Congressman Jim Davis Asks Gov. Bush to Fix Florida’s Education Policies Before Students Pay the Price

Nationwide, FL has the highest percentage of schools failing AYP

 

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Jim Davis sent the attached letter to Governor Jeb Bush, calling on the Governor to fix Florida’s education policies before hundreds of Florida schools are stripped of vital Title I funds.  “Governor Bush has set our schools up to fail, and his Administration should fix the problem before students pay the price,” said Congressman Davis. 

 

Last fall, thousands of Florida parents and students learned that their schools had earned “A” grades under the Florida A+ Education Plan but had received failing grades under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).  In fact, although only 6 percent of Florida’s schools failed under the A+ plan, Florida led the nation in the percentage of schools failing the NCLB’s “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) education standards.  87 percent of Florida ’s schools failed, followed by Alaska’s 58 percent failure rate.

 

This dramatic contradiction between Florida’s success under the A+ Plan and failure under NCLB is a direct result of the Governor’s implementation of NCLB in Florida, and it is a problem that the Governor can easily fix before schools receive their 2003-2004 AYP scores.

 

Under the federal law, schools are held accountable for the performance of all students – including racial, ethnic, special education and other student “subgroups.”  If one subgroup fails to meet the AYP standards, the entire school will fail AYP, regardless of the performance of other students. 

 

However, the law gives states flexibility to determine how large these subgroups must be before the score of a subgroup counts toward the overall school score.  Because Governor Bush decided that only 30 students are needed to make up a subgroup, Florida’s schools are heavily penalized for their diversity, and their success hinges on the performance of a very small percentage of students.  In fact, the Florida Association of District School Superintendents estimates that at some schools, AYP subgroups represent as little as 2 to 3 percent of the student population.

 

As a result, many of Florida’s most successful schools are failing to make AYP.  For example, the following schools all earned an “A” under Florida’s A+ Plan but failed to meet AYP because a small group of students either failed the FCAT, which is used to determine both Florida A+ grades and AYP, or were absent the day of the test.  (Under NCLB, if a school fails to test 95 percent of each subgroup, the school automatically fails AYP.  Because Governor Bush set the subgroup threshold at 30, if two students in a subgroup miss the test, their school fails AYP):

 

-         Hillsborough County’s Temple Terrace Elementary failed AYP because of the math scores of the school’s 37 Limited English Proficient students (student enrollment – 760).

-         Pinellas County’s Brooker Creek Elementary failed AYP because 3 of the school’s 35 students with disabilities were absent on FCAT test day (student enrollment – 887).

-         Manatee County’s Tara Elementary failed AYP because three of the school’s 49 Hispanic students were absent on FCAT test day (student enrollment - 885).

-         Seminole County’s Altamonte Elementary failed AYP because of the math scores of the school’s 36 students with disabilities (student enrollment – 739).

-         Leon County’s Gilchrist Elementary failed AYP because seven of the school’s 36 Asian-Pacific students were absent on FCAT test day (student enrollment – 849).

-         Volusia County’s George W. Marks Elementary failed AYP because of the math scores of the school’s 33 Limited English Proficient students (student enrollment – 829).

 

“When I voted for the No Child Left Behind Act, I thought it would be used by states as a tool to help parents better understand school performance – not add to the confusion,” said Congressman Jim Davis.  “How can the Florida Department of Education celebrate that 48 percent of Florida’s schools earned an “A” under the A+ program when 87 percent failed to make AYP?  It is the Department and Governor Bush who deserve the failing grade.”

Continued AYP failures have serious consequences. When a school fails to meet AYP for a second year, a portion of the school’s Title I funds are diverted to pay for transporting students to other schools.  If the Governor fails to address the subgroup problem, many of Florida’s best schools that have earned rewards under the A+ plan will have funds stripped away under NCLB.

 

Congressman Davis first learned of this problem last fall during meetings with Hillsborough, Pinellas and Manatee County School Boards.  Since then, he has raised the issue with Florida Education Secretary Jim Horne and the White House to no avail.  In addition, as reported in the Tampa Tribune, U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige said that his administration has requested that Florida reconsider their AYP subgroup standard.  

 

Rep. Davis hopes Governor Bush fixes this problem before August, when Davis plans to meet with the school boards and principals again and host parent/teacher meetings about NCLB and AYP standards. Davis has also asked the Governor for recommendations on how Congress can improve NCLB.

 

“I have been fighting in Congress to secure full funding of No Child Left Behind, to give schools the tools they need to improve each year,” said Congressman Davis.  “But even with adequate resources, Florida’s schools will never be able to succeed if the Governor continues to force them to meet unrealistic and conflicting standards.  I hope the Governor will work with Florida’s schools to develop a standard that more accurately measures school performance.”