Rick Scott’s ed plans. Charter school expansion is a plank in Gov. Scott’s education plan for the next legislative session, but this exclusive Tampa Bay Times story on it doesn’t offer much detail. Here’s the main part that touches on school choice: The plan includes “lifting enrollment caps on charter schools, removing barriers to choice options in low-performing areas and letting school districts operate their own "charter innovation schools. ‘Our local school districts are going to keep getting better if we give them the authority to do it,’ Scott said.”

School grades work. In this op-ed for The Oklahoman, former Florida education commissioner Eric J. Smith gives Oklahoma kudos for adopting a school grading system. It worked in the Sunshine State, he said, particularly for the kids who needed the most help: “The biggest winners in Florida have been low-income, minority students. Schools that had long failed these students were exposed. Parents were given options to move their children to other schools. And when that happened, poorly performing schools could no longer be ignored or tolerated.”

Op-ed got it wrong on vouchers. Lincoln Tamayo, who heads the highly regarded Academy Prep private schools in Tampa and St. Petersburg, writes in response to a recent op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times that suggested vouchers don’t come with enough accountability.

Florida Virtual School in Education Week. In a story about blended learning. You’ll need a subscription to see the whole thing, but here’s a taste: “Forty-four districts in Florida have now put in place FLVS hybrid or blended learning models, called Virtual Learning Labs, said Tania Clow, a spokeswoman for the FLVS. The virtual school launched the blended programs during the 2010-11 school year, with 152 Virtual Learning Labs across the state. The number has grown this school year to 314, Ms. Clow said. Face-to-face interaction includes the weekly teacher visits, the facilitator, and frequent visits from an FLVS specialist in blended learning who troubleshoots school issues.”

Two more months. As expected, the Florida Board of Education decided this morning to extend the search for a new education commissioner. The board discussed the issue for about three minutes before voting unanimously in favor of a new timeline.

The original deadline for applications, Sept. 27, had drawn 16 candidates through last Friday, but no big names in ed reform and school choice circles. The new deadline is Nov. 30.

Several board members made brief reference this morning to candidate quality.

If the candidates are not "up to the level we have set - which is a very high level - I would like to have the flexibility to, if needed, to extend the deadline (again) or take other appropriate action," said board member Roberto Martinez of Miami. "I assume that would be implicit in all this."

Yes, said board chair Gary Chartrand: "We're not going to lower our standards here. And Bob, if we're not satisfied with the results, at that point in time, I think we certainly have the right to push that date out further."

The new timeline: (more…)

The Florida Board of Education is expected this week to extend its search for a new education commissioner, marking the second time in as many years it has done so amidst mutterings that the initial pool is mediocre.

Through Friday, the board had received 16 applications to replace former Commissioner Gerard Robinson, a former head of the Black Alliance for Educational Options who left at the end of August. The deadline for applications is Thursday, but the board has scheduled an emergency conference call Tuesday to consider a new deadline.

The applications to date do not include any big names in ed reform circles, echoing what happened last year during the initial search for the previous commissioner. At that time, the board was seeking to replace highly regarded former Commissioner Eric J. Smith, who was pushed out by newly elected Gov. Rick Scott.

Robinson, then the ed commissioner in Virginia, applied after the deadline was extended. His brief tenure in Florida was dogged by problems with the state’s testing and school grading system, and by the biggest blowback to the state accountability regimen since the tenure of Gov. Jeb Bush.

Robinson’s replacement will be Florida’s fifth commissioner in eight years. Voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1998 to better insulate the position from shifting political winds, but it hasn’t worked out that way. Smith was hired in 2007 after newly elected Gov. Charlie Crist nudged out former Commissioner John Winn, a Bush ally. Scott is up for re-election in 2014.

Two of the 16 candidates have strong, obvious ties to school choice. (more…)

As the Florida Board of Education ramped up its search this morning for a new state education commissioner, one of its board members offered a polite suggestion to Gov. Rick Scott and Florida lawmakers: Give the next commish some space.

"I think all of us, the board and the political establishment, needs to understand that we need to give that person a lot of autonomy so that they can function professionally with minimal interference from the political folks," said board member Roberto Martinez of Miami (pictured here). "I say that respectfully to our elected officials."

The board is looking to replace Gerard Robinson, who left last week after little more than a year on the job. The next commissioner will be Florida's fifth in eight years, not counting interim commissioners.

Technically, the state board of education hires the commissioner. Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1998 to make the board responsible for that decision, in an attempt to keep education policy better insulated from shifting political winds. But it hasn't quite worked out that way.

After his election in 2006, former Gov. Charlie Crist nudged out former Education Commissioner John Winn, who was close to former Gov. Jeb Bush. The board replaced Winn with Eric J. Smith. But after Scott was elected in 2010, Smith was out, clearing the path for Robinson. Robinson abruptly announced his resignation July 31, saying he needed to return to his family in Virginia.

The board expects to have a list of candidates on Sept. 27. More from the Tampa Bay Times here.

EdWeek’s Politics K-12 blog offers an intriguing list of possible education secretaries in a Romney administration, including one prominent Floridian: Jeb Bush. But the otherwise great list overlooked another Floridian: Eric J. Smith, the state's former ed commissioner.

