Cabinet
Affairs |
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2 T H E C A B I N E T
3 S T A T E O F F L O R I D A
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Representing:
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STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
6 DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAY SAFETY
7 AND MOTOR VEHICLES
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
8 ADMINISTRATION COMMISSION
TRUSTEES OF THE INTERNAL
9 IMPROVEMENT TRUST FUND
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
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11 The above agencies came to be heard before
THE FLORIDA CABINET, Honorable Governor Chiles
12 presiding, in the Cabinet Meeting Room, LL-03,
The Capitol, Tallahassee, Florida, on Tuesday,
13 April 9, 1996, commencing at approximately 9:49 a.m.
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16 Reported by:
17 LAURIE L. GILBERT
Registered Professional Reporter
18 Certified Court Reporter
Notary Public in and for
19 the State of Florida at Large
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22 ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
100 SALEM COURT
23 TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA 32301
904/878-2221
24 1-800/934-9090
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1 APPEARANCES:
2 Representing the Florida Cabinet:
3 LAWTON CHILES
Governor
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BOB CRAWFORD
5 Commissioner of Agriculture
6 BOB MILLIGAN
Comptroller
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SANDRA B. MORTHAM
8 Secretary of State
9 BOB BUTTERWORTH
Attorney General
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BILL NELSON
11 Treasurer
12 FRANK T. BROGAN
Commissioner of Education
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ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
April 9, 1996
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1 I N D E X
2 ITEM ACTION PAGE
3 STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION:
(Presented by Ash Williams, Jr.,
4 Executive Director)
5 1 Approved 5
2 Approved 5
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DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE:
7 (Presented by J. Ben Watkins, III,
Director)
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1 Approved 6
9 2 Approved 6
3 Approved 7
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DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAY SAFETY AND MOTOR VEHICLES:
11 (Presented by Fred O. Dickinson, III,
Executive Director)
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1 Approved 8
13 2 Approved 8
3 Approved 9
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STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION:
15 (Presented by Robert L. Bedford, Ph.D.,
Deputy Commissioner)
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1 Approved 10
17 2 Approved 10
3 and 4 Approved 11
18 5 Approved 72
6 Withdrawn 72
19 7 Approved 11
8 Approved 14
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ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
April 9, 1996
4
1 I N D E X
(Continued)
2
ITEM ACTION PAGE
3
BOARD OF TRUSTEES,
4 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT
TRUST FUND:
5 (Presented by Virginia B. Wetherell,
Secretary)
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1 Approved 74
7 2 Approved 74
3 Approved 74
8 4 Approved 74
Substitute 5 Approved 106
9 6 Approved 107
7 Approved 107
10 8 Approved 107
9 Approved 107
11 10 Approved 108
11 Approved 108
12 12 Approved 108
13 DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION:
(Presented by Virginia B. Wetherell,
14 Secretary)
15 1 Approved 109
2 Withdrawn 109
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17 CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER 110
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ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
April 9, 1996
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 (The agenda items commenced at 9:56 a.m.)
3 GOVERNOR CHILES: Now we're ready for the
4 State Board of Administration.
5 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I move the minutes.
6 GOVERNOR CHILES: Motion on the minutes.
7 TREASURER NELSON: Second.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: Seconded.
9 Without objection, the minutes are adopted.
10 MR. WILLIAMS: Item 2 is a fiscal
11 sufficiency for the Florida
12 Housing Finance Agency.
13 TREASURER NELSON: Move it.
14 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
15 GOVERNOR CHILES: It's been moved and
16 seconded.
17 Without objection, that's approved.
18 MR. WILLIAMS: Thank you.
19 (The State Board of Administration Agenda
20 was concluded.)
21 *
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ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE
April 9, 1996
6
1 GOVERNOR CHILES: Bond Finance.
2 MR. WATKINS: Three items on the agenda
3 this morning.
4 Item 1 is approval of the minutes of the
5 March 28 meeting.
6 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Motion.
7 GOVERNOR CHILES: There's a motion.
8 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Second.
9 GOVERNOR CHILES: And a second on the
10 minutes.
11 Without objection, the minutes are
12 approved.
13 MR. WATKINS: Item number 2 is a resolution
14 authorizing negotiated sale on behalf of the
15 Florida Housing Finance Agency of up to
16 40 million dollars in single family mortgage
17 revenue bonds.
18 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
19 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Second.
20 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
21 Without objection, that's approved.
22 MR. WATKINS: Item number 3 is a report of
23 award of two multifamily housing bond issues
24 sold on behalf of the Florida Housing Finance
25 Agency.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE
April 9, 1996
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1 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
2 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Second.
3 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
4 Without objection, that's approved.
5 MR. WATKINS: Thank you.
6 (The Division of Bond Finance Agenda was
7 concluded.)
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ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAY SAFETY/MOTOR VEHICLES
April 9, 1996
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES:
2 Department of Highway Safety.
3 MR. DICKINSON: Good morning.
4 Governor, the first item is approval of
5 minutes --
6 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: So move.
7 MR. DICKINSON: -- from the
8 February 27th --
9 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: So move.
10 MR. DICKINSON: -- Cabinet meeting.
11 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Motion.
12 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Second.
13 GOVERNOR CHILES: It's been moved and
14 seconded.
15 Without objection, the minutes are
16 approved.
