Would you give your local public school a “B” grade?
Martin County Florida government high schools have a student proficiency rate of 1/2 in Reading and 1/3 in Math, with a 1/3 college-readiness rate (analysis by U.S. News and World Report).
The Martin County school system received a “B” in the Florida state grading system. One-third of the students being math proficient evidently deserves a score of “good” to the government. What proficiency rate is considered “poor”?
A Saint Lucie County Florida government school teacher was fired for giving students a zero when they failed to submit anything.
A zero isn’t allowed. There is a minimum grade, presumably to prevent adversely affecting the school’s rating and avoid offending students and parents.
50% is the new zero.
When everyone figures out what 50% means, perhaps the minimum grade will change to 75%. But changing the scale does not help. That’s how math works. The next step might as well be to issue no grades at all.
Could your school’s education performance be improved?
A solution
Start by getting the federal government out of the school business. D.C. regulations drive state governments and local school administrations to manipulate their rules in order to get federal money and avoid a D.C. bureaucrat’s wrath.
With D.C. out of the picture, the people's direction to their state and local administrations will be unimpeded.
Our schools should be managed within the state. There is nothing in the Constitution authorizing the federal government to regulate schools.
Florida Citizen’s Alliance links to FL school grades by county.
