Florida Report Card

NAEP Scale Score Rank, 20114th

GRAdEMAth REAdiNG

8th GRAdE

MAth REAdiNG

Elevate Teaching

Empower Parents

Spend Wisely & Govern Well

State Policy Report Card 2013

NAEP Proficiency, 2011

Below Basic

Math4th Grade

Reading

Basic Proficient Advanced

ovERAll GRAdE

total Students, 2010–11

Sources: U.S. Department of Education, NCES, Common Core of Data (CCD), and 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Florida State Rank: 2

A C FDB–

GPA2.73

CB FDA– A B FDC– A B FDCState Rank: 2 State Rank: 4 State Rank: 13

GPA3.64 GPA1.94 GPA2.00

Florida is a leader for the rest of the country when itcomes to ensuring effective teachers and principalsare identified, retained, and rewarded by districts.Florida requires districts to evaluate educatorsmeaningfully; several key multiple measures areincorporated, including student academic growth,which comprises 50 percent of the overallevaluation. Of importance, Florida mandates thatperformance drive all district personnel decisions,including placement, layoff, and tenure decisions.The state has already made progress in itsimplementation as well. Additionally, Florida investsin compensating its teachers through strongperformance pay systems and in recruiting topteaching talent though its alternative certificationprograms. Adopting comprehensive reforms hasallowed Florida to lead the country in its efforts toimprove teacher quality and elevate the profession.

All families should have the information and accessthey need to choose high-quality schools for theirchildren, and no student should be forced to attenda low-performing school or be taught by a low-performing teacher. Florida empowers parents byrequiring all PK-12 schools to receive annual reportcards that include an A-F letter grade based onstudent achievement and by requiring that parentsare notified when their children are placed in theclassroom of a teacher who has been ratedineffective. The state should pass parent triggerlegislation that empowers parents to sign a petitionto turn around a failing public school. Florida allowsfor the formation of public charter schools that mustmeet key accountability provisions, but it shouldallow for multiple authorizers. Additionally, the stateshould establish a publicly funded scholarshipprogram limited to low-income students in chron-ically failing public schools and ensure participatingschools meet certain accountability provisions.

Florida allows the state to intervene in academicallyunderachieving schools and districts, but additionalgovernance flexibility, such as mayoral control, isneeded. While Florida allows districts to achievecost efficiencies through multiple managementalternatives, it should require districts to linkspending data to student outcomes and permitgovernance changes when funds are mismanaged.Adopting these changes will strengthen Florida'sability to ensure that resources are spent wisely andthat districts are focused on improving studentachievement. Florida has made significant progressin teacher pension reform by establishing a fullyportable retirement option for teachers. The stateshould continue its reform efforts by requiring allteachers to participate in its portable plan.

Florida Fast Facts

2,643,347 30 13

3542

62% 37%

65% 35%

NAEP Scale Score Rank, 20114th

GRAdEMAth REAdiNG

8th GRAdE

MAth REAdiNG

Elevate Teaching

Empower Parents



State Rank:

GPA

Stats, 2010–11StudENtS

School diStRictS

SchoolS

Public chARtERS

NAEP Proficiency, 201135%

29%68%Below Basic

Math4th Grade

Reading

Basic Proficient Advanced

65%

Michigan Fast Facts

ovERAll GRAdE

State Rank: 4thState Rank: 4thState Rank: 4th

A B FDC

GPA

A C FDBGPA

A B DC FGPA

A C FDB

State Momentum Builder

Over the past decade, Florida has steadily grown into a national leader in instituting policies that elevate the teaching profession. The state nowrequires that teachers and principals be evaluated using multiple measures, including student achievement. Effectiveness in the classroom is thedriver for all policies that attract, develop, retain, and reward teachers.

Florida has established itself as a national leader in putting students first. The state has adopted meaningful educator evaluations, and itrequires districts to base all personnel decisions, as well as compensation structures, on classroom effectiveness. Florida is also a modelfor empowering parents. The state provides parents with useful information regarding school and teacher performance. Parents can alsochoose from a robust network of public charter schools and a tax credit scholarship program. Florida should provide comparable fundingto public charter schools and needs to improve in holding local districts accountable for increasing student outcomes with theirinvestments. The state should also allow mayors to take control of local districts that fail to improve under existing governance structures.Lastly, to ensure career flexibility and sustainability of Florida's retirement system, it should require teachers to participate in its portableretirement option.

Comprehensive Evaluation

Use Evaluations for Personnel Decisions

Value Effective Teachers

Alternative Teacher Certification

Momentum Builder: State has made recent progress in this policy area.