17 MR. DICKINSON: Item number 2 is request
18 for approval for a new contract for our
19 psychological screening for incoming
20 law enforcement officers.
21 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
22 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Second.
23 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
24 Without objection, that's approved.
25 MR. DICKINSON: And item number 3 is a
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAY SAFETY/MOTOR VEHICLES
April 9, 1996
9
1 menagerie, if you will, Governor. We're
2 repealing eleven rules, amending seven rules,
3 and creating four new rules to conform with the
4 statutory change from last session with regard
5 to our driver improvement schools.
6 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
7 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Move the menagerie.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
9 Without objection, the menagerie is
10 approved.
11 MR. DICKINSON: Thank you, Governor.
12 (The Department of Highway Safety and Motor
13 Vehicles Agenda was concluded.)
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ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
10
1 GOVERNOR CHILES: State Board of Education.
2 Things are rolling along too fast.
3 DR. BEDFORD: Good morning, members of the
4 State Board of Education.
5 Item 1, minutes of the meeting held
6 February 13th and February 27th, 1996.
7 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: So move, Governor.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and --
9 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Second.
10 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- seconded.
11 Without objection, the minutes are
12 approved.
13 DR. BEDFORD: Item 2, recommendation in
14 Critical Teacher Shortage Areas.
15 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Move approval.
16 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Second.
17 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
18 Without objection, it's approved.
19 DR. BEDFORD: Item 3 and 4 can be taken
20 together. They are Area of Vocational Technical
21 Center designation in Orange County of Orange
22 Technical Center's Westside Technical, and
23 Winter Park Technical.
24 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Move approval of
25 Items 3 and 4.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
11
1 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Second.
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: Without objection,
3 Items 3 and 4, adopted en banc.
4 DR. BEDFORD: Items 5 and 6, I would like
5 to leave for a minute and come back to, and go
6 to item 7.
7 Amendment to 6A, dash, 6.0571, Criteria for
8 Qualification of Special Vocational Technical
9 Education Program Courses.
10 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
11 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Second.
12 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved on item --
13 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: -- 7.
14 Second.
15 GOVERNOR CHILES: Second?
16 Is there a second?
17 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second.
18 GOVERNOR CHILES: Second.
19 Without objection, Item 7 is approved.
20 DR. BEDFORD: Item 8 is a good cause item
21 brought to you today. The good cause item
22 involves an amendment to the cost of living
23 survey contract. That contract is identified as
24 096, dash, 001.
25 The last several years, there's been many
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
12
1 questions concerning the district cost
2 differential. The legislative -- the
3 Legislature funded a University of Florida study
4 done by David Denslow. The study suggested some
5 changes in the methodology. And this amendment
6 would review the Denslow work, and would
7 determine whether it was feasible to incorporate
8 into the methodology.
9 One of the reasons to bring this as a good
10 cause item is that the actual survey is done in
11 August, and if we are going to make any changes,
12 they need to be proceeded on now.
13 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Move approval.
14 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Second.
15 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
16 Without objection --
17 TREASURER NELSON: Governor --
18 May I ask a question?
19 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes.
20 TREASURER NELSON: What I don't understand
21 is that this looks like this is a study of a
22 study. Is that correct?
23 DR. BEDFORD: Link, do you want to come and
24 help me?
25 Link Jarrett.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
13
1 MR. JARRETT: This is not a study of a
2 study. It -- the firm with which we contract --
3 with which you've contracted is the firm that
4 does the survey. And there are some technical
5 kinds of things that have to be assured in order
6 that you get a valid Florida price level index.
7 We can't merely make adjustments to that
8 procedure without having them done very
9 thoughtfully and carefully in order to maintain
10 the integrity of that index.
11 TREASURER NELSON: And so this is costing
12 us an additional 12,000.
13 MR. JARRETT: Yes, sir.
14 TREASURER NELSON: And what was the
15 original contract price?
16 MR. JARRETT: Two hundred and
17 thirty thousand for the survey process. That
18 is, they collect prices for 118 different market
19 basket items in all 67 counties.
20 And this is -- of course, as you know, this
21 affects the distribution of 8 billion dollars to
22 our Florida school districts. So it needs to be
23 handled in a manner that will give us results
24 that don't place us in a position that
25 jeopardizes the integrity of that particular
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 component of the formula.
2 TREASURER NELSON: And what is the $12,000
3 extra buying us?
4 MR. JARRETT: It is going to buy them
5 reviewing carefully both the short-term and
6 long-term recommendations in Dr. Denslow's
7 study, and adjusting, where appropriate, the
8 survey methodology to incorporate the -- the
9 adjustments.
10 TREASURER NELSON: Which should have been
11 in the original $250,000 contract price.
12 MR. JARRETT: Well, this study was not
13 available when the RFP and the bid was done on
14 this particular contract.
15 This is something that has happened in the
16 last month or two in terms of the actual report
17 of the Denslow study. And, therefore, we felt
18 it was appropriate and necessary for us to amend
19 this contract to make sure that when the budget
20 is developed, we have the most valid index that
21 you can stand with as being representative of
22 the cost of living in each county.
23 TREASURER NELSON: Thank you, Governor.
24 GOVERNOR CHILES: Without objection, the --
25 the motion is adopted.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
15
1 DR. BEDFORD: Now if we could go back to
2 item number 5. I believe the Commissioner wants
3 to make a presentation at this time.
