Columnist psychologist gives good examples of Florida's two-tier school system. Did his homework.

[madfloridian]

I think he describes well what is happening and why.

Two-Tier School System Working?

Charter, magnet and private schools are able to choose their students. Though any student is welcome to apply for enrollment in a magnet or charter school, as soon as that student falls short of the school's expectations, he or she is sent back to their home school. In this way, certain schools are able to retain only those students who meet the school's academic and behavioral standards.

By contrast, all other public schools have a zero percent rejection rate. They must educate all children, regardless of disability, motivation, parent involvement, or whether or not they speak English. Just as a comparison, let's look at two schools: Lincoln Avenue Academy and Oscar Pope Elementary.

In the 2013-2014 school year, Lincoln Academy had 570 students, 2.3 percent of whom were "disabled" and 20.8 percent of whom were "economically disadvantaged." Oscar Pope, on the other hand, had 482 students, 20.5 percent of whom were "disabled" and 62.2 percent of whom were "economically disadvantaged." That same year, 22 percent of Oscar Pope's entering students were considered "not ready" for kindergarten, compared to 6 percent of students at Lincoln Avenue. Regardless of the metric used, there is nothing remotely similar between these two schools.

Despite the fact that one school has distinct advantages in terms of the students enrolled, both schools (and all the teachers) are evaluated according to the same standards and with the same tests. Is it really surprising that Oscar Pope was graded as a D school, while Lincoln Academy earned an A?

He points out that blaming the teachers for the poor performance of students is not productive.

He recognizes this is probably the future of education and says we need to figure out how to level the opportunities.

As a nation, we seem to be accepting the idea of a two-tiered public school system where students lucky enough to have their lottery number picked or to receive a voucher receive an excellent education, while those relegated to "regular" public schools do not.

I know for sure that the new Florida trend of taking the state money from public schools and giving it to the parents is going to cause more destruction of public schools.

[blkmusclmachine]

1. ,

,

[madfloridian]

2. Thanks for the kick.

Things drop so quickly.

[xocet]

3. K & R n/t

[Downwinder]

4. What is this going to do to the prep schools?

[HeiressofBickworth]

5. The Florida Constitution seems pretty clear:

SECTION 1.?Public education.—
(a)?The education of children is a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida. It is, therefore, a paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders. Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education and for the establishment, maintenance, and operation of institutions of higher learning and other public education programs that the needs of the people may require.

SECTION 6.?State school fund.—The income derived from the state school fund shall, and the principal of the fund may, be appropriated, but only to the support and maintenance of free public schools.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/Index.cfm?Mode=Constitution&Submenu=3&Tab=statutes#A9

I may not have read all of it, but just scratching the surface, there doesn't appear to be any legislative authority for a two-tiered system nor for public funds to be spent on anything other than "free public schools". So is the two-tier system somehow exempt? I'm very leery of schools that fail to afford students a way to get up and out of poverty. Education is always the way up and out.

Disclosure: I am NOT in Florida and I don't have school-aged children.

[Igel]

7. There's no reasonable public discussion over this.

One side screams that charters, etc., obtain no better results than traditional public schools. Another shouts that it's unfair that charters do better.

Thing is, it's not usually the schools. Usually it's not the funding and when it's the teachers that's usually a symptom and not a cause. Mostly it's the students.

Yes, every school, however crappy, has good students that can be anecdotally pointed to to show how unfair it is and that it's not the students. That can't be taken seriously--it fails the crit thinking test. Extremes aren't typical, however much we want them to be so.

In a number of schools, the students self separate. We used to track. We still track, but not formally. Parents move their kids from the great melting pot of traditional public schools to various kinds of other public schools. That cuts both ways. Many take their kids and put them in "better" schools. But if a kid's failing, often enough he'll be put in a warehouse school where they sit and get As. I've actually had more kids withdraw from my classes to go to easy-A schools just to save their high school diploma. Average such schools with the schools that are academically better and you get ... a wash. (Meaning both sides' screaming are accurate, but one side insists on missing the point. Those academic nullities of schools could also be academically great.)

Within schools, there are AP or IB programs and all the pre-XX programs. You want a surprised kid, take a kid who's be pre-AP/IB since 6th grade and move him into a level classroom as a junior. They often hunker down because of the difference in the difference in motivation, in behavior, in a dozen things all of which affect academic rigor. Even if moving from pre-AP or AP to level classes involved just moving to a different class taught by the same teacher in the same classroom 60 minutes earlier or later. It's not the classroom, the teacher, the funding.

States have to provide, they have to allow to obtain. This has often be interpreted to mean "guarantee that a student acquires." Those are different kinds of things.

This doesn't mean there aren't violations of the law. That schools all receive adequate funding, that teachers are all equally of high quality and do the same job. But those instances aren't the general case and provide an easy scapegoat. (Right now, I'm in no mood to scapegoat one group of people to avoid laying responsibility on another group, if only because that means we revel in blaming others while ignoring the fact that real change lies in an uncomfortable 'elsewhere'.)

[kcr]

9. There's no reasonable discourse

because we have people who will jump into the discussion and leave out entire relevent parts of the discussion. You seem to completely disregard the effect of high stakes testing and grading of schools even though it was the main point of the OP. But yet it somehow "fails the critical thinking test".

[voteearlyvoteoften]

6. Kick

[Scuba]

8. Scott Walker has a solution for this ...

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/republicans-divided-over-school-accountability-measure-b99421210z1-287790121.html

In a shift from current law, the measure would allow private schools to use a different exam from the state test to measure student learning ...

One version of the new law would give charter schools five different tests to choose from, while our public schools would all be held to the federal standard.