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In Education Reform in Florida, sociologists and historians evaluate Governor Jeb Bush's nation-leading school reform policies since 1999. They examine the startlingly broad range of education policy changes enacted in Florida during Bush's first term, including moves toward privatization with a voucher system, more government control of public education institutions with centralized accountability mechanisms, and a "superboard" for all public education. The contributors arrive at a mixed conclusion regarding Bush's first-term education policies: while he deserves credit for holding students to higher standards, his policies have, unfortunately, pushed for equality in a very narrow way. The contributors remain skeptical about seeing significant and sweeping improvement in how well Florida schools work for all students.
Misguided Education Reform: Debating the Impact on Students argues for reforms that will help, not hurt, America’s public school students. Early childhood education, testing, reading, special education, discipline, loss of the arts, and school facilities, are all areas experiencing reform in the wrong direction. This book says “no” to the reforms that fail, and challenges Americans to address the real student needs that will fix public schools and make America strong.
This paper describes Florida's progress in implementing a comprehensive and coherent approach to education reform from the time of application through June 30, 2011. In particular, it highlights key accomplishments over the reporting period in the four reform areas: standards and assessments, data systems to support instruction, great teachers and leaders, and turning around lowest-achieving schools. Florida has relied on its strong foundation of education reform and results coupled with the new resources of Race to the Top to further its reform efforts. The state has accomplished a great deal during Year 1 of the grant, not only in initiating state and LEA (local education agency) grant projects, but in furthering related state reforms through embracing Race to the Top as the new way of work in Florida. (Contains 1 table.) [For the parent report, "Race to the Top Annual Performance Report," see ED529267. For the state summary report, "Race to the Top. Florida Report. Year 1: School Year 2010-2011. [State-Specific Summary Report]," see ED529312.].
The purpose of this study was to examine the various school-choice programs and other recent reform practices across the country and Florida specifically, with the goal of comprehending where policymakers in Florida obtain their information as they decide on how best to establish education policy. To answer this question, this dissertation examined the contextual history, trends, court decisions and politics concerning K-12 education reform in America in general and more specifically Florida's various school choice programs. As a bellwether state with demographics that essentially reflect the nation as a whole it is important to not only understand the context of education reform historically and in Florida, but to fully comprehend where and how our policymakers receive their information as they make the kinds of decisions that have national implications.
Louisiana has emerged as one of the most fascinating states in the nation for education reform. The state's creative response to rebuilding the New Orleans education system in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is now considered a potential model for reformers across the nation. Governor Bobby Jindal has carried the reforms further in pushing for "opportunity scholarship" vouchers in New Orleans, the grading of public schools A-F, and an effort to curtail social promotion of children needing additional reading intervention. More recently, Governor Jindal called for the adoption of one of the boldest parental choice measures ever: expanding the scholarship program statewide. Designed to help low- and middle-income families in underperforming public schools, this program would empower more parents to choose the best schools for their children. In considering this proposal, Louisiana policymakers would benefit from studying the policy success of a neighboring state. Florida got a big head start on Louisiana in enacting reform, and the Sunshine State's success proves that Louisiana can do better. Governor Jindal's 2012 choice initiative resembles a bolder version of one of Florida Governor Jeb Bush's signature reforms: the A+ Opportunity Scholarship Program. The figures to follow demonstrate that the Florida program helped in improving the academic performance of struggling Florida public schools. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams will demonstrate the benefits of Florida's head start in adopting a comprehensive set of education reforms. In addition, evidence regarding the efficacy of parental choice programs around the nation will be provided. Louisiana has adopted some key elements of the Florida reform strategy as part of the Pelican State's overall K-12 reform effort. The adoption of one the nation's largest parental choice plans will only help spur further improvement for students in need of more effective learning environments. (Contains 5 figures and 22 endnotes.).
Jeb Bush campaigned for Governor on a clear and bracing set of education reforms in 1998. Having won office, he immediately pursued a dual track strategy of education reform: standards and accountability for public schools, choice options for dissatisfied parents. Florida lawmakers followed these reforms with additional measures, including instructional based reforms, curtailing social promotion, merit pay for teachers, and additional choice measures. Governor Bush met fierce resistance. Ten years after his election, this study lays out the evidence on the cumulative impact of his reforms. The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) tests representative samples of students in every state on a variety of subjects and is the nation's most reliable and respected source of comparable K-12 testing data across states. In 1998, 47 percent of Florida fourth-graders scored "below basic" on the NAEP reading test, meaning they couldn't read. By 2007, 70 percent of Florida's fourth graders scored basic or above--a remarkable improvement. After a decade of strong improvement, Florida's Hispanic students now have the second-highest reading scores in the nation; and African-Americans score fourth-highest when compared to their peers. This paper lays out the Florida reforms, and suggests how they could be emulated and/or exceeded in Indiana. (Contains 4 figures and 45 endnotes.).
Education Reform in the American States is a timely evaluation of the accountability movement in American public education, culminating in the No Child Left Behind Act, federal legislation of 2002. The authors treat the current accountability movement, placing it in historical context and addressing the evolution in public education policymaking from the overwhelming emphasis on state and local discretion to increasing federal oversight and mandates related to federal funding. They provide case studies of the educational accountability movements in nine states and analyze the factors and forces which explain progress in achievement levels as measured on standardized tests and the states' prospects for meeting their NCLB targets. The book and the individual case studies acknowledge the merits of NCLB while exposing several significant flaws and unintended harmful consequences of the act, particularly its incentives for states to lower their standards in order to meet annual yearly progress targets and its threat to withdraw federal funds from districts with the highest percentage of disadvantaged students. The audience for this study includes local, state and federal education policy makers; administrators and instructors in schools of education and other teaching programs, educators; and the general public.