Author

Scott Kent

Scott Kent manages strategic communication for Step Up For Students. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, he spent 30 years in newspapers, the last 25 as an editorial writer and opinion page editor in Georgia and Florida. Additionally, he was opinion page editor at the Daytona Beach News-Journal. He can be reached at skent@sufs.org or (727) 451-9832. Follow him on Twitter at @ScottKent66 and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/redefinedonline.

Florida Virtual School likely to be ‘new normal’ in Sunshine State and beyond

Scott Kent May 13, 2020

Scott Kent

Florida Virtual School student Maya Washburn, pictured here in Lofoten Islands, Norway, has been able to keep up with her classes from anywhere in the world with her MacBook Air and a reliable WiFi connection.

When she was a junior in high school, Maya Washburn spent six weeks of her fall semester backpacking around Europe with her mother. From England to Sweden, Norway to Slovakia, the Czech Republic to Austria, the Fort Lauderdale teen never missed a day of class back home.

Her classrooms were trains, ferries, coffee shops, restaurants, hotel rooms, and even cabins at campsites. All she required to maintain her studies were her MacBook Air, a reliable WiFi connection – and Florida Virtual School (FLVS).

“It’s been amazing,” said Maya, 17. “I love making my mark on school and on the world. It’s brought out so many passions that I don’t think I ever would’ve discovered or tapped into if I was not a member of this school.”

FLVS may sound like a recent technology, but it dates to when “Seinfeld” was still the nation’s most-watched TV show. Founded in 1997 as the country’s first statewide K-12 virtual public school, Orlando-based FLVS operates as its own school district.

Over its two decades, FLVS students have successfully completed nearly 5 million semester courses, and not just in the Sunshine State – it has served students in all 50 states as well as more than 100 countries and territories around the world. Today, FLVS offers more than 190 courses, from core subjects such as English and Algebra to electives such as Guitar and Creative Photography. FLVS is available to full- and part-time (or “Flex”) students from public, private, charter and homeschool backgrounds.

Because FLVS’s funding is determined by successful course completions rather than time spent in a seat, students, teachers and parents have the flexibility to customize instruction to each student’s needs. Its graduates perform as well as or better than other students in Florida and the nation in most Advanced Placement course exams.

Unlike the scores of students who were forced by COVID-19 to become online learners, Maya went the virtual route willingly – she has been a full-time FLVS student since ninth grade. She will graduate this month with a 4.2 grade point average and has been accepted to the Florida International University Honors College, where she will pursue a pre-law curriculum.

For Maya, it was all about finding the right fit.

She initially attended a public elementary school but was miserable by third grade from being bullied. She transferred to a private school, which was terrific — until it wasn’t. In middle school, she became an outsider in a cliquish environment, and again was bullied.

“I never really fit into any box,” Maya said. “I’ve always marched to my own beat.”

Homeschooling, her first choice, was not an option – she’s the only child of a single mother who was working full time outside the home. So, she took the initiative to research Florida Virtual School. Mother and daughter agreed to give it a try.

Four years later, it has proved to be the right choice.

“FLVS was perfect for me,” Maya said. “I’m very self-disciplined, and FLVS has broadened my horizons in the sense that I directly apply what I learn in my courses to my everyday life, which I live outside of the clear-cut class times that I might have to stick to at a traditional brick-and-mortar school.”

She considers the flexibility and opportunities for growth provided by FLVS the perfect atmosphere for success.

“The learning environment has never been stagnant,” she said. “It’s ever-evolving.”

Maya experienced the usual jitters about adjusting to a new concept of learning. A friend who joined FLVS at the same time soon dropped out and returned to a brick-and-mortar school.

“She needed someone to sit next to every day, I completely get that. We had different learning styles,” Maya said. “It’s not for everyone.”

She acknowledges there was a bit of a learning curve, but otherwise says the transition was “pretty seamless.”

“The teachers are so encouraging and supportive and helpful,” she said. “It’s the best education I’ve ever received.”

Maya Washburn will graduate from Florida Virtual School this month with a 4.2 grade point average.

Although she attends an unconventional school, Maya still enjoys the conventional trappings of a high school social life. She’s belongs to six of the more than 50 clubs FLVS offers: Student Council, Mega News Network (which she helped found), National Honor Society, National English Honor Society, Virge Literary Arts Magazine – oh, and she just started Glee Club this year.

