Florida wants to ease U.S. school standards

With nearly all of its schools at risk of not meeting federal standards under the No Child Left Behind act, Florida wants to make it easier for schools to comply.

Florida asked the federal government Friday to make it easier for schools to comply with the No Child Left Behind act, a rigorous set of rules that only one in four state schools currently are able to meet.

Since President Bush's signature education law passed three years ago, many Florida schools have allocated extra teachers and time to help bring various subgroups of students -- for instance, those in special ed, or with limit-English or low incomes -- up to standard.

Florida's changes, if approved by the U.S. Department of Education, would allow many principals to scale back those efforts.

By one estimate, they also would instantly triple the number of Florida schools making ''adequate yearly progress'' under federal law.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11291769.htm

"Florida" didn't ask for anything. (The guy that runs the place is named BUSH, just say it, media. Under Gov. BUSH, schools are failing, and the BUSH administration wants to lower the bar to make BUSH look good. After all, his BROTHER is the EDUCATION president! Remember?)

Just weary of the whore media covering for the whoever they ares.

I cannot imagine the residents of Florida REQUESTING sub-standard education!

the punitive standards set up by NCLB!! I am surprized he has not asked Jr for a special dispensation!!

grudedly. Without these adjustments--many more states would have failing marks. The NCLB program is failing yet it is being propted up with these state by state adjustments--to make it appear that it is success!!





......ANOTHER REQUEST

Florida is also asking for a slower phase-in of federally required higher standards that were to go into effect this year. Currently, 31 percent of students in each group must be proficient in reading and 38 percent in math. Those rates are slated to increase to 48 percent in reading and 53 percent in math this year, but Florida would like to increase them more gradually.

States are free to determine what constitutes ''proficiency.'' Winn said some educators wanted the Department of Education to change Florida's definition, lowering the ''passing'' standard on the FCAT.

''We wouldn't do that,'' Winn said.

Winn noted that Florida's proposals would not mean that a majority of schools make adequate yearly progress. Using 2004 scores, the state has said only 11 percent of Florida's 3,054 schools would meet federal standards this year. If the changes are approved, that would jump to 32 percent.

This whole NCLB shit is a contradiction. If you are going to pass legislation providing federal guidelines, you cannot permit states to deviate from them at their whim or whenever it's politically expedient. In other words, what's the effing point?

on software that didn't do the trick...

No Bush Left Behind: When You're Barred From Banking, Why Not Bank on Education?

After Neil Bush was banned from banking activities for his role in the Savings and Loan scandal in the late 1980s, he decided to bank on education and founded Ignite Incorporated. Ignite sells software to help students prepare to take comprehensive tests required under the No Child Left Behind act that was pushed through by Neil's older brother - President Bush.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/12/1534244

Last I read (a yr or 2 ago), he had pilot programs in some FL districts.

would be to supply the answers. Bingo much better test scores.

in the military with the help of Jeb Bush, which will set the new standard.

ads recruiting for teachers from other states must not be working. Would you give up an extra $20,000 a year to teach by a beach?

may turn into soldiers who cannot read properly,
but if they cannot read properly and are armed to the teeth,
a lot of them are going to get "wasted."

What goes around ....

before firing off some knee-Jerk reactionary responses here. The fact is the national standards have been set up in such a way as to insure that most schools will fail. The goal for the Republicans and the religious right is to privatize all public education and the NCLB is the pretext that will allow them to do this.

here. But alot of people have already discussed how the Neocons simply want to undo public education for the benefit of private. It's not like they've never discussed it before.

Right-wing = Vouchers for all = No accountability standards. Watch anything close to NCLB melt away when or if the religious right gets their vouchers. Keep in mind people, they don't want vouchers to keep the "bad" kids in their schools. No, they will want the public school systems to keep them. They want the cream of the crop and they won't have to pay a dime for them.

and so are most teachers.

But there's nothing wrong with blasting Jeb.

The NCLB act is a sham; it will hurt the poorest schools in that the standards cannot be met and these schools are PUNISHED for that instead of HELPED to make it possible for them to meet any realistic standards.
I hope to god the NCLB act is repelled in some way...it's destroying our education system :grr:

That's a faith based casino, and a culture of life casino. They'll all have embryos on the top, instead of bright lights and bells.