess what? They don't involve useless people who walk around as if they are actually doing something for students in some abstract way

Vitti’s excuses about the Davis promotion ring hollow.

Read Vitti’s words closely

"You certainly want a system of monitoring and tracking of a lot of the instances that were highlighted in the findings," he said.  "But at the end of the day, most of the findings were linked to what was properly or improperly done by principals; and those principals, A. Did not report directly to Mason Davis; and in many ways, it is humanly impossible to be in each of those schools looking at each of those situations."

http://news.wjct.org/post/updated-duval-schools-ese-executive-director-take-assistant-superintendent-spot

So Davis gets a pass for the things that happened under his watch, its too much Vitti says, how can one guy be responsible for all those things. How can he be responsible for what other people do?

Well welcome to the world of a teacher.

Teachers are routinely given more tasks than they can possibly do if they want to have a life outside of school that is. Furthermore so many factors beside what happens in their classroom play an important role but you know what nobody cares if those tests scores dip. No then its time to hit the highway.

Crippling poverty, who cares, absentee parents, just an excuse, not enough support or resources, stop whining or we’ll get some TFAer in here to take your place. 

In Duval if you make six figures or are a personal friend of the super you get a pass, heck a promotion, teachers on the other hand are easily replaceable cogs. 

Did Vitti cover for Mason Davis, or did Davis keep him in the dark?

Either way I find his response to WJCT’s Rhema Thompson very troubling.

From WJCT

The news comes weeks after an investigation into the district’s ESE department by the Florida Department of Education determined that it violated federal and state laws pertaining to special instruction for students with disabilities in math and reading.

Vitti has said he brought Davis in as head of the special education department to help revamp the program which has had a history of issues.

When asked about his decision to promote Davis on the heels of the state department's investigation, Vitti said the findings weren't reflective of Davis' role in the district.

"You certainly want a system of monitoring and tracking of a lot of the instances that were highlighted in the findings," he said.  "But at the end of the day, most of the findings were linked to what was properly or improperly done by principals; and those principals, A. Did not report directly to Mason Davis; and in many ways, it is humanly impossible to be in each of those schools looking at each of those situations."

http://news.wjct.org/post/updated-duval-schools-ese-executive-director-take-assistant-superintendent-spot

Oh boy.

I was at a district ESE meeting in December where teacher after teacher told Davis about the problems in the schools. How they were being called away from their children, told not to get subs and being given impossible schedules among other things.

Did Davis keep those complaints to himself? Did he do something to try and fix them? If he did it wasn’t enough because the state was investigating us five months later. 

I don’t know if he is qualified for his new job or not, it seems like anybody can be the director of curriculum the way we go through them and I do find Davis generally affable but to pass the buck like this and plead ignorance isn’t right and either Vitti is covering for him, Vitti was kept in the dark, or they either didn’t care or couldn’t fix the problems any of which should give us pause.

But to blame ESE problems on rogue principals is ridiculous. Some may not have been doing their job but I vote it was the director of ESE or the superintendent because they should have been making sure that they were. Where does the buck stop around here? 

A win for Vitti with Advanced Placement tests. Updated

For years Duval padded its AP stats by putting kids that had no business taking them in advanced placement classes.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-false-promise-of-advanced-placement.html

This year the amount of kids taking the classes is down and the percentage of kids passing the tests is up. Imagine that. It's also a very good thing.

Where I think Vitti’s reasoning for fewer kids taking them this past year is a bit rosy, he says they are in alternate advance programs by hook or crook it’s a good thing and long over due. Chalk this up as a win for Vitti but Fischer had a different point of view.

In the Times Union Fischer said: But not everyone is cheering Duval’s AP results. Board member Jason Fischer said Duval should increase AP participation.

“All the data show that, in general, kids who take AP exams tend to do better academically,” he said. “I want to see more kids taking it and more kids passing. I wouldn’t celebrate (fewer) people taking it.”

Unfortunately he is wrong, kids do not do better just being in AP classes though in his defense that was the prevailing thought for quite some time. A thought that sadly stymied kids both who were in them legitimately and those who weren’t.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/education-advanced-placement-classes-tests-

Fischer explains his comments: I received the following e-mail from Mr. Fischer.

