Article published on Feb. 8, 2012 by the Daily Commercial
“Lake County Schools’ poor showing in district and school rankings has the teachers’ union asking for more planning and teaching time, while the superintendent says the district has been proactive to make improvements since last summer.
In a statement to the school board on Monday, B (CQ) Grassel, president of the Lake County Education Association, criticized Gov. Rick Scott and Education Commissioner Gerald Robinson for overemphasizng FCAT scores as ‘the only measure of quality education.’
‘The governor and commissioner undermine deep teaching by focusing on FCAT scores alone,’ Grassel said. ‘Every teacher in Lake County is going to be judged based on the FCAT scores of their students.’
In rankings released in January by the state Department of Education, Lake County earned a ‘B’ and tied for 44th out of the state’s 67 school districts, based on scores from the 2011 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test for reading, math and science. The district’s highest ranked school was Imagine Schools at South Lake, at 115th for elementary/middle combination schools.
But districts found out their scores and grades last summer, and the rankings merely represent a repackaging of the information, said Chris Patton, district communications officer.
‘It was that data that we took to heart right then and there at that moment in time, and took steps to put some strategies in place to address that,’ Superintendent Susan Moxley said. ‘We did not wait for rankings to come out.’
‘We take our progress very seriously,’ Moxley said, noting that the district immediately began making action plans, setting targets to become an ‘A’ district, having each school develop improvement plans, and issuing progress reports.
But Grassel said the district must play by the state’s rules.
‘If right now, the emphasis is on FCAT scores, then let teachers do nothing but plan and teach,’ she said. ‘Teachers are asking for that.’
Grassel said she e-mailed 1,500 district teachers asking two questions: What do your students need in the classroom, and what do you need for your students in the classroom? She estimated that the number of responses from groups and individuals, as well as phone calls and face-to-face responses, was in the low hundreds.
The teachers asked to have their entire workdays devoted to planning and teaching, Grassel said.
Saying that teachers are spread too thin in their responsibilities, Grassel recommended to the board that duties such as bus and lunch duty, hall monitoring, and all non-planning and non-teaching meetings be eliminated. She said early-release Wednesdays should be restructured to better utilize time.
Grassel noted that the union works collaboratively with the school board to reach the same goals, but she does not expect the strategies to solve all problems.
School board Chairwoman Rosanne Brandeburg said she appreciated Grassel’s initiative, and that the board will review her recommendations to see if any can be implemented.
‘We do need to get feedback from teachers, because they’re the ones on the front line in the classroom,’ Brandeburg said.”