x

x

FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
"every political insider should be reading right now."

E-Mail Florida Politics

This is our Main Page
Our Sister Site
On FaceBook
Follow us on Twitter
Our Google+ Page
Contact [E-Mail Florida Politics]
Site Feed
...and other resources

 

Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

Older posts [back to 2002]

Previous Articles by Derek Newton: Ten Things Fox on Line 1 Stem Cells are Intelligent Design Katrina Spin No Can't Win Perhaps the Most Important Race Senate Outlook The Nelson Thing Deep, Dark Secret Smart Boy Bringing Guns to a Knife Fight Playing to our Strength  

The Blog for Sunday, May 22, 2005

FCAT

    Let's get real abou the FCAT and "Jeb!"'s education "reforms":
    Though Gov. Bush takes credit for the rising scores, the FCAT wasn't his idea. It was in the works for a decade before he became governor. Gov. Bush then imposed grades, shame and punishment. Those factors motivated districts to channel resources to needy schools. But there were less destructive ways to achieve the same result. Providing adequate budgets would have helped — and still would. Even as districts sent more teachers to low-performing schools, they could not afford to reduce classes in other areas because Tallahassee hasn't paid for the class-size amendment.

    Too many students still need more. Statewide, 33 percent of third-graders scored below grade level in 2005, down just 1 percentage point from last year. Also striking is that 60 percent of the 17,446 students who repeated the third grade after failing last year's FCAT still didn't score on grade level. That is disappointing evidence that Gov. Bush and the Education Department implemented a pass-or-repeat policy before developing an effective plan to teach students who didn't make it to fourth grade. Chronically low high-school scores reflect an inability to find solutions and indicate that the pass-or-don't-graduate policy should have been phased in over more time.

    The state should wonder whether some of the 40 percent of third-graders who perform better the second time around might have scored well enough to pass the FCAT if they'd been allowed to take the test in May instead of March. The goal should be to test all students later — it's supposed to measure a year's worth of teaching, after all — but it could be particularly helpful in schools where students have struggled.

    Gov. Bush's fixation on school grades and stingy budgets heightens the worst aspects of high-stakes tests, in that a well-rounded education goes by the wayside.
    "Do small classes work? Check out these schools".

7:47 AM

<< Home