The Floridation of Arizona Education: a “tapestry” of reforms

by David Safier

This is my fourth post about the "Florida Education Miracle" which Arizona Republican legislators are hoping to duplicate here with a few selective bills — most notably, one that holds students back in the 3rd grade if their reading scores are low.

This Floridation of Arizona Education is being pushed by the Goldwater Institute, which exercises an out-sized influence on the Republican-majority legislator and has been touting Florida's ed reforms for years. Matthew Ladner's typical sentence is, to paraphrase Joe Biden, a noun, a verb and "4th grade reading scores." Not surprisingly, Florida's scores are better than Arizona's.

You wouldn't know it to hear Ladner or his legislative minions talking, but Florida's ed reforms are wide ranging, with 3rd grade retention only one part of the mix. And Florida put some additional money where its reforms are, which is, of course, anathema to our right wing legislators. Increasing money for our schools is not on their agenda.

How do I know about the wide ranging ed reforms in Florida? From a paper Ladner wrote: "Demography Defeated." It's filled with information about ed reforms in Florida which I don't see Ladner talking about much when he touts "The Florida Miracle."

Here's a quick summary of Florida's ed reforms:

In 2002, Florida began holding back 3rd graders with the lowest reading scores. This resulted in artificially inflated reading test scores in the 4th grade. Once you understand the numbers game, the "miracle" of increased reading scores no longer ranks with the miracle of Loaves and Fishes. I explained how the numbers work in an earlier post.

Florida also began grading schools on an A-F scale, and it gave students at the F-ranked schools the opportunity to use vouchers to attend private schools. We have a bill this year to grade our schools A-F. Why? Because Florida did it, and it doesn't cost any money. How a new grading system will improve schools is a mystery to me. Could it be the next step is to promote more Arizona vouchers? Hmmm.

In 2002, the state also began "Just Read Florida" which increased the emphasis on teaching reading. The state sprung for teacher training and hired new staff to be reading coaches. In other words, Florida spent more money on education, something we haven't seen here in Arizona lately.

Florida voters also passed 2 ballot initiatives. One mandated smaller class sizes. The other funded pre-K education for anyone who wanted it. Again, those things cost money. Naturally, those are the reforms that dare not speak their name in this state.

Florida also instituted performance pay for teachers who are considered exceptional. This reform cost the state an extra $147 million per year. Money, money, money.

How effective was each of these reforms? Ladner admits, no one knows. Students in the voucher program showed no direct academic gains. Holding 3rd graders back "warrants further research." There is "little research evidence" on performance pay. And the pre-K program began too late to yield any data.

So naturally, our right wing fools want to rush in and recreate bits and pieces of "The Florida Educational Miracle" here — even though Florida's reforms haven't worked miracles, though they may have resulted in some improvement in reading scores. In his paper, Ladner doesn't pinpoint one part of the reform which was responsible for whatever improvement might have occurred. Any real boosts in achievement, he writes, are due to "the tapestry of reforms," not any one fix.

Which threads do our legislators pull out of the tapestry? They want to score our schools A-F, which doesn't cost anything, so that one is easy. And they want to hold back 3rd graders with low reading scores. If extra education for those kids costs more money, they'll get it by cutting pre-K education (more on this in a later post).

What are the chances these few changes will do much good in Arizona, especially with our educational funding sinking ever lower? Somewhere between slim and none. And I think Slim just left the state.