4 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Thank you.
5 And, Governor, members of the Cabinet, we
6 let you off the hook at the last meeting when we
7 withdrew these items, so we're going to put you
8 back on the hook today.
9 And I'm going to go to the floor and
10 shepherd you through this presentation myself.
11 We tried to keep it as brief as possible based
12 on the complexity of the agenda.
13 So with your indulgence, I'm going to move
14 down to the podium.
15 DR. BEDFORD: Frank, you might want to ask
16 the audience --
17 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Yeah. And while
18 we're shifting around, if anybody would like to
19 move to that side of the room, I'm sorry, with
20 the angle of the room, that's the best we're
21 going to be able to do, I'm afraid.
22 And I think we're going to need these --
23 GOVERNOR CHILES: Would you speak a little
24 closer to the mic? It's a little bit hard to
25 hear you --
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Identify yourself.
2 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Yes, Governor.
3 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: The lights are kind
4 of shining off your forehead, too.
5 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: I knew this was a
6 mistake.
7 How's that?
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: It's too loud.
9 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: That's
10 Frank T. Brogan, Commissioner of Education.
11 Good morning.
12 And we wanted to take the opportunity to do
13 this presentation to you this morning because we
14 think it's of great significance, not only to
15 the State Board of Education, but also to the
16 State of Florida.
17 And we have put together a power point
18 presentation that we hope in a brief period of
19 time is going to walk you through some of the
20 essentials that go into the creation of
21 statewide standards, the statewide assessment,
22 the staff development activities that go along
23 with a massive undertaking like this.
24 The Governor and I and one of our State's
25 finest Chief Executive Officers,
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 Mr. Jack Critchfield, recently returned from the
2 National Governor's Summit on Education in
3 Palisades, New York.
4 We spent a day-and-a-half, and, I believe,
5 Governor, there was 41, 44 governors who
6 attended; a chief executive officer from
7 virtually every state; as well as a significant
8 group of educators at all and various levels.
9 The three-pronged approach that that summit
10 took, remembering that it was an offshoot of the
11 summit that was held under the administration of
12 George Bush back in 88-89, was to take a close
13 look at three issues: One, standards; two,
14 assessment; and three, technology.
15 Now, any of those individual items would be
16 food for a day-and-a-half meeting of such an
17 auspicious gathering. But with that, it gave us
18 the opportunity to zero in on those three
19 particular items and --
20 GOVERNOR CHILES: I think if --
21 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: -- be able to --
22 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- you'd cut these lights
23 up here, we could see that --
24 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Would that help?
25 Further still?
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: More, yeah.
2 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: It gave us the
3 opportunity to network with people from other
4 states, and also, as we focused in at the end of
5 that particular day-and-a-half conference, gave
6 us the chance to recognize that essentially what
7 the conference was calling for was for each of
8 the 50 states to create a system of statewide
9 standard.
10 Very simply put, what it is we expect
11 children in the state of Florida to know and to
12 be able to do as they move through elementary
13 school, middle school, high school, and so on.
14 That was discussed at length. Also was
15 discussed, the possibility of creating a
16 national clearinghouse on a non-federal basis
17 that would assist us in reviewing each state's
18 standards to make certain that they were
19 challenging, to make certain that nothing was
20 left to the imagination, et cetera.
21 Also discussed was the issue of
22 assessment. We're going to discuss the fact
23 that there are two types of assessment. But the
24 one that was primarily discussed at that
25 particular meeting was the external assessment,
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 that means a statewide assessment, given at
2 intervals during a child's educational
3 experience to see to it that the classroom, that
4 the school, that the district, and that the
5 state are all moving in the right directions as
6 it relates to those standards and what they --
7 what they take up.
8 The other issue was technology. We had an
9 opportunity to visit a large number of brief
10 presentations on some of the state of the art
11 technology that exists out there. And believe
12 me, it's overwhelming as far as the capabilities
13 that technology holds for us in the private
14 sector, and especially in education.
15 So with your indulgence, I'm just going to
16 let you know what you have in front of you.
17 You've been given a draft copy of some material,
18 and I underscore the word draft. Everything
19 that you are going to see this morning is in
20 draft form. This is all for conceptual
21 consideration today.
22 But we wanted to give you an idea of where
23 we are in the development of Florida's
24 standards, which we have unofficially dubbed as
25 the Sunshine State Standards; where we are with
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 the assessment process on the external level;
2 and then as we'll discuss, on the internal
3 level; and share with you some of the material
4 in draft form that -- that we would be looking
5 to utilize in the future.
6 Now, if I can draw your attention to the
7 power point presentation. This is about what
8 Florida's students should know and be able to
9 do. That is succinctly put. That is, more or
10 less, the mission of education is to determine
11 what it is our youngsters should be able to know
12 and do, and then see to it as they move through
13 their educational experience that they can do
14 those things.
15 Again, we've dubbed these the
16 Sunshine State Standards. And I think the
17 Governor can attest to the fact that if you put
18 us on a scale with the 50 states, you have some
19 states that have already established statewide
20 standards; many states which have not yet begun
21 the process of creating statewide standards; and
22 then Florida, who is well along with the
23 process, as we hope we'll evidence today.
