Alphabet Soup

It’s that time of year again. The moment where high school students across the county grab their lucky Number 2 pencils and sit for hours at a time in classrooms, computer labs, and gymnasiums, eagerly answering all sorts to questions about math and literature.

That’s right, next week area juniors will get heir first crack at the newly-revised SAT standardized high-stakes test, courtesy of the School District of Palm Beach County, which has offered the test to all district 11th graders the past few years as a means of helping boost their opportunities for higher education acceptance after they graduate.

About a year ago, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order suspending the 11th-grade Florida Standards Assessment for English language arts, which helped (a bit) to lessen the overflow of alphabet soup tests our students are required to take yearly. I'm no fan of Voldemort, but it was (to his credit) one small step in the right direction. Unfortunately, it seems this action was the only step recently to reduce the number of days our students are forced to take a battery of tests assessing reading, writing, math, science, and history. Freshmen and sophomores are still taking the FSA (and will do so in the days following the SAT). In April and May, area students will take AP, Cambridge AICE, and International Baccalaureate subject area tests. And as if national- and state-endorsed testing wasn’t enough, there’s always the Palm Beach Performance Assessment thrown their way by the very district in which they live. And when autumn rolls around, the testing cycle begins all over again.

If our children were automobiles, this would be the equivalent of being in the shop every other day going through diagnostic tests to see how they are performing. Of course, these various assessments aren’t even truly “diagnostic” in nature; teachers and administrators don’t get to see the student responses to be able to truly analyze where improvements are needed in the teaching process, and even if they did get said results, it’s usually months later - and often, the students have different teachers by that point.

I believe there is a time and a place - and a purpose - for properly structured and presented testing. But one of the other huge issues is that the tests keep changing, and the bar keeps shifting as to what constitutes “passing” or “good” scores. If these tests are truly to incorporated into the formal educational process as a way of analyzing student learning, the legislature and testing companies have to stop making changes yearly on what seems to be a whim. The best way to truly assess learning is to use a stable method of assessment, and with structural changes taking place seemingly every year, there is no true way to measure results on a year-to-year basis.

I call, again, to end the madness. Let our students learn more; let our teachers educate more; let both groups test less.

Downsizing The Taj

For years, critics of the School District of Palm Beach County - which includes parents, politicians and teachers employed by the district - have complained loudly and openly (and justifiably) about the bloated work force at its Forest Hill Blvd. headquarters and the vast amount of government waste that permeated from within the Taj Mahal.

But in an announcement this week, Schools Superintendent Robert Avossa pulled a move out of the “downsize government” playbook and showed that maybe, just maybe, a bureaucratic administrator can take a mandate from the masses and make it work.

On Wednesday, Avossa presented an overview of the district’s proposed 2016-21 Strategic Plan to the school board. And the most unexpected part of said plan was a call for elimination of 58 positions in the district’s regional offices, reducing staffs by more than half and eliminating what he has called “redundancy built into the system.”

His proposal is the first of what is expected to be multiple refinements to the district system’s operations, and would take effect in July. More than 100 district employees currently stationed in those offices will need to reapply for new positions; while Avossa said many will be rehired into the 43 jobs that will remain, more than half will have to find positions as school administrators or teachers within the Palm Beach Schools, or possibly leave the school district.

According to Avossa’s plan, approximately $4.5 million will be saved and channeled to the 115 poorest schools within Palm Beach County, meaning the reduction in systematic redundancy will be translated into financial assistance to the students and employees in most dire need of aid.

This is both a financial and marketing coup for Avossa, who has been with the district less than a year. In one fell swoop, he has managed to (a) rid administration of some fat, (b) find a way to keep all those impacted employed with the district if they so choose, and (c) funnel much-needed financial aid to the schools most at risk. And the public relations kudos he has already received from many within the county through this measure has already helped turn a negative view of the district into a positive (although, given the vocal anger targeted at district administration just a day before - when upset parents and students lashed out at its leaders when they refused to delay or cancel classes whilst tornado sirens were blaring in the early morning hours - I'm not sure how much of a positive it became).

Some are calling the announcement “surprising,” but given Avossa’s history, perhaps it shouldn’t be so unexpected. In 2012, he was superintendent of the Fulton County Schools in Georgia, and he streamlined that district’s central office; that restructuring impacted around 60 positions, out of a workforce of 14,000, and included reassignment of employees from the central office to regional offices, where they would work on instructional and curriculum programs to assist or coach teachers on specific needs.

So good move, Dr. Avossa. I applaud your proactive decision.

Now, about those teacher salary increases …