Students meet online and face to face. Student Council hosts Shark Week, which includes a daily virtual event – trivia day, costume day, contests – before culminating on Fridays with an in-person get-together. Maya’s favorite FLVS event is the annual Club Awards Day in Orlando, where students get to celebrate their clubs and be recognized for their accomplishments.

“That’s just a little taste of what we do,” Maya said. “We do a lot of connecting students to each other, and to students and administrators.”

The first day of Maya’s senior year began on a bus from Prague to Berlin last summer, when she and her mother returned to Europe for a three-month backpacking tour. She used her finely honed time management and prioritization skills to complete a dual-enrollment humanities class through Polk State College, while checking internet signals and time differences to ensure she could lead student council meetings despite being thousands of miles away.

Because Maya’s education has not been defined by the system she attended or by where she lives, she and her FLVS classmates already were surfing the wave when COVID-19 closed brick-and-mortar schools across Florida and sent teachers and students scrambling to institute a new, unfamiliar form of learning. In fact, FLVS stepped into the breach, providing 100 digital courses – core curriculum, electives, Advanced Placement, and career and technical education – free of charge to all K-12 Florida schools through June 30.

It also quickly ramped up its server capacity, from the 215,000 students it served last year to accommodate 320,000 students by March 31, to 470,000 by mid-April, to 2.7 million by May 4.

Alaska took notice and contracted with FLVS to provide online learning to about 150 students. FLVS also will train Alaska teachers how to lead online courses themselves, and then license its digital curriculum for use by the new Alaska Statewide Virtual School.

That was a swift reaction to a rapidly changing landscape with an eye on the future.

Among plans being bandied about for re-opening schools this fall is an option for continued learning at home for students from high-risk groups, such as those who live with elderly people and those with compromised immune systems. Other students who got a taste of remote education and enjoyed the flexibility it offers might opt to continue that route either full time or part time.

Maya already has felt the impact. When the student council met the Friday after the virus shut down Florida schools, members were told that the usual end-of-school-year officer elections was being postposed to the beginning of the next academic year because FLVS expects a lot of new students in the interim.

“FLVS is growing,” Maya said, “and it will become the new normal for a lot of students.”

May 13, 2020 0 comment

Coronavirus / COVID-19 Education Choice Featured Gardiner Scholarship News Private Schools School Choice Special Education Virtual Education

Students with intellectual, developmental differences continue to thrive at Jacksonville private school

Scott Kent April 15, 2020

Scott Kent

NFSSE student Colin Horn, 18, draws with his art teacher via Facebook Live.

Like most schools that were shuttered by the COVID-19 virus, North Florida School of Special Education in Jacksonville had to sprint to set up a distance learning program for students suddenly confined to their homes.

For Sally Hazelip, the head of NFSSE, it was a longer race that taught her how to navigate unfamiliar education territory.

“I just ran a marathon in October, and your mental strength in a marathon is almost as important as your physical strength, she said. “That’s what this is like now: Just put one foot in front of the other and push through it.”

While adapting on the fly to the virtual classroom has been disruptive to educators, students and parents in public and private schools, the transition has been particularly challenging to NFSSE. It has 250 students with intellectual and developmental differences, such as Down syndrome, autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, and traumatic brain injury. Most are between the ages of 6 and 22 (including 26 students on the Gardiner Scholarship, which is administered by Step Up For Students, the host of this blog), while 65 post-graduates ages 22 and up receive vocational training in micro-enterprises.

Switching them to online lessons overnight yanked everyone out of their comfort zones.

“The fear of the unknown can sometimes be daunting,” Hazelip said, “but my staff has risen to the occasion in so many unique ways.”

Parents also wondered how they would handle the additional responsibilities.

For Linda Horn, whose son Colin, 18, has Down syndrome, the change forced her to recall her days homeschooling her child when the family lived in Seattle.

“I had to personally change my mindset – I had to accept it,” Horn said. “I had to be a better mother and teacher for Colin. I had to be the adult in room. I needed to show Colin everything was calm and routine.”

Christian Roberts, 17, attends class at his new desk – his family’s dining room table.

Cathy Roberts suddenly had three children learning at home: Christian, 17, who has Down syndrome and attends NFSSE; a 16-year-old son with ADHD who attends another private school for students with learning differences; and a 17-year-old daughter who is typical and attends a Catholic school.

“Structure for our kids is key,” Roberts said. “I had to sit down with Christian and explain the virus to him. Initially he was upset. He wanted to go to school. I put up a calendar so he can go to it every day and see his schedule. I have had to become more structured. It’s been a change for all of us.”