24 We're going to discuss moving toward
25 high standards; we're going to talk about using
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 those standards, assessing those standards; and
2 then very importantly, aligning those standards
3 with the instruction, the curriculum, and then
4 that assessment, both internal and external,
5 that we discussed a moment ago.
6 First of all, moving toward high standards.
7 There is, as I mentioned, a national demand
8 for greater accountability and higher
9 standards. I've said this regularly. And I
10 think many would agree that over the past
11 30 years or so, the -- the nation and our state
12 have succumbed to the national problem of every
13 time youngsters don't give you what it is you
14 expect, you simply lower the expectation.
15 I think that's not an isolate here.
16 I think the nation has looked at its
17 expectations and what it's calling upon children
18 to know and be able to do. Our chief executive
19 officers I think drove that home with a
20 vengeance during the course of that
21 day-and-a-half in Palisades, New York.
22 So there is very much a national demand for
23 all of us to elevate our standards and
24 expectations for youngsters. That's being taken
25 up, of course, in part, in the legislative
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 process this year.
2 It's a bipartisan effort. I was very much
3 appreciative of the fact that in Palisades, you
4 had all types. You had governors who
5 represented some 44 states who were Republicans
6 and Democrats; you had CEOs who were
7 Republicans, Democrats, independents, and
8 others; you had members of the educational
9 communities from every different angle from
10 which you could come. And they all seemed to
11 generally focus on the reality of the need for
12 high standards, strong accountability.
13 So very much where we have been coming from
14 in this state is trying to do all of this as
15 much as possible with a bipartisan effort,
16 recognizing that teaching and learning is all
17 about being bipartisan.
18 Local control. That was another initiative
19 discussed in Palisades. The fact that while the
20 State should be in the business of setting
21 standards, setting expectations, creating
22 assessments, there's a strong need to give back
23 to local schools and local districts and
24 communities that which is rightfully theirs.
25 And that's the opportunity to create curriculum,
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 strategies, methodologies, to select
2 instructional material, right to meet the needs
3 of the youngsters in their individual
4 communities to make certain that they have the
5 best opportunity possible to get to those high
6 challenging standards in successful fashion.
7 Focus on the Legislature. You know that,
8 as I mentioned, during this legislative session,
9 very much, the whole issue of higher standards
10 for graduation, higher expectations for
11 students, and for the members of our
12 professional community, have come up on a
13 regular basis. And again, in a bipartisan
14 approach.
15 We're seeing both chambers, both
16 Republicans and Democrats, very, very much
17 interested in increasing standards and
18 expectations. And that's being taken up during
19 this session.
20 And I alluded to the National Education
21 Summit. One of the things that was exemplified
22 there is the fact that you can set high
23 standards; you can raise your expectations, just
24 as we're attempting to do here in the state of
25 Florida.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 But as we're going to discuss in a few
2 minutes, critical to all of that is making
3 certain that you have a system in place of staff
4 development, both pre-service from the
5 university level, and in-service for those who
6 are currently in the field; on what those
7 standards are; how the assessment process will
8 work, internal, external; and how all of that is
9 going to fold around the curriculum which will
10 help to drive us to those high challenging
11 standards.
12 The equation for success, it's something
13 that we've talked about on a regular basis in
14 this state, and it was driven home again in
15 Palisades, and that is strong standards at a
16 high level; plus the instruction to get you to
17 those high standards; plus an assessment.
18 Again, not just given at the state level,
19 but also the day-to-day assessment process that
20 our teachers go through to constantly gauge
21 where their students are at any given time, and
22 adjust their teaching to make certain that their
23 youngsters are moving toward those -- those
24 standards, equals higher student achievement.
25 And what we're trying to do in the state of
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 Florida right now is refocus our energy and
2 refocus our efforts on increasing student
3 achievement levels.
4 The development of the standards. First of
5 all, let me say that these were not developed in
6 a vacuum. Far from it. As most states found,
7 the best way to develop standards is to involve
8 all of the stakeholders in the process. This
9 process has been going on for almost two years.
10 It's involved teachers and administrators and
11 Board members. It's involved parents at a
12 significant rate.
13 It's involved the business community to
14 make certain that we were looking at the kinds
15 of things the business community believed our
16 youngsters should know and be able to do in the
17 development of these standards.
18 And so very much, it was a team approach
19 with thousands of people, literally, supplying
20 input as to what these standards should know --
21 or should look like in their final analysis.
22 Analyzed by national experts. We used an
23 organization called McREL, which again was
24 widely discussed in Palisades. And what they
25 were able to do for us is to help us prior to
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STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 the development of this national clearinghouse,
2 they helped us to make certain that our
3 standards pass muster, that they were
4 challenging, that they were rigorous, that they
5 didn't take a backseat to any other state in the
6 country in terms of what it was we expected our
7 children to know and be able to do. And that
8 was very helpful in the process as well.
9 And they were reviewed, as I mentioned,
10 statewide by the stakeholders. Teachers,
11 parents, business leaders were involved in the
12 creation of the standards that we are now
13 developing.
14 The focus was on the seven key subject
15 areas. Now, today before you, members of the
16 State Board of Education, you actually have the
17 language arts and the mathematic standards.
18 Those are draft. Again, I reiterate that. And
19 they are in draft form, but very much the way
20 the standards will look when they are
21 finalized.
