Source: Orlando Sentinel, Feb 2011
Scott and his staff said he will be pushing for new ways to expand “public-school choice.”
One option the governor will advocate is to pump up an existing program that allows students to transfer out of struggling schools. He wants the list of schools students can flee to jump dramatically.
The program now allows students to transfer to better-performing public schools if their schools earn two F’s in four years on the state’s annual school report card.
Scott would expand the program by using Florida’s other school accountability system, one that takes into account schools’ A-to-F grades but also performance under the federal No Child Left Behind law, said Scott Kittel, from the governor’s policy and budget office.
That system puts many schools into one of five categories, and Scott wants to allow transfers out of schools in the bottom two, Kittel said.
This year, 948 schools are in those two bottom groups — almost a third of Florida’s public schools. Some are long-struggling places, but others are well regarded.
Those A- and B-rated schools end up in the second-lowest groups because they have groups of students, such as youngsters from low-income families, who struggle, even if their overall performance is good.Would families opt out of, say, A-rated Lake Mary High or Glenridge Middle in Winter Park?
Seminole Superintendent Bill Vogel doubts that will happen, especially when his district already offers a “very robust choice program.”
He also said an expanded choice system would be “problematic” for districts, creating complications for transportation departments and for efforts to keep class sizes within state-mandated limits.
Schooling & Learning Choices 