National Education Policy Institute analysis challenges Jeb Bush’s ‘Florida Formula’ for ed reform

[seafan]

It is a pure pleasure to report that more and more people are saying "no, thanks" to the snake oil that Jeb Bush is peddling across the country for "bold educational reform", in his zeal to drive a stake through the heart of public education.

And to enrich himself and his family.


We've been watching this guy undermine public education for years, while claiming he is a saviour.




Valerie Strauss reports in the WP:


July 1, 2011

The series of school reforms that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is promoting — and being applauded — in states around the country as a formula for raising student achievement around the country was not actually successful, according to a new analysis.

The review was conducted by William Mathis, managing director of the nonprofit National Education Policy Institute at the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Education, and looks at a presentation Bush made to Michigan legislators on June 15.

Though Bush hasn’t been governor of Florida since 2007, what he says about school reform today matters. He has become a guru to a number of governors across the country who see the program he launched in 1999 — and kept promoting through his two foundations after he left the governorship — as the right path to school reform. The mission of his Foundation for Excellence in Education is to support reform in other states “primarily based on the success of the Florida Formula on Student Achievement.”

.....

From the June 2011 Summary of the review by William Mathis, Managing Director of the National Education Policy Center:

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and the Foundation for Excellence in Education have embarked on a well-funded campaign to spread selected Florida education reforms to other states. These reforms include assigning letter grades to schools, high-stakes testing, promotion and graduation requirements, bonus pay, a wide variety of alternative teacher credentialing policies, and various types of school choice mechanisms. This policy potpourri was recently presented by Gov. Bush in Michigan, and the documents used allow for a concrete consideration and review. Regrettably, Bush’s Michigan speech relies on a selective misrepresentation of test score data. Further, he offers no evidence that the purported test score gains were caused by the recommended reforms. Other viable explanations, such as a major investment in class-size reduction and a statewide reading program, receive no or little attention. Moreover, the presentation ignores less favorable findings, while evidence showing limited or negative effects of the proposed strategies is omitted. Considering the overwhelming evidence that retention is ineffective (if not harmful), it is troubling to see Mr. Bush endorse such an approach. Finally, Florida’s real problems of inequitable and inadequate education remain unaddressed.

From the subsequent NEPC Newsletter, June 30, 2011:


Jeb Bush Has Been Overselling Florida Education Policies

.....

Examining each of the policies trumpeted by Mr. Bush, Mathis’s findings include:

* The increase in fourth-grade results on the NAEP reading test, which is foundational to the entire Bush presentation, is largely an artifact of a mandatory third-grade retention policy that initially eliminated low-scoring children from the fourth-grade test and then delayed those children’s exam dates until they were more mature, thereby exaggerating any gains.
* Claims that fourth-grade NAEP reading scores improved because of the test-based retention policy also ignore the likely influence of a number of reforms downplayed or ignored by Mr. Bush. These reforms include a state reading initiative, mandated class-size reductions, the provision of reading coaches, and an emphasis on early education.
* The policy of assigning letter grades to schools has been followed by “a growing gap and greater inequities between higher- and lower-rated schools.”
* Mr. Bush offers no evidence that alternative teacher credentialing has done anything to improve teacher quality. Other changes in seniority, tenure and test-based teacher evaluation won’t even be implemented until 2013-2014 – meaning that no credit can be assigned to them for any past Florida improvements.
* Mr. Bush’s favored school choice measures are also advocated without sound evidence that they substantially influenced test scores.

.....

A Boston College professor also called Jeb Bush out on his dubious claims of Florida's success as he pushes his way into Departments of Education in state after state, touting his way or the highway.


Also, people in Arizona are wary of Jeb Bush's snake oil.


David Safier writes:


June 30, 2011

Goldwater Institute's Matthew Ladner has moved on to work with Jeb Bush promoting the "Florida Education Miracle" full time. The two have once again been called on their "research findings" by the National Education Policy Center.

The Bush/Ladner duo have a PowerPoint dog and pony show they're taking around the country, based on the same cherry-picking of data and the same skewing of Florida's educational reforms Ladner has been trading in for years.

Ladner isn't fond of mentioning, for instance, that Florida increased its ed funding and lowered its class sizes, as well as creating a more intensive reading and reading tutoring program in the early grades. He likes to stick to the A-F school grading system and the retention of third graders with low reading scores as the only changes in Florida.

Ladner also ignores evidence that any gains by the students retained in the third grade are short lived, fading within four years.

NEPC has noticed Ladner in the past. In fact, Ladner was one of the recipients of its 2010 Education Bunkum Awards.

"Bunkum" is a very fitting word for what Jeb Bush and his groupie operatives are peddling across the country.



It's time to slam the door on this huckster family.

[yurbud]

1. now we just have to convince DEMOCRATS to stop peddling this shit.

[seafan]

2. Truer words are rarely spoken these days.

'Now we just have to convince DEMOCRATS to stop peddling this shit.' ----DUer yurbud


It is all so 1984.


A burning question for me has been 'When does an enabler turn into an accomplice?'

[yurbud]

3. An enabler becomes an accomplice when he leaves office and goes to work for the same corporations

as his opponent.