22 And those will all come back before you
23 sometime in the month of May. And at that time,
24 they will include not only language arts and
25 mathematics, but also science, social studies,
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 9, 1996
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1 the arts, health and physical education, and
2 foreign language.
3 We also in the state of Florida have
4 currently in place for grades 6 through 12
5 course frameworks that -- and descriptors that
6 actually go bullet by bullet explaining what a
7 youngster should know and be able to do as they
8 take individual courses, such as Algebra I, or
9 chemistry, or advanced course work.
10 And that is also going to be something
11 we're going to have to look at and update
12 regularly to make certain that it matches the
13 standards that we are setting.
14 But those are the broad-brush areas of
15 focus upon which we're building our state
16 standards. And they are the same, for the most
17 part, as you find in other states who are either
18 further along, or at the same level as we.
19 We actually divided our standards, as you
20 can see in your background material, into four
21 areas. We divided them into pre-K through 2,
22 grades 3 through 5, grades 6 through 8, and
23 grades 9 through 12.
24 And as you can see in your support
25 material, we have tried to create the standards
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1 as clearly and concisely as possible. It is our
2 full intent at a point appropriate in time, to
3 condense this even further for distribution to
4 all of our parents, the business community,
5 et cetera, in the state of Florida so they will
6 have in hand the ability to see if their child
7 is in pre-K through 2, what that youngster
8 should know and be able to do as they pass
9 through that pre-K through 2 continuum.
10 And we think that's important to
11 communicate. And we'll discuss communication
12 here in a few minutes.
13 Here's an example of a mathematic
14 standard. The -- the item is measurement. And
15 the standard would be: The student measures
16 quantities in the real world, and uses the
17 measures to solve problems.
18 Now, under that particular standard, you
19 would have a number of bullet points that would
20 help to make certain that students would have
21 the total knowledge to be able to demonstrate
22 mastery of that issue. But that is a good
23 example of a standard. Something that we
24 expect, at any level, by the way, a youngster to
25 know and be able to do.
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1 I say any level because we would expect a
2 pre-K through 2 student to be able to
3 demonstrate knowledge in that area, just as we
4 would expect a high school senior to demonstrate
5 knowledge in that particular area. Remembering
6 that, as we discussed at this meeting a month or
7 so ago, even algebra has its roots at the
8 kindergarten level.
9 And as you look at the mathematic standards
10 included in your packet, you will see algebra
11 referred to, even at the kindergarten level,
12 because that's the building blocks upon which
13 all of the skills necessary to take and pass
14 algebra begin. And so all of these things have
15 their roots from the very beginning in pre-K
16 through second grade.
17 Using the standards. First of all, the
18 standards will give us -- and that is the
19 general us, all of us in education, and I think
20 all of us in the state -- a clear expectation
21 for student knowledge and skills. In other
22 words, this is what Florida expects, at the very
23 least, our youngsters to know and be able to
24 do.
25 Now, I underscore at the very least. The
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1 state has once moved through the minimal skills
2 route. And believe me, for all of those who --
3 who suggest that that was a bad thing, at least
4 the minimal skills route did give us a target.
5 Albeit, a low target, it gave us a place that we
6 could direct our efforts in terms of teaching
7 and learning.
8 And as we move through the continuum of
9 those minimal skills and that process, we found
10 more and more youngsters able to produce at that
11 minimal skill level and beyond.
12 But what these standards are about is not
13 minimal skills. What we're suggesting, as are
14 most states now, that if youngsters are going to
15 be competitive in the 21st century, they simply
16 have to achieve a higher level of academia to be
17 successful in the world of work that they're
18 going to find.
19 We think the standards will give schools,
20 districts, classroom teachers, a much clearer
21 focus on the mission at hand.
22 Basis for assessing student achievement.
23 We're going to talk about this more. But again,
24 I suggest there are two types of assessment:
25 That which would be applied externally by the
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1 state of Florida in benchmark fashion to, as a
2 benchmark, assess where students, schools, are
3 at any given time, and the state.
4 But also that internal assessment that our
5 teachers must do, and have always done, on a
6 day-to-day, week-to-week basis to gauge student
7 learning at any given time.
8 And again, the basis for school
9 accountability. Everyone continues to use the
10 word accountability. But I think we're much
11 closer to a clear definition as to what this
12 particular accountability is all about. And
13 remember, our primary focus, our primary
14 mission, is on teaching and learning.
15 Therefore, we need to create a strong
16 accountability system to make certain that that
17 learning is taking place at appropriate levels
18 around the state, and we believe that the
19 standards can provide the foundation for that, a
20 clear mission, and the assessment in benchmark
21 fashion and on the day-to-day basis can help us
22 make certain that students are learning at the
23 appropriate level.
24 When it comes to assessment, we're talking,
25 one, about the statewide assessment; and, two,
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1 about the classroom assessment. The statewide
2 assessment has been RFPd. The contract,
3 of course, is under protest, so we hope to have
4 that back to you in 30 to 45 days.
5 But what we have done, and this is what the
6 national trend is, as we found in Palisades, is
7 to let a contract so that an external assessment
8 is created for the state of Florida rather than
9 do traditionally what we've done in the past,
10 which is purchase an off-the-shelf version, and
11 hope it matches up as closely as possible to the
12 standards and the expectations that we have out
13 there for our students.
