Monday, July 29, 2013

Tony Bennett: Grade Fixer

Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett
This from Jersey Jazzman:
One of Jeb! Bush's most prominent "Chiefs For Change," Tony Bennett got drummed out of Indiana last year when he lost reelection for state superintendent of education. No matter: Jeb! pulled a few strings and got him his current gig doing the same job in Florida, where he has presided over one disaster after another. As Bob Sikes points out, Bennett's role as the "fiscal agent" for the Common Core test consortium known as PARCC actually followed him from Indiana to Florida, compromising his role as an objective evaluator of the testing regime. So between his own conflicts of interest, the conservative backlash against the Common Core in Florida, and the growing distrust over Florida's "statistically invalid" school grading system, the last thing Bennett needs is another scandal. Well, as they used to say over at Warner Brothers: cue the anvil. - See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/07/tony-bennett-grade-fixer.html#sthash.vtbSa8jL.dpuf doing the same job in Florida, where he has presided over one disaster after another.

As Bob Sikes points out, Bennett's role as the "fiscal agent" for the Common Core test consortium known as PARCC actually followed him from Indiana to Florida, compromising his role as an objective evaluator of the testing regime. So between his own conflicts of interest, the conservative backlash against the Common Core in Florida, and the growing distrust over Florida's "statistically invalid" school grading system, the last thing Bennett needs is another scandal.
Well, as they used to say over at Warner Brothers: cue the anvil.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Last Year FCPS changed its non discrimination clause on the Webpage to include Sexual Orientatation. Now it has been removed.

In its place, FCPS has mentioned it does not discriminate against the Boy Scouts.

This change was prompted by Kentucky Fairness. The Board agreed to it. Why has it Gone missing? Richard, please do Not Tell the Gay And lesbian Committee you are Too busy to Investigate...

Fcps has ignored its Gay, lesbian, ans transgendered Students And Teachers for years. And now this.....

Anonymous said...

THis is why educators don't trust reform leaders - political parties, special interests with financial ability to influence, fault research (if any) and the dangerous combination of hubris & incompetence.

Richard Day said...

July 30, 2013 at 6:23 AM:

I ignored your innuendo and checked with the district anyway.

As you may know, the school board updates district policies every summer. This year, KSBA recommended a change to the FCPS notice of nondiscrimination because the Federal Notice of Nondiscrimination is now REQUIRED to state the following:

"[As required by federal law] the District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, genetic information, disability or age in its programs and activities and provides equal access to its facilities to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups."

You can thank your Congress for the last sentence. (See this story on the same issue out of Madison Co. http://theprincipal.blogspot.com/2013/06/madison-county-nondiscrimination.html)

Since the district can't afford to
risk the loss of federal funding by not have the required language, we adopted their required language and in our policy added a statement that says “In addition, the District does not discriminate on the basis of religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.”

When the website was updated, it appears a mistake was made and they did not include both sentences.

FCPS says a correction will be made on the website.

Thanks for alerting everyone.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for nudging FCPS! Thanks for helping the gay, lesbian, and transgendered community. Thanks for being an advocate for others.

Didn't mean to slide in an innuendo.