Tony Bennett Florida Education Commisioner Resigns Over Indiana Scandal

[Stuart G]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by maddezmom (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Huffington Post

Less s than eight months after starting his job, Florida's education commissioner Tony Bennett is expected to resign Thursday, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Bennett, who previously served as Indiana's education chief, has faced increasing pressure to step down since the Associated Press published emails on Monday showing that he quietly changed Indiana's school grading formula. The emails show that the formula change happened when Christel House Academy, a charter school backed by influential Republican donors, received a low grade under the original formula.

Since the AP story was published, Bennett has defended himself by saying that the grading formula unfairly dinged Christel House and some other schools for not having traditional grade structures. Christel House didn't offer classes to high school juniors and seniors, he said, so "the data for grades 11 and 12 came in as zero," Bennett said.

But an analysis by New America Foundation's education expert Anne Hyslop claims that Bennett's defense "doesn't add up." "In truth, Christel House was never evaluated on its poor high school performance," Hyslop wrote. "Instead, all of the high school data were thrown out – a little detail Bennett failed to mention."

Florida has been among the fastest states to adopt changes favored by education reformers, from school report cards to radical changes to teacher evaluations and tenure. Some reformers worry that Bennett's resignation could set the state back as it tries to implement Common Core State Standards and grapples with a new wave of standardized testing tied to the core.


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/tony-bennett-resigns_n_3688690.html

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This asshole changed grades...to benefit a charter school, funded by Republicans. He got found out, and took some time to figure he got found out....He has earned a very low rung in hell....And........screw the so called "reformers" they are really out to destroy unions that is all these assholes are about..........

[tblue]

1. Maybe he left his heart in San Francisco.

Sorry. Could not resist.

This Bennett is horrible! I feel bad for the good people of Florida living in a state run by crooks.

[cosmicone]

4. He left his brain at the pawn shop. n/t

[AngryOldDem]

2. Just one more dent in the "legacy" that is Mitch Daniels in Indiana...

...Bennett was constantly promoted as "the future" of education reform in this state, which led him to export his brand of "reform" elsewhere, after his totally unexpected loss (as far as the GOP is concerned) to Glenda Ritz in last fall's election.

Now that the clowns are all out of town, it's amazing how the façade is now beginning to fall apart.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Mitch Daniels needs to suffer the consequences too.

Hopefully the Howard Zinn emails will get him ousted as well as the Trustees that hired him.

[hatrack]

3. I think Teach For America is hiring - he'll only need five weeks to prepare

Once that's out of the way, I'm sure he'll do a great job educating America's future leaders!

[voteearlyvoteoften]

6. Hey Rick Scott

Corporate dude like you should understand the concept of due diligence.

[maddezmom]

7. Duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014554154