Thankfully, several online curricula – Unique Learning Learning System, i-Ready, TouchMath – already were being employed on Smartboards in NFSSE classrooms, so teachers and students were familiar with them. That helped facilitate the academic side of the equation.

What sets NFSSE apart from other schools, though, is what happens outside the classroom.

The school offers several unique hands-on learning opportunities that stimulate intellectual and emotional development and prepare students for independent living. These include Berry Good Farms, an urban organic farm that grows fruits, vegetables and herbs; a culinary arts program where students prepare what the farm grows; therapeutic and recreational horseback riding; and cross-fit training. The school operates a food truck that goes out regularly into the community. Its Barkin’ Biscuits program uses fresh ingredients from the farm to make dog biscuits sold on the retail market.

NFSSE also has reverse-inclusion clubs in which typical students from outside the school participate in extracurricular activities and vocational training programs. And in January, the school opened its crown jewel, a $10 million state-of-the-art campus expansion whose amenities include a fine-arts center, individual rooms for sensory, physical, speech and occupational therapies, and a physical education complex with a gym and locker rooms.

“Academics are incredibly important,” Hazelip said, “but those hands-on activities take them to a different place and keep them engaged.”

Now those activities are on hold, awaiting the all-clear signal to return on the public health front. With it goes a huge part of what makes NFSSE special – elements that are difficult, if not impossible, to replicate remotely.

It’s like limiting Superman to one superpower. The school and its families have been up to the challenge, though.

“I think families with kids with special needs are really resilient,” said Hazelip, whose son Collin, 25, has Down syndrome and is a graduate of NFSSE. “There are so many unknowns. You don’t ever feel like you have all the answers. Part of it is just taking things one day at a time, and to look for creative ways of connecting with your child.”

From the start, teachers have been in close contact with parents and students every step of the way. The school has supplied laptops to families who lacked them. They are using Zoom to conduct live, interactive lessons in core subjects. Students submit assignments at their own pace.

“Zoom has been a godsend,” Roberts said.

Resource teachers use Facebook Live and the school’s private YouTube channel to hold daily art, music, PE, gardening and yoga classes, as well as story time. Berry Good Farms teachers post video cooking classes for students to follow. The equine teacher shot a video showing how she feeds the horses.

On April 3, the school even held its monthly scheduled student and faculty assembly, only this one was recorded in advance and posted online. It included special guest Josh Lambo, place-kicker for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, who read the Dr. Seuss book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” Over 150 people watched it live.

Virtual learning is not the same as being out in the greenhouse or the stables, but it maintains the connection between teacher and student, and keeps the kids on a routine that for many is vital to their intellectual and emotional development.

“North Florida prepared [Christian] well for this,” Roberts said. “They already do a lot of work on computers, that part was easy for him. He has such a tight-knit bond with his teachers, being able to see them every day has made a difference.”

Linda Horn has tried to fill the additional time at home with Colin with life skills as he prepares to enter the school’s transition program next year.

“Independent living skills are important,” she said. “So we work on doing the laundry, cooking skills, getting lunch ready and working on dinner.”

She and her son also try to get out in the community as much as possible in the era of the coronavirus.

“I make it a point to stop and say, ‘Look at the plants here’,” she said. “I really try to incorporate what he’s learned. We’re going to go to Lowe’s and buy a tree and plant on Earth Day.”

Hazelip says this unplanned journey into distance learning can be characterized by two words: “resiliency” and “connection.”

“The biggest positive out of this ordeal is we’re one big family,” she said. “That support has given them strength to get through this.”

April 15, 2020 0 comment

Commentary and Opinion Coronavirus / COVID-19 Customization Education and Public Policy Education Choice Featured Homeschooling Microschools School Choice Technology and Innovation Virtual Education

How Covid-19 could fuel school choice

Scott Kent March 20, 2020

Scott Kent

It’s the end of the world as we know it.

Well, not literally. (We hope.) But when American society comes out the other end of the Covid-19 crisis, it almost certainly will operate differently in many ways. The scale of change will depend on the length of the lockdown the nation is enduring. We’re roughly two weeks into it – a mere speed bump, relatively speaking – and already we’re seeing a reshuffling whose effects likely will be felt for years afterward.

For example, with movie theaters closing and no idea of when they might reopen, studios are exploring different ways to distribute first-run films. Streaming services already deliver content to homes and mobile devices, but the longer the quarantine lasts, the more consumers become comfortable without theaters. Eventually, when the “remain in place” orders are lifted, there may be little incentive for studios to release as many movies as they have in the past to whatever theaters remain. A new business model will have emerged.