14 So once that test is constructed, it is
15 going to provide for us, number one, a
16 consistent measure of student achievement. It
17 will be applied once in elementary school, once
18 in middle school, once in high school, and will
19 give us a consistently applied year-to-year
20 measure as to where our students are at any
21 given time, in terms of teaching, learning, and
22 the standards.
23 It will support instruction because the
24 whole idea of assessment is that assessment
25 should determine the level of student learning,
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1 what we expect our students to know and be able
2 to do; and then reteach, if necessary, to see
3 that they can do those kinds of things.
4 So we think that the standards are going to
5 help raise the level of instruction by providing
6 for our teachers a much needed focus on the
7 expectations that are at hand.
8 Results support school improvement. I've
9 been in the school improvement business, as have
10 many in this room, for a good number of years,
11 and still maintain that the linchpin of school
12 improvement needs to be teaching and learning.
13 That all of the strategies, all of the joint
14 efforts that go into those school improvement
15 plans need to center and focus ultimately on how
16 students are going to learn more as a result of
17 those activities.
18 And we believe that this can be the long
19 awaited linchpin for our school improvement
20 efforts which are sweeping the state as we know.
21 Recognize success. We also believe very
22 important is -- and we heard this in Palisades
23 reiterated -- that as time progresses with this
24 entire system, one of the things that we very
25 much need to do is also recognize those who are
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1 taking the bold steps to increase student
2 achievement levels. We do much nationally
3 with -- with sanctions and actions. Some of
4 that is appropriate.
5 We also need to recognize and reward people
6 for their efforts. The Governor and I heard one
7 presentation where a state was talking about
8 actually rewarding monetarily schools who met
9 certain benchmarks that were agreed upon at the
10 beginning of the school year, based off of their
11 accountability system.
12 And that money would actually go to the
13 school to be used by the school to do differing
14 things. And it actually gave people an
15 incentive.
16 There are other states that actually give
17 the people in the school, the staff members of
18 the school, individual stipends for meeting
19 certain goals. Very much like the private
20 sector.
21 And so we also need to not only identify
22 monetary rewards, but also recognitions for
23 people who go above and beyond, and increase
24 these student achievement levels.
25 I also mentioned classroom assessment.
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1 This is, again, the day-to-day assessment that
2 our teachers do, which are done in a variety of
3 ways today. There are 2900 schools, and I would
4 submit that in the vast majority of those
5 schools, the assessment process is done a little
6 bit differently.
7 I went through a college of education, and
8 at the risk of sounding like a college of
9 education basher would tell you, that generally
10 speaking, our colleges of education need to do a
11 much better job of teaching teachers how to
12 assess student learning, to see to it that when
13 they come out of those colleges of education,
14 they've got the tools necessary to gauge where
15 their students are at any given time.
16 And, remember, that assessment is not
17 simply a culminating activity. It's an activity
18 that's supposed to determine what your students
19 are learning, and how best to go about learning
20 it in the future.
21 And we're also going to be discussing here
22 some staff development efforts that this state
23 will be engaged in to help every teacher in the
24 state of Florida, every administrator in the
25 state of Florida, better understand assessments
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1 on a day-to-day basis, and better understand how
2 to craft consistently applied assessments within
3 their schools and within their districts.
4 The statewide assessment. We're calling it
5 FCAT for now. That's Florida Comprehensive
6 Achievement Test. It is state designed. Again,
7 it went out with very rigorous specifications.
8 We knew what we wanted. It's a test that not --
9 will only -- will not only ask students to color
10 in bubbles, as we have in the past -- that's
11 still an appropriate testing methodology -- but
12 it's also going to ask students to answer
13 questions, to write to prove they can with the
14 Florida Writes, as we continue that program. To
15 demonstrate reading comprehension by writing to
16 prove that they've comprehended what they've
17 read, to calculate mathematically to prove that
18 they know how to calculate mathematically, so on
19 and so forth.
20 So it is a combination of norm referenced
21 and criterion referenced methodology that should
22 give us a much more accurate picture of not only
23 what students know, but what they're able to
24 do. And that's something that our business and
25 industry community feels very, very strongly
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1 about.
2 Measure first four standards of Goal 3.
3 Succinctly put: That's reading, writing,
4 arithmetic, and critical thinking skills. The
5 first three are self-explanatory.
6 The business and industry community also
7 now suggest to us, and we know this as
8 educators, that a student's ability to think
9 critically is absolutely essential in the
10 21st century.
11 That being able to read, to write, and
12 calculate mathematically are good tools. But
13 those tools have to be wrapped around the
14 ability to think, to solve problems in the real
15 world. And that's very much where we're headed
16 with our standards and with the assessment that
17 we are creating for the state of Florida.
18 Reading and mathematics, critical thinking
19 we've discussed. Students select a response or
20 perform a task. Again, we've talked about
21 that. Under our current Florida Writes Program,
22 which will continue as a part of this entire
23 package, we are, again, going to ask students to
24 be able to write to prove they can, calculate to
25 prove they can, et cetera.
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1 Florida Writes will continue, as I've
2 said. The high school competency test will
3 continue for the time. That is the test given
4 beginning at the 10th grade level that a student
5 may take and retake until final graduation, and
6 must pass before high school graduation.