We had a full conversation about acceleration programs and I voiced the need to match up more high school students with acceleration programs that work best for them. Whether that's AP, IB, early college, AICE, or coursework that leads to a certification. I could have been quoted just as easily as saying we need to encourage more students to pursue early college or industry certification.

They chose to use the AP comments only. AP is not something I necessarily favor. I favor whatever best needs the needs of a particular student.

The Times Union gets it wrong about Vouchers and High Stakes Testing... again!

For a moment I thought the Times Union’s editorial board stopped at Wall Greens on the way to work and picked up some common sense juice. You see they were rightfully critical of the passage of Senate Bill 850, the bill that expanded vouchers. In case you didn’t know they legislature used parliamentary tricks to pass it on the last day, folding the voucher parts into a popular bill providing extra resources to disabled kids.

Unfortunately the Times Union’s editorial board reverted to their broke clock like track record on education issues and regurgitated the talking points of the six figured executives of Step up for Students the organization that administers the states voucher program and is paid handsomely for doing so. One part they got especially wrong was the part about high stakes testing. 

The editor wrote, “It’s surprising that a test that is roundly criticized suddenly becomes essential.” This is “essentially” a dig at the people against vouchers, where he basically calls them and me since I am one of them, a hypocrite for railing against high stakes testing but then demanding the kids that take vouchers do so.

The thing is High Stakes Testing is the rule of the land, a rule created by the people who love and want to expand vouchers. I think they are bad for all kids but unfortunately I am not the one who makes the rule and for the state legislature to say HSTs are great for public schools but unnecessary for voucher schools is ridiculous but it doesn’t stop there.

The legislature also says STEM, teacher evaluations and certification, VAM, Common Core and accountability in general are important for public schools but then shrugs their shoulders when applying those things to private schools that accept vouchers and say, “ahh the free market will figure it out.”

I believe vouchers without accountability are a bad deal and I don’t think it is asking too much to make sure they are doing what they say they will do before being allowed to expand.

Finally I would like to address one more point, the editor wrote there is turmoil in public schools and parents are looking for more options. Well the turmoil was caused by the legislature who routinely deprives schools of proper funding, initiates experimental curriculums (common core) and takes every opportunity available to kneecap the teacher profession. They in effect have created the “turmoil” and said, hey check out vouchers. I find it repugnant that they have created this crisis and now seek to and benefit off of it at the expense of public schools.  

The Jacksonville Public Education Funds undeniable conflict of interest.

The JPEF has partnered with numerous non-profits and organizations to bring awareness about the upcoming school board races.

The School Board 2014 Coalition is a group of nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations. It is led by the Jacksonville Public Education Fund and includes:

§                 100 Black Men of Jacksonville

§                 Beaches Watch

§                 Duval County Council of PTAs

§                 Jacksonville Kids Coalition

§                 Jacksonville Urban League

§                 JCCI

§                 Junior League of Jacksonville

§                 League of Women Voters of Jacksonville First Coast

§                 NAACP Jacksonville Branch

§                 National Panhellenic Council

§                 Northside Love

§                 Teen Leaders of America

§                 The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida

§                 United Way of Northeast Florida

§                 War on Poverty – Florida

§                 WJCT

All of these organizations have pledged not to support or endorse any candidate. Our goal is to educate the community about their choices and promote increased participation in school board elections.

http://schoolboard2014.org/

Sounds great until we realize the board of the JPEF has picked out candidates they have both endorsed and supported.

Daryl Willie

Cindy Edelman and her husband 2,000 dollars.
John Baker, 1,000 dollars
Gary Chardrand, his wife Nancy and daughter Meredith, 2,500 dollars
Poppy Clements and her husband 2,000 dollars
Cleve Warren, 255 dollars
Deloris Weaver's husband and son, 1,500 dollars

Scott Shine

The Clements 500

The Weavers 1000

Baker 500

The Chartrands 500

The Edelmans 1000 

They just got on the Shine band wagon, more money is bound to come

Becky Couch (who doesn't even have an opponent) 

The Clements, 2000

The Weavers, 3000

Baker. 1000

The Chartrands 1500

The Edelmans 1000

Um what am I missing here? The JPEF should immediately recuse themselves from any forums; at the very least the appearance of impropriety is great.