We could see a similar displacement on education. As “social distancing” has entered the mainstream lexicon, so too have people been introduced to distance learning.

Public schools have been closed from coast to coast, with at least two states already announcing that their students will not return this academic year. Districts are scrambling to transition within days from traditional in-person instruction to daily video classes and online lessons. It’s a massive undertaking in an incredibly compressed timeframe that involves getting teachers quickly up to speed on the process, while ensuring students have the technology to access the content.

As with streaming movies, virtual schooling is not new. Some 375,000 students already attend online school in more than half the states. K12 Inc. and other online education providers are offering resources to districts and parents during the Covid-19 pandemic. For many, this will be their introduction to education outside its traditional forms. Some may have been completely unaware of its existence.

What happens if they like it?

After being forced to see education through a different lens, and being required to innovate, how many won’t return to the old ways, and instead be inspired to use these tools to create new ways of delivering education? Suddenly, brick-and-mortar walls vanish, and attendance zones don’t matter. If home is the classroom, teachers can reach students from anywhere.

How many families and educators might embrace the flexibility such methods offer?

Approximately 2 million U.S. students are homeschooled. Mike McShane, writing at EdChoice, points to the 2019 Schooling in America survey that shows that around 13 percent of American parents would like to homeschool their children if they could – and that only about 3 percent actually do. The Covid-19 crisis has given many the opportunity to conduct a trial run to see if it suits them.

How many teachers will be inspired to create new models, much the way former public school educators have established microschools?

Education choice itself could go viral.

Of course, the opposite could happen. If first impressions matter, distance learning done poorly – and many districts are rushing into place a new instruction they are ill-prepared and equipped to provide — could sour educators and families on the concept, making them long to return to the familiarity of brick-and-mortar schools.

Clearly, these alternatives won’t fit everyone’s needs or desires. Beyond those who are satisfied with their zoned school (or magnet school), the traditional public school has become central to American society. It is part of its daily, and yearly, rhythms (although those tempos just changed faster than a Neil Peart drum solo).

In addition, many families, particularly lower-income households, rely on their public schools to provide food, child care and health care (and the disruptions caused by Covid-19 raises concerns about more effective ways to deliver those services).

Not all children will learn effectively through virtual schooling, and not all homes make for appropriate classrooms. Many students — and teachers — thrive on the in-person interaction a traditional school provides.

For those reasons, the Covid-19 era isn’t likely to lead to the elimination of traditional public schooling. Nor should it. Education choice is about expanding options, not contracting them, so students can find the one that fits them best.

However, the longer this break from the status quo lasts, the more Americans will become accustomed to the “new normal” in education — and perhaps become more receptive to its evolving forms.

March 20, 2020 0 comment

Faith-based Education Featured Hope Scholarship School Choice Spotlights Student spotlight

archivED: First Hope Scholarship brings peace to fifth-grader

Scott Kent December 26, 2019

Scott Kent

Jordyn Simmons-Outland escaped school bullies and found a lifeline with help from a Hope Scholarship.

Editor’s note: During this holiday season, redefinED is republishing our best articles of 2019 – those features and commentaries that deserve a second look. This student spotlight from Step Up For Students’ strategic communications manager Scott Kent originally published Jan. 14.

LAKE PLACID, Florida — Jordyn Simmons-Outland is a fifth-grader who was in need of a lifeline.

The 10-year-old has a sweet demeanor and a love for the online video game Fortnite. However, his lack of self-confidence made him a target for bullying in his public school since the second grade. Teased about his weight. Tripped and hit. Complaints to teachers and administrators failed to bring relief.

In the past year, the physical and emotional abuse had become so bad, he told his grandparents he wished he were dead. He began seeing a therapist.

A new state school choice scholarship, the first of its kind in the nation, provided him with hope – literally.

“I don’t know what I’d do if the scholarship wasn’t available,” said his grandmother, Cathy Simmons, who has been a fierce advocate for her grandson most his life.

Jordyn is the first recipient of Florida’s Hope Scholarship, created by the Legislature in 2018 to give K-12 public school children relief from bullying and violence. More than 47,000 students in Florida reported being bullied during the 2016-17 school year.