7 We talked about this at the Accountability
8 Commission level. It is our full intent that
9 once the test is in place, on-line, a baseline
10 of data created, that we would like to replace
11 the high school competency test with the new
12 statewide assessment test at the 10th grade
13 level. More challenging, more rigorous, and
14 still give students the opportunity once it
15 becomes a high stakes test to pass it prior to
16 12th grade when it has to be taken into
17 consideration for a diploma in the state of
18 Florida.
19 The classroom assessment. This is the
20 day-to-day assessment that we discussed. What
21 we are going to do from the state level is a
22 massive amount of staff development. We'll be
23 talking about the staff development more
24 specifically in a moment.
25 But what we very much want to do is work
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1 with all of the educators in the state of
2 Florida to see to it that every classroom
3 teacher has a better understanding of how to
4 assess students on a day-to-day basis, how to
5 assess students on a day-to-day basis so that it
6 matched -- matches up with the statewide test.
7 But most importantly, so that they can
8 assess student learning as it relates to those
9 state standards that we believe are essential
10 for all students to have before they leave
11 12th grade.
12 So we're going to be developing some models
13 that we'll be sharing with districts on how to
14 do day-to-day assessment within the classroom,
15 consistently applied. We're going to be doing a
16 massive amount of training on what assessment
17 methodologies exist nationally, or -- or around
18 the world that are performance based so that
19 people again, even in their classrooms, are not
20 just asking students to color in bubbles, but
21 are regularly asking students to read and to
22 write and to calculate mathematically, and then
23 have the skills and the tools necessary to be
24 able to grade that work appropriately, and see
25 to it that if reteaching is necessary, it can be
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1 done.
2 And again, our educators on a day-to-day
3 basis do a great job with assessment. But we
4 believe that much more needs to be done as we
5 approach the 21st century. And that's one of
6 our -- should be one of our responsibilities at
7 the state level, is to try to help inculcate
8 that into the entire system.
9 The staff development piece that we talked
10 about -- and I believe you have that packet in
11 front of you -- if not, it's on the left-hand
12 side. It's another draft copy.
13 But what it does is discuss some of our
14 intent as far as where we need to move with
15 staff development. You cannot create standards,
16 you cannot put in place a new external
17 assessment, expect new assessments to take place
18 consistently applied internally, unless you do
19 the kinds of staff development that we believe
20 we need to begin virtually immediately.
21 We have calculated all in all that in this
22 year's proposed budget, if you take all of the
23 staff development dollars that exist in the
24 state of Florida, those that come at the state
25 level, those that come in the federal level,
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1 those that come through the FTE generation, the
2 technology, there is the availability -- or we
3 hope will be the availability, if our budget is
4 passed, or something that's a reasonable
5 facsimile thereof -- of almost 43 million
6 dollars, which is earmarked for staff
7 development activities.
8 Now, I will tell you candidly, that in the
9 past, those staff development dollars have been
10 used in a shotgun approach. We have been, in
11 education, all over the map with staff
12 development activities. Much of that is not
13 bad.
14 But what we believe is, as we work with
15 these standards; the new assessments, internal
16 and external; the kinds of training that we need
17 to do; the residual that this standard and
18 assessment process will also have is to give us
19 the opportunity as a state to once again focus
20 those staff development dollars on teaching and
21 learning. Since that should be the primary
22 focus of the public education system.
23 So what we're going to do is work to
24 harness as a state those 43 million dollars.
25 Whether they're provided to the local district
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1 through FTE, whether they are state driven
2 dollars, create a system within the
3 state of Florida that will allow once again
4 people to focus their dollars in staff
5 development on the business of teaching and
6 learning and assessment strategies, and
7 incorporating those state standards into their
8 curriculum.
9 That's going to be an incredibly important
10 activity that unfolds over the next two years or
11 so, as well.
12 Once the standards are out there, people
13 then have an enormous task. They must
14 incorporate those standards into their everyday
15 curriculum, which in many places may mean
16 rewriting curriculum or changing curriculum,
17 selecting new instructional materials, and we
18 recognize that.
19 And we're going to begin that process this
20 year, carry it on through to the next year, and
21 we'll talk about the time line here in just a
22 minute.
23 But I cannot emphasize enough how it is our
24 intent to once again refocus our staff
25 development efforts and our staff development
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1 dollars on teaching and learning.
2 We would like to create six regional sites
3 around the state of Florida that will actually
4 be the hub of staff development so that there is
5 availability of training trainers right there in
6 each of those six regions.
7 And we also are creating right now, and
8 I think your Cabinet aides have seen first cut,
9 of some of the new technology training that we
10 are developing at the department. This first
11 cut was for the Florida Writes Program, and it
12 would allow us, through CD capabilities, to be
13 able to see every teacher and every
14 administrator, and even our parents and students
15 in the state of Florida, to walk through a
16 technology driven program on the Florida Writes
17 test to see how one creates samples, what sorts
18 of scores are given to that Florida Writes test,
19 and how they can do comparable sorts of
20 preassessment in their own schools, their own
21 classrooms, and their own districts, to ready
22 students to be able to write at that level.
23 And that would begin as early as teachers
24 begin teaching them. From the day they walk
25 in.
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1 We will then be developing the same kind of
2 program for the seven areas that you saw up
3 here. And anywhere that we believe that
4 technology will be a better delivery system than
5 the old mouth to mouth that we used in the past
6 for staff development, we want to try to help
7 the state provide just that. We believe that
8 staff development is a critical piece to all of
9 this.
