Rewarding Excellence (or just advantage?)

The State has a large stake in the education of its children and future citizens. The public sector not only funds most primary and secondary education, but is responsible for the outcome. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was signed into law by President Bush in January of 2002. In Florida his brother and then governor Jeb Bush instituted the A+ Program. Schools are graded and rewarded as an incentive for quality. There are not only carrots for high performing schools, there are also sticks. Schools which fail to make adequate yearly progress are subject to loosing students to charter schools, thus loosing funding, and if they persist in not making the grade, they may loose autonomy and be taken over by private companies. Additionally in Florida, bonus funds go to schools which make better grades on the FCAT test. The FCAT is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, and is similar to test done in other states as part of NCLB.

In order to promote excellence, the State of Florida gives monetary rewards to schools which meet state standards. School scores are publicly available, and parents may use these to select where to live in order to provide the best education for their children. Sadly the system is rigged to fail rural and poor children. Below are the 4^th grade reading FCAT scores from the highest and lowest scoring counties in Florida.

FCAT Scores Match Demographics

Unfortunately, FCAT scores tell much more about the demographics of the children than they do about the quality of the teachers or the school. Maternal educational level is one of the most powerful determinants of a child’s educational success and attainment. FCAT scores tell more about the parents than the teachers or the school.

Below, the red dots shown on the map below show the highest ten counties for fourth grade FCAT reading scores and the green dots the lowest 10 counties. It can be seen that the red dots (high performing) are generally in census tracts with a high percentage of the population with a high school education, bachelors degrees, and in low poverty areas. The counties with the lowest performing schools (green dots) tend to be in areas of the lowest levels of adult education and high poverty areas. It can bee seen that the red dots are mostly in the light blue areas, and the green in the dark blue areas.












A high performing school is more likely a reflection of the parent’s socioeconomic status than it is of the quality of its teachers.

What is the outcome of the current system of reward and punishment?

The Winners

· Wealthy districts (low poverty and higher educated parents) get more funding as high performing schools.

· The community takes pride in those schools

· Property values increase

· Tax base increases – providing more funding

· Teachers and students gain confidence and pride in high performing schools

· The school attracts better students, reinforcing the high performance

· The State gives money where it is needed the least and may not be getting the quality of education it imagines it is. (Thus the winners may be losers.)

· The parent and student may not get the quality education they believe they are. (They become losers too)

The Losers

· Children suffer and are trapped in a cycle of lower education and poverty.

· The State pays more for poorer results.

· Parent are told their children are in a poor educational environment. The parents most concerned about education leave the district

· Property values fall hurting the tax base that pays for education

· Students in poorly performing schools do not take pride in their school or in their education, as they are in a “low quality” school.

· Students believe there school and teachers are of low quality and have low expectations for themselves. They get low test scores and believe they are failures at education and give up

· Teachers in these poorly performing schools become demoralized, and it becomes harder to recruit and maintain motivated teachers.

· The State does interventions to try fix problems, wasting resources.

For a school in a high poverty area to bring those children to near the state average requires doing something that the high performing schools have not been able to do. High performing schools may be not so great, and may perform well mainly because of the student population.

Look at the exceptions.

Calhoun County had excellent scores, but is in a poor county with low educational attainment. Are they doing something right? By stratifying results by demographics, perhaps we can learn what works.

What should be done?

Schools scores should be adjusted for the educational level of the student’s parents or guardians and for their economic level. “Race” based stratification adds little information as presently done. In Florida the children of professionals of Cuban origin are currently considered the same minority (Hispanic) as are the children of Mexican migrant farm workers.

When schools are graded based on the demographics of the children and their parents, we will then have an idea of which schools are doing good and which are failing their students. Then parents will be able to more honestly determine the quality of a school. It will tell the state, the school and parents if the school is doing a good job in educating its students.

Test and torture needs to end.

© 2007