The program provides families with financial assistance to send a child to an eligible private school, or to transport him to a public school in another district. The scholarship value depends on the grade level: $6,519 for K-5, $6,815 for 6-8, and $7,111 for 9-12. The transportation scholarship is worth up to $750 and can be used to attend any out-of-district public school with available space. The scholarships are funded by consumers who choose to redirect up to $105 of their motor vehicle purchase taxes to the program. (Editor’s Note: Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, administers the Hope Scholarship.)

Applications for the new scholarships opened Nov. 1, which proved timely for Jordyn. In September, a girl in school slapped him. That was the last straw for his grandmother, who along with Jordyn’s grandfather Danny Simmons has helped care for the boy for much of his life. She needed to get Jordyn into a new school pronto.

She went to Lakeview Christian School in Lake Placid to inquire about tuition costs. With Cathy and Danny in the process of selling their furniture business, money has been tight. However, Lakeview’s school administrator, Christena Villarreal, and her assistant told her about the new Hope Scholarship.

The Simmonses immediately enrolled Jordyn into Lakeview Christian, then began the process of applying for the Hope. They became conditionally eligible Nov. 2. Cathy received the acceptance letter Nov. 30.

It was like Independence Day.

“I was sitting (upstairs) in the rocking chair when I got the email,” she said. “I just wanted to scream, ‘Hallelujah! Thank you, God!’”

The scholarship means Jordyn can stay in the school where he now fits in. He feels welcomed and comfortable.

“They knew how he was when he got there,” Simmons said of the Lakeview Christian staff. “Jordyn didn’t just go there from the old school. He took baggage with him, too. He took stuff with him to that school.”

Nevertheless, Jordyn says he wasn’t nervous his first day there. “I knew it was going to be good.”

He doesn’t like to talk about his previous school, but he lights up when the subject turns to his new one.

“The people are nice,” he says.

Since the change, not once has he complained he didn’t want to go to school. In fact, after being laid up in bed with an inner ear infection followed by the stomach flu near the end of Christmas break, Jordyn was excited to return to school Jan. 7.

Simmons and Villareal both point to Lakeview Christian’s smaller class sizes as making a big difference for students like Jordyn.

“I like to think we’re a safe place for bullied students,” said Villareal, who noted the school has had several students transfer there because they were bullied elsewhere. “In other schools they might get lost in the shuffle.”

Simmons shows pics of a smiling Jordyn in his fifth-grade class, getting hugged by his teacher, interacting with classmates during their holiday party. According to a Nov. 14 school progress report, Jordyn “is a pleasure to have in class” and “is very polite and courteous.”

A fresh start in a more welcoming environment has boosted Jordyn’s confidence.
Two months ago, he did a mile run at school in 17 minutes. By mid-December, with the help of his new classmates, he completed it in 14 minutes.

“I’m probably the last one to finish, so I’d get really tired and out of breath,” he said. “And they would all get up and try to help me finish it.” They’d cheer him on and run with him.

He says he’s now shooting for finishing in 11 minutes, “maybe 10.”

At Lakeview Christian’s elementary school Christmas concert Dec. 18, Jordyn was one of six students chosen to sing at the front of stage. He wasn’t forced to do it – he volunteered.

So far, 469 private schools have signed up to participate in the Hope Scholarship, and 67 students have been awarded the scholarship. Jordyn and his grandmother are excited and thankful that he was the first.

“Hope is the best description. I keep thinking ‘There is hope, there is hope, there is hope.’ ” Simmons said. “I can’t wait to tell everyone what a blessing the Hope Scholarship has been. Now there’s peace.”

December 26, 2019 0 comment

Education Politics factcheckED Family Empowerment Scholarship School Choice Tax Credit Scholarships

fact-checkED: Family Empowerment Scholarship not ‘a hit to public schools’

Scott Kent November 1, 2019

Scott Kent

Editor’s note: This post is another in our fact-checking series, one that focuses solely within the arena of educational choice. The goal of fact-checkED is to bring clinical precision to complex issues that are easily misunderstood, aiming to counteract incorrect information before it continues to circulate.

An Oct. 30 news story in the Gainesville Sun about the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES) included an uncontested assertion by the Florida Education Association that the new program will drain money from public schools:

Researchers from the state’s teachers union say according to their calculations with those averages, the program will pull $1.2 million to 1.3 million from the Alachua County School District and $2.2 million to 2.4 million from Marion County Public Schools.

“It’s a hit to public schools,” said Eileen Roy, Alachua County school board member. “Parents need to know that it’s $1 million less to help their children. This is a very scary move, and we can’t afford to ignore it.”