Anchor Objective: Foundational policy for meaningful education reform.

Gold Standard: Exemplar state policies that prioritize bold reform and put students first.Elevate

Teaching


Objective Score (0–4)

Teacher Evaluations

Principal Evaluations

Evaluations & Contracts


Ending Forced Placement

Staffing Decision

Tenure Attainment & Maintenance


Reward Performance with Pay

Reform Salary Schedules


A C FDB

CB FDA

CB FDA

A C FDB

GPA 3.29

GPA 4.00

GPA 4.00

GPA 3.25

Strong evaluation systems are foundational to improving teacher and principal quality;meaningful evaluations recognize excellence, support development, and addressineffectiveness. Florida is exemplary in this area. Student growth comprises 50% of bothteacher and principal evaluations or 40% for those with fewer than three years of data. Allevaluations are annual, tied to professional development and observations, and use a four-tierrating of effectiveness. Principals are assessed on their ability to recruit and retain effectiveteachers, improve teacher performance, and provide staff with leadership opportunities.Teachers are assessed on multiple measures that are determined by the district and approvedby the state. Florida can continue its leadership in this area by requiring student feedbackwithin teacher evaluations and explicitly providing districts with the authority to develop anevaluation criteria apart from collective bargaining.

Basing personnel decisions on performance is critical to building schools that retain effectiveteachers and make student achievement paramount. Florida is a leader in this area;specifically, the state uses teacher effectiveness to drive decisions around teacherassignment, layoffs, and tenure. Schools have the authority to build and maintain an effectiveinstructional team through hiring decisions and transitioning ineffective teachers out of theprofession. Furthermore, when forced to lay off teachers during a budget-related reduction inforce, districts must use performance to determine layoffs; seniority is expressly prohibitedfrom being used. Lastly, Florida replaced tenure with a system of annual contracts, which offerrewards based on performance. Florida has created a system that prioritizes students andgreat teachers, using teacher performance as the driving influence for all personnel decisions.

To encourage a high-quality, diverse workforce, professional pay should be based onperformance rather than other non-classroom factors such as seniority or degrees held.Florida has implemented a statewide compensation system that rewards its most effectiveteachers by tying pay increases to performance measures that prioritize student outcomes.The state no longer permits automatic base pay increases for teachers simply because theyhave advanced degrees. To further strengthen this system, Florida should set a specifictimeframe by which teachers of non-tested subjects will be fully incorporated into theprogram.

Florida exhibits many markers of high-quality alternative certification policies. It offers non-university options to candidates who are completing subject-area content requirements andwho hold a degree approved by the State Department of Education at the level required for thesubject area specialization. The state should require a 3.0 GPA or 2.5 with five years ofexperience to screen for exceptional candidates. Florida is likewise a standout in programevaluation. The Department of Education reviews and approves alternative preparationprograms, conducting annual performance evaluations of postsecondary institutions tomeasure graduates' effectiveness. Programs must guarantee graduates will be of high quality.State law requires approval of preparation programs contingent on pass rates of participantson teacher certification exams, employment rates, longitudinal retention rates, and employersatisfaction surveys.

34

2

4

4

4

4

4

3

4

Florida

Alternative CertificationPathways

Alternative CertificationAccountability

Empower Parents with information

increase Quality choices

Provide comparable Resources for All Public options

MethodologyState policies were analyzed and assigned an individual score from 0 to 4, with 4 representing the strongest lever for reform and the most common sense policy for students. Anchor policies were assigned a 3x weight. Grade point averages (GPAs) were calculated based on grouping policies by category. For the full methodology, evaluation rubric, and detailed analysis of each policy, please visit the website at reportcard.studentsfirst.org.


Empower Parents

objective Score (0–4)

Parent Notification

Parent trigger


opportunity Scholarship

charter Establishment & Expansion

charter Accountability


Fund Fairly

Enable Equitable Access to Facilities

charter Facilities Financing

GPA Sample calculations

Score Weight SubtotalObjective 1 3 x 3 = 9

Objective 2 2 x 3 = 6

Objective 3 4 x 1 = 4

7 19

GPA = Subtotal ÷ Total Weight GPA = 19 ÷ 7 = 2.71



Gold Standard: Exemplar state policies that prioritize bold reform and put students first.

