Students at the Florida Youth Challenge Academy.
Message from Florida. Skeptics in Louisiana shouldn’t fight expanded school choice and other reforms that boosted student achievement in Florida, writes Patricia Levesque, executive director of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. Some especially notable lines from her post on the new EdFly Blog: “No amount of regulatory compliance can hope to match a system of decentralized parental choice. Compliance models focus on school and grade-level average results, while empowered parents focus on the particular needs of their children.”
Ed reform group shuts down. Communities for Teaching Excellence, a group that supports the revamp of teacher evaluations and has a presence in Hillsborough County, is closing shop. The Los Angeles Times reports the Gates Foundation ended its financial support. It paraphrases Amy Wilkins, the group’s chairwoman, as saying CTE “was not hitting its marks in terms of generating press coverage and building community coalitions.”
Rick Scott tries to build bridges with teachers. Story from StateImpact Florida here.
High school meets boot camp. The Florida Times Union profiles an alternative school on the fringes of Jacksonville that gives at-risk teens a second chance with structure: “The cadets begin a highly regimented day at 4:45 a.m. with physical training then breakfast and inspection followed by classes starting at 8 a.m. The classes are segregated by gender except for special assemblies. They participate in tutoring, mentoring, counseling and do chores such as their own laundry or cleaning up the barracks and academy grounds. Lights out is 8:45 p.m.”
Superintendents put tax credit scholarships on list. The Tampa Bay Times Gradebook blog posts the ideas being considered by a committee of seven superintendents charged by Gov. Scott with finding ways to reduce red tape for teachers. Times reporter Jeff Solochek notes, “Many of the ideas under consideration have little to do with teachers and bureaucracy, though.” On the list: “Repeal of the state corporate tax credit scholarship program.”
Years ago, the powerful director of a local teachers union told me in no uncertain terms: Differential pay for teachers in high-poverty schools wasn’t a good idea and wouldn’t help poor kids. He called it, and I quoted him, “a glitzy solution.”
So what a jolt it was to learn, after the union leader’s passing, that the big school district he helped shape for decades actually had a differential pay plan – a lucrative benefit he signed off on for a handful of teachers in the district’s elite magnet programs.
I bring this up now because of a new report that touches on teacher views about differential pay. And also because of the backdrop it brings into focus on so many ed reform issues, including expanded school choice. Too often – and I say this as respectfully as I can - school boards and teachers unions appear to lack the will to do the right thing for low-income kids.
Differential pay obviously isn’t all that and a bag of chips. But it is a tool that can be used to attract and/or keep high-quality teachers in high-needs schools. Survey after survey shows the vast majority of teachers agree.
In the latest, an Education Sector report that asked teachers about all kinds of things, 83 percent said they supported more money for teachers in low-performing schools. That’s up from 70 percent in 2008 and 80 percent in 2007. With young teachers, the results were even more lopsided: 88 percent of them liked the idea.
And yet, with few exceptions, school districts have not tried differential pay in a meaningful way. In Florida, this has been true even though state laws and rules have required it. Many districts abide by the letter of the law, offering minimal amounts that don’t make a difference, and so the vicious cycles that could be mitigated instead swirl on.
The district in Pinellas County, Fla., is no exception. That’s the district whose longtime union chief, Jade Moore, I was referring to above. (more…)