The article continues:

Shortly after the program passed, the Florida Education Association projected that the scholarships would divert $11 million from Alachua County Public Schools over the next five years. For Marion County, they predicted a $19 million loss.

This is false.

It’s appropriate that this claim was published around Halloween, because it perpetuates what amounts to a ghost story aimed at frightening people.

Leave aside the school board member’s us-versus-them statement that “parents need to know that it’s $1 million less to help their children” – which completely ignores the low-income parents in her county who see the new scholarship as a way to help their children find the right education environment. Do they not count in her social order?

Instead, let’s focus on the math.

Florida has 18 years of financial data from the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC), on which the new scholarship is modeled. Eight different independent fiscal impact studies have concluded the FTC saves taxpayer money that can be re-invested in public schools. Not a single study has shown otherwise. That’s because the value of the scholarship is less than what taxpayers spend per student in district schools.

A Florida Tax Watch report on the “true cost” of public education, released in March, determined the FTC scholarship in 2017-18 was worth 59 percent of all categories of per-pupil spending for district schools, which Tax Watch calculated to be $10,856.

The new FES vouchers, like the current FTC scholarships, average between $6,775 and $7,250.

Florida will spend about $130 million this academic year to award Family Empowerment Scholarships to 18,000 students. If you add the basic per-pupil funding increases over the last two years to update the Florida Tax Watch calculation from 2017-18, it would cost the state about $200 million to educate the same students in district schools.

It’s worth noting that the Florida Education Association was the lead plaintiff in a years-long lawsuit that sought to kill the FTC scholarship. The Florida Supreme Court ultimately dismissed the suit in 2017, after a lower court found the plaintiffs couldn’t provide any evidence that the program harmed public schools. That included an “analysis” similar to the one the union has trotted out against the FES.

Finally, the state doesn’t pay school districts for empty seats in classrooms, regardless of why students left. If they move to another district, or out of state; if their parents decide to home-school them; or if they leave to attend a private school and their families pay tuition out of their own pockets, the impact on the districts in per-pupil funding is the same.

Oddly, it only seems to become an existential threat to public education when a low-income student takes advantage of a scholarship or voucher to attend the school of his or her choice.

November 1, 2019 0 comment

Education and Public Policy Education Legislation Education Politics Family Empowerment Scholarship News School Choice

Education choice a top priority for Legislative Black Caucus

Scott Kent October 29, 2019

Scott Kent

Florida’s Legislative Black Caucus, which includes 21 House members and six senators, emphasized the importance of education last week in Tallahassee.

When Florida’s Legislative Black Caucus unveiled its priorities for the 2020 session at a media conference Tuesday in the Capitol, it was unsurprising that PreK-12 education was among the first mentioned. What raised eyebrows, though, was the group’s acknowledgement that school choice should be a part of it.

“We believe in investing in public education,” said Rep. Bruce Antone, D-Orlando, the group’s chairman who also serves as the ranking minority member of the House Education Committee. “And we also believe in school choice.”

For many Democratic politicians and African-American leaders, school choice is the limburger cheese of the education deli (despite the fact that many of their constituents support it). So for Antone to publicly offer even a thin slice of it was newsworthy.

That’s probably why he quickly qualified his statement: “But in terms more so of school choice, in the public school system.” He likely was referring to magnet schools, perhaps also charter schools, although the latter have become politically volatile.

Still, that “more so” seemingly leaves the door cracked ever so slightly to other, more controversial, choice options, such as vouchers and education scholarship accounts (ESAs).

Some members of the caucus support opening it wider.

Rep. Wengay Newton, whose wide-ranging district includes South St. Petersburg and parts of Manatee, Sarasota and southern Hillsborough counties, was one of five caucus Democrats who voted in the 2019 session for SB 7070, the bill that created the new Family Empowerment Scholarship.

“School choice is a black choice,” Newton said Thursday. He sees it as a tool to help close the “school to prison pipeline,” whereby black students are statistically more likely to receive harsh discipline in public schools than their white counterparts. He cited Florida Department of Juvenile Justice data from 2017-18 on the number of school-related arrests for children of color in the Tampa Bay area – 603 in Hillsborough, 458 in Pinellas, 206 in Manatee and 91 in Sarasota counties. Many are younger than high school age.

“If an African-American kid gets in a fight in the southern part of St. Pete, that will result in them being sent to juvie jail,” Newton said, “but if it happens in an affluent part with a white kid, it will result in a suspension.”

Newton sees education choice as immediate relief for minority children who can’t wait for an unfair system to change.