A C FDB–

A B FDC

A B FC D

GPA 2.80

GPA 2.00

GPA 1.00

420

2

2

2

0

2

3

Florida empowers parents with information and options in a number of ways. Florida has anexemplary state law that requires that all PK-12 schools receive annual report cards thatinclude an A-F letter grade based on student achievement. State law also requires that parentsbe notified when their children are placed in the classroom of a teacher who has been ratedunsatisfactory. To further empower parents, Florida should require districts to obtain consentfrom parents whose children are placed with an ineffective teacher. Additionally, parents inFlorida should have the option of organizing a majority of parents with students enrolled in achronically low-performing school to sign a petition demanding a school turnaround. In thatscenario, the options for the turned-around school would be one of the four federal Race to theTop intervention models.

Florida is working to ensure students are not trapped in a failing public school by increasing qualityschool choice options; however, more work remains. All schools that take state dollars, includingdistricts, public charters, and private schools taking publicly funded scholarships, should be held to thesame high standards and accountability. Florida allows for the formation of public charter schools thatmust meet key accountability provisions, such as entering into a performance contract and undergoingannual performance reviews to ensure student learning growth. Even though state law allows for theformation of public charter schools, the state only allows local school boards to authorize new charterschools. Florida must allow more charter authorizers to expand high-quality school options in the stateand ensure current charter schools have a record of success before replication. Additionally, Floridaprovides tax credit scholarships for low-income students to attend a private school. The state shouldestablish a publicly funded scholarship program limited to low-income students in chronically failingpublic schools and ensure private schools meet certain accountability provisions.

Children stuck in chronically failing schools should have an option to attend another school oftheir choice without being punished by the state through reduced funding. Florida law requirescharters to be funded in the same manner as traditional public schools and provides strongaccess to unused facilities and facility financing, including a per-pupil facilities allowance foreligible schools. However, Florida should reform its skimming provisions that currently allow upto 5% of a charter school's funding to be retained by the charter authorizer. Florida should alsoamend its tax credit scholarship program to provide a scholarship tuition amount that iscompetitive with private school tuition. The amount is currently limited to approximately $4,000annually.

School Report Cards

Florida

Promote Governance Structures that Streamline Accountability

Spend taxpayer Resources Wisely to improve outcomes for Students

Make teacher Pensions Portable and Fair



Mayoral & State control


Fiscal transparency

Management Alternatives

class Size


Pension Reform

StudentsFirst is a bipartisan grassroots movement of more than 2 million members nationwide,

working to focus our education system on what’s best for students. Today, too many of America’s

children are not getting the quality education they need and deserve. StudentsFirst is helping to

change that with common sense reforms that help make sure all students have great schools

and great teachers. We are working to ensure educators are valued for the critical role they

play in kids’ lives, families have high-quality school choices and a real say in their child’s

education, and our tax dollars are spent wisely on what works for kids. Launched by former

Washington D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee in December 2010, StudentsFirst

has successfully helped pass more than 70 student-centered policies in 17 states, and our

movement continues to grow.

825 K Street, 2nd Floor

Sacramento, CA 95814

Website: reportcard.studentsfirst.org

Email: [email protected]




Gold Standard: Exemplar state policies that prioritize bold reform and put students first.

A B FDC

A B FDC

A B FDC

GPA 2.00

GPA 2.00

GPA 2.00

2

2

4

0

2

The ability to turn around failing schools is often hampered by bureaucratic red tape andpolitics. Florida allows the State Department of Education to intervene in low-performingschools and districts. Low-performing schools and districts are those that receive a grade of"F". State intervention in a school or district ends when student achievement in that school ordistrict significantly increases. To allow for governance structures that streamlineaccountability at the local level, Florida should allow mayoral control of low-performing schooldistricts.

Given the limited resources available for public education, states must ensure that the dollarsinvested drive the greatest change. Florida allows districts to achieve cost efficiencies bypurchasing through existing county contracts and likewise allows charter schools to purchaseservices from school districts. Florida's educational funding accountability law outlinesfinancial reporting requirements, but the state should link spending to academic achievementto fully enable data-driven decisionmaking. Florida law should also provide for governancechanges when resources are mismanaged. Finally, Florida should remove less effective class-size limits past the third grade and spending restrictions that limit flexibility.

Attracting a high-quality workforce will require a competitive retirement plan. Portableretirement options, such as 401(k) plans, are an essential component of compensationpackages and make the teaching profession more competitive. It is a classic win-win forteachers and districts. Under current policy, Florida provides two employer-sponsoredretirement options for employees of traditional schools and certain public charter schools: adefined benefit plan and a portable defined contribution plan, referred to as the FloridaInvestment Plan. To provide the most career flexibility and ensure sustainability of the existingsystem, Florida should require all employees of traditional public schools to participate in theFlorida Investment Plan and continue to make these options available to public charterschools.

Florida

© StudentsFirst 2013

Florida Report Card

Documents

Transcript of Florida Report Card