Smith, nudged out last year by Gov. Rick Scott, was hired by the state Board of Education in late 2007 and immediately found himself on a high-wire: Shepherding the state’s proposed new science standards, which for the first time included the teaching of evolution, through public hearings and a divided state board. Ultimately, the board approved them 4-3.

Smith led the way on Florida’s Race to the Top application and was a strong supporter of legislation that changed the way Florida teachers are evaluated and paid. Like Indiana’s Tony Bennett, he was an original member of Chiefs for Change and enjoyed strong backing from Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education. One Bush ally, T. Willard Fair, was so upset by Smith's ouster that he resigned from the BOE in protest.

"Dr. Eric Smith would make an outstanding U.S. Secretary of Education,” Roberto Martinez, another board member, told redefinED via email. “When he was Florida's Commissioner of Education he proved himself to be best in the nation. During his tenure he led Florida to the top of the nation in achieving several significant educational benchmarks. He is a successful reformer because as a former hands-on teacher, principal, and superintendent he knows what works in the classroom.”

Smith’s is now a fellow in education policy at the George W. Bush Institute. His successor as commish, Gerard Robinson, is stepping down at the end of this month.

Florida education officials recently posted a frank internal report about what led to the standardized testing flop that has consumed the ed reform debate for the past two months and sparked the biggest backlash yet against the state’s accountability system. Unfortunately, it received virtually no media coverage (one exception here), which is a bit head-scratching considering both the context and contents.

It essentially says, “We messed up.”

“The decision to make a significant change in scoring FCAT Writing in one year was flawed,” the report says. “Throughout the lifetime of the FCAT, there has never been such a dramatic change in scoring criteria in such a short time.”

Led by former Education Commissioner John Winn (pictured here), the just-the-facts review contrasts sharply with the bomb throwing from critics who fought change every step of the way and now deny progress, particularly for low-income and minority students. It is also, in a way, a good sign for the future – a reflection of leadership that is willing to admit mistakes and find remedies.

The report is humbling. It says the state moved too far, too fast in ramping up scoring criteria. External communication with school districts wasn’t strong enough. Internal communication with new Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson was lacking. Also, department staff didn’t move soon enough to determine potential impact of raising the bar: “Had this been done, perhaps the committee members and the Department would have changed the decision to move forward in less than a year.”

Robinson and other education officials have acknowledged some of these mistakes in general terms. But the report goes into more detail. It references confusion in a key July 5, 2011 memo to superintendents, and a year-long span in which the state Board of Education did not receive briefings about the changes. It points out that budget cuts forced the state to whittle away at a more optimal test design, and says transition at the top may have contributed to the communication problems. (After Gov. Rick Scott forced out former Commissioner Eric J. Smith, Winn stepped in as interim until the board hired Robinson.)

There’s no doubt the mistakes have undermined confidence in the state’s education system. It will require time and care to repair that. But it’s also true that many critics have gone beyond the kind of legitimate beefs soberly recounted in the report to flirt with demagoguery. (more…)

Eric J. Smith, the highly regarded Florida education commissioner who left after Gov. Rick Scott became governor, has landed at the George W. Bush Institute. His name and new title - fellow in education policy - surfaced today in the Huffington Post, in an op-ed he penned urging states to keep pushing for strong accountability measures. Part of Smith's argument included a general nod towards expanded school choice:

Another essential principle of strong accountability systems is state intervention when schools don't see achievement rates rise. And the most intensive interventions should occur in schools whose students don't reach grade-level standards.

In that vein, school choice is an important option for students. Every single student deserves a quality education. It is simply not acceptable for a parent to be forced to keep their child in a failing school in the hope that the local teachers and administrators will eventually clean up their act.

States generally want to be creative and federal legislation isn't standing in their way of doing that. Officials are empowered to employ tools beyond the standard choice policy of vouchers, including innovative reforms like allowing students in low-performing schools to get connected with high quality educators online.

The George W. Bush Institute's principles call on states to build on the current foundation, apply the lessons learned, and provide parents with an even broader array of choices if their child is trapped in a persistently low-performing school.

Gerard Robinson, the education secretary for Virginia and one of the nation's most stalwart advocates for school choice and parental empowerment, was picked just minutes ago to replace Eric J. Smith as Florida's education commissioner. The vote from Florida's Board of Education was unanimous.

Robinson had been Virginia's education secretary for about 15 months under Gov. Bob McDonnell and had joined nine other state education secretaries, including Smith, in the Chiefs for Change coalition brought together by Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education.

He also served as president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options for nearly three years, a tenure that followed years of work with Howard Fuller in BAEO and in Fuller's Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University.

The Associated Press and the New Orleans Times-Picayune are reporting that Louisiana state schools superintendent Paul Pastorek is planning to step down. Pastorek, who took over the top schools post in 2007, is another of the Chiefs for Change with plans to resign. Florida education commissioner Eric J. Smith is another who told his Board of Education that he'll step down mid-June. Smith and Pastorek are among 10 state superintendents promoting bold and systemic reforms in our public school systems. Others include Rhode Island chief Deborah A. Gist and Virginia's Gerard Robinson.