“Parental school choice is a jet ski, while a traditional school is like a cruise ship,” he said. “If a kid falls off a cruise ship it might take 20 miles to turn around and rescue him. A jet ski can do a quicker response.”

To critics who charge that private school vouchers drain funds from public schools, Newton responds that tax dollars already are being spent on privatized juvenile justice. He would prefer those dollars provide low-income and minority students with education opportunities that will keep them out of the system.

“I told our chairman (Antone) that we can’t shackle black kids to this system,” Newton said. “If you’ve got cancer you need chemo. Robitussin isn’t going to do it.”

Newton said Antone’s rhetorical nod to choice, however modest, was not the result of any compromise negotiations with the caucus’ pro-choice members. Rather, it was an acknowledgement of the diverse opinions within the group.

“He’s saying you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do for your district,” Newton said. “He’s letting members support other options. He wasn’t binding every member to support only public schools.”

He said that although a majority of the caucus has yet to support expanding choice, they have no desire to take it away from the nearly 120,000 students currently attending their chosen schools on the Florida Tax Credit and FES scholarships, some 35,000 of whom are black.

October 29, 2019 0 comment

Customization Education Politics School Choice Vouchers

Misplaced nostalgia for public education

Scott Kent October 22, 2019

Scott Kent

Father Knows Best, an American sitcom starring Robert Young and Jane Wyatt, chronicled the lives of the Andersons, a middle-class family living in the Midwest in the 1950s.

Conservatives have been accused of wanting to take the nation back to an idealized version of a homogenized America, such as the ones portrayed in the squeaky-clean 1950s sitcoms “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” and “Father Knows Best,” before the political and cultural upheaval of the 1960s. (Sometimes they’re right.) Critics point out that wasn’t the reality, nor ideal, for many Americans, particularly those who were excluded from many sectors of society because of their race, sex, or sexual orientation.

Many who defend public education against private-school vouchers are guilty of a similarly misplaced nostalgia.

In a recent Scotusblog symposium on the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, Alice O’Brien, general counsel at the National Education Association, took Montana’s side in the dispute over whether its constitution can prohibit public funds being directed to private religious schools via parental choice.

She writes that most state constitutional education provisions reflect “common understandings” that include “a uniform quality system of public education is essential to democratic self-governance,” and “entangling the state in funding religious education leads to sectarian conflict.”

This history is true given the fact that many of these provisions have their roots in the 19^th century, when Horace Mann led the common school movement, followed by John Dewey in the early 20^th century. Making a free education available to the entire public, regardless of a student’s class, gender, religion, ethnicity, or country of origin, was seen as a great social equalizer and assimilator, as well as a way to impart shared civic values on the citizenry, making for a stronger, stable democracy.

David Labaree, professor at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, has called public education “an institution that for much of our history helped bring us together into a community of citizens.”

Today that approach appears as quaint as “Little House on the Prairie.” Not that the old days of public education were kumbaya either. Just ask black students who were forced to attend segregated schools.

Common schools and uniform systems of public education require shared beliefs among their stakeholders. Look around the nation’s political and cultural landscape. Do you see a lot of communality?

From professional athletes who kneel during the playing of the national anthem to the meaning of the Betsy Ross flag, Americans can’t even agree on a shared vision of patriotism.

O’Brien worries about vouchers sparking sectarian conflict (ironic, given the fact that Montana’s education provision is a de facto Blaine Amendment, itself a product of anti-Catholic bigotry) when schools already are riven by the secular conflicts of the culture wars.

The Cato Institute has cataloged the discord in K-12 education in its Public Schooling Battle Map (currently undergoing maintenance, but many of the items are available on Twitter at @PubSchoolFights). There are the evergreen clashes between parents and school officials over textbooks, reading assignments, and curricula. But there’s also the teacher who got fired for using an incorrect pronoun for a student. Dress codes that critics say unfairly impact black girls. Schools named after historical figures some find problematic.

Our tribal instincts are being triggered constantly. If one side came out in favor of oxygen, the other side would refuse to breathe.

Americans have been drifting apart for a while, and it’s not getting any better. Perhaps that’s to be expected in a nation of 330 million people that is more pluralistic than it has ever been, and growing more so. The public can’t even agree on the purpose of public education.

Into this bubbling cauldron we’re going to impose a uniform system of schooling that inculcates civic values.

Whose values?

These clashes in part reflect changing mores, but also the atomization of American culture and the customization of individual lifestyles. The old gatekeepers have fallen and the doors flung open to a myriad of choices for the populace. Personal technology facilitates people choosing what they want to consume (be it entertainment, information, food, or virtually any product), when and where they want to consume it. They can select exactly what aligns with their tastes and their daily schedules.

These modern citizens are not going to subject themselves to a one-size-fits-all education. They expect to get what they want, and demand the same freedom of choice in other aspects of their lives.

Believing that centralized education delivery systems can meet all these desires is as misguided and unrealistic as thinking what America needs is more Ward and June Cleavers.

The ones most satisfied with public education will be the ones setting the agenda. Replacing those in power making the “wrong” decisions with those who will exercise the “right” judgment only trades one perceived oppressor for the other, leaving the minority chafing at the majority’s new rules imposed on them. The disputes may change, but the frictions remain. Worse, when policy becomes a zero-sum calculation, these back-and-forth battles elevate the stakes of elections, which intensifies political strife. Rinse and repeat.

The relief valve for this pressure cooker is to give more families a diverse array of education options and the freedom to choose the ones that best align with their children’s needs and their values. Access cannot be income dependent. That’s why vouchers, scholarships and other assistance are necessary to provide equal opportunity.

That approach still promotes the ideal of public investment in education for all, without limiting it to a single delivery system – one that is ill-suited to accommodate the competing wants and needs of its diverse clientele in a modern world (if it ever truly was).

There’s no going back. Nostalgia should not be an excuse to deny giving more parents more choices in their children’s education. Education should reflect the way the world is, not the way people want it to be.

October 22, 2019 0 comment

Education Research News School Choice

School leaders to their communities: Are we communicating yet?

Scott Kent October 4, 2019

Scott Kent

When it comes to connecting with the parents and communities they serve, many school leaders sound like Strother Martin in the movie “Cool Hand Luke”:

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

That’s the conclusion of nearly half of the 500 school leaders nationwide surveyed in the recently released “The State of K-12 Customer Experience 2019.” Conducted by K12 Insight, a Herndon, Virginia-based school research and communications firm, with support from the National School Public Relations Association and the National School Boards Association, the report solicited input from superintendents, central office staff, building principals and school board members.

Only about half of the participants believed their school district could engage and build trust with parents and community members. Slightly more than half (56 percent) were confident in their ability to effectively communicate with their own employees.

Many parents would agree. According to a 2017 study by Rice University researchers, parents listed family and community engagement as the most important element of satisfaction with their child’s school — and that districts frequently fail to meet their demands.

Only 34 percent of the more than 7,200 public school parents surveyed said they were “very satisfied” with family and community engagement. Only 29 percent believed they had a voice in running their child’s school. Parents also expressed low rates of satisfaction with administration and staff members’ eagerness to ask for input.

According to the K12 Insight survey, educators are well aware of the consequences when trust is lacking – “it often leads to unnecessary distractions and siphons quality resources away from their core focus: educating children.”

School quality doesn’t seem to matter — even academically strong schools said they struggled to connect with their communities. Not surprisingly, though, size matters — the bigger the district, the greater the communication gap. School leaders representing districts with fewer than 75,000 ranked their customer service quality higher than those from school districts with 75,000-plus students.

That speaks to the unwieldiness of large bureaucracies and centralized systems. There’s ample anecdotal evidence – perhaps your own experience – of parents expressing frustration with an unresponsive administration, and navigating red tape. Even well-meaning administrators who would like to help might feel overwhelmed.

Another contributor: state legislatures that impose layer upon layer of regulation on districts, so that schools become more accountable to lawmakers than they are to parents. If schools had fewer top-down mandates to comply with, they might have more flexibility to connect with their communities. And if parents had more control over their children’s education, school officials might be more receptive to addressing their needs.

Decentralizing education delivery systems and giving families more choices might go a long way toward restoring bonds between educators and parents. The Rice University study found that 50 percent of parents at private schools, and 47 percent of those at charter schools, were “very satisfied” with how their schools communicated with them.

That may be because parents were able to find the schools that best match what they desire for their children – and that those schools are better able to provide them with what they want. Those that don’t won’t last long if enough families go elsewhere.

Certainly, districts can try harder to engage parents (in the K12 Insight survey, 19 percent of school leaders reported that they have no district employee tasked with monitoring customer service quality). More information, more assistance, and more empathy with parents might build more trust.

Ultimately, though, districts face structural barriers to closing the communication gap. They can be overcome by giving parents more say in their children’s education, and better access to the teachers and administrators who deliver it.

October 4, 2019 0 comment