10 Aligning standards, instruction, and
11 assessment. Again, a vital link in all of
12 this. If you have standards here, assessment
13 here, curriculum here, and it is not integrated,
14 then you have pieces in isolate. I think we've
15 been the isolate route in this state in many
16 places for too long.
17 What we envision is the fact that the
18 standards can be aligned with the day-to-day
19 curriculum utilized in our schools, the
20 instruction and teaching strategies that we want
21 to work on through the staff development process
22 and districts currently work through with staff
23 development, again, refocusing our efforts. And
24 also the assessment.
25 All of these need to be aligned in a
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1 package. Simply put, students need to know and
2 be able to do the following things: The
3 assessment should gauge their ability to know
4 and do the following things. The curriculum,
5 which is the essential component, and the
6 teaching strategies should make certain that
7 those students are able to know those things and
8 can demonstrate them, either on a day-to-day
9 basis, internal assessment; or on that external
10 assessment applied in elementary, middle school,
11 and high school, one time each.
12 (Commissioner Crawford exited the room.)
13 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: The area centers, we
14 talked about, and locally determined solutions.
15 Again, this is very much a locally controlled
16 issue. While it may sound while I'm standing
17 here, state driven, I think our job at the state
18 level as State Board of Education is to set the
19 standards, set the expectation, create the
20 statewide applied assessment.
21 But then, if you will pardon -- pardon the
22 way I say this, get out of their way. And that
23 is very much what we've also asked the Florida
24 Legislature to do this year with our
25 deregulation package.
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1 If we're going to hold people accountable
2 to high standards, high expectations, then it is
3 important that we allow them the flexibility to
4 create curriculum, activities, opportunities,
5 program, select instructional materials, employ
6 teaching strategies that they believe will get
7 the students in their charge to those
8 challenging standards in their appropriate
9 fashion. And that's an important part of all of
10 this.
11 And, by the way, that was very much the
12 overall theme, I think, that came out of
13 Palisades, New York, as well.
14 Staff development we've talked about.
15 There's much more to say on that issue, but
16 that's it for now.
17 Area centers, we talked about creating
18 those regional centers. We have sent out
19 somewhat of an RFP where we're asking people
20 around the state of Florida to look at what it
21 is we're expecting in terms of staff
22 development, and we're asking them to reply,
23 whether it's a community college, whether it's a
24 college, whether a private firm says we can
25 provide that training for you. Whatever it
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1 happens to be, we want people to respond, see
2 what kinds of training it is we expect, who we
3 would like to see trained, and then tell us what
4 they're going to be able to do for our
5 professional educators in the state of Florida
6 in terms of supplying that level of training.
7 Again, we would involve the colleges and
8 universities, not just at the pre-service
9 level. We think the colleges and universities,
10 community colleges and universities, have an
11 absolute stake in the success of all of this.
12 We long have talked about the remediation
13 rate at the community college and college
14 level. We believe that not only the initial
15 training, but the retraining of professional
16 educators should involve those same
17 institutions. And we believe that they need to
18 get involved in all of this as well.
19 By the way, the reception thus far on the
20 parts of the deans and the presidents has been
21 outstanding. I'm going to do a similar
22 presentation to the community college board and
23 the Board of Regents coming up. But both have
24 already acknowledged the need and stand willing,
25 I think, to work with us on pre-service and
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1 in-service.
2 Technology we discussed. You can't say
3 enough about it. It is, as we heard in
4 Palisades, going to -- or should revolutionize
5 teaching and learning. You will always need
6 teachers. But what we recognize is that --
7 (Commissioner Crawford entered the room.)
8 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: -- with instructional
9 materials, with printed text, teachers are also
10 going to need the new technology that's
11 available.
12 Not only to provide direct instruction, but
13 also to manage the instruction that's out there,
14 so we can very much gauge where any individual
15 student is at any given time, so that we have a
16 clear understanding in classrooms as to what our
17 children can know and do on a daily basis,
18 versus a nine-week basis, so we can remediate
19 then, instead of the end.
20 Develop quality assurance. It's very
21 important. Someone asked me -- I think from the
22 press not too long ago -- we did something
23 similar to this with curriculum frameworks a
24 long time ago. As a matter of fact, I was a
25 classroom teacher and helped to work on some of
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1 the curriculum frameworks.
2 People asked what happened to them? Well,
3 they're still there. But I think very important
4 is, there was never an urgency in this state,
5 because we didn't have standards from with which
6 to create focus. The frameworks pretty much
7 were utilized at the secondary level, but may or
8 may not be utilized to the total degree that we
9 think are important.
10 And I think that one of the issues was, we
11 never really developed a quality assurance
12 process. We talked about this with the
13 Accountability Commission, creating a process
14 where the state of Florida can review what is
15 happening in the schools around the state to
16 make certain that the standards are incorporated
17 in the curriculum, make certain that new
18 developing technology is used, make certain
19 that -- that the new teaching strategies with
20 assessments are being developed; and if more is
21 needed, requested.
22 And so we will also be developing a quality
23 assurance plan that will help us to be able to
24 go around the state and help people gauge where
25 they are at any given time.
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1 People think of these as audits. What we
2 think of these as is moving into a district, and
3 looking at where they are, and then more
4 importantly, asking them where they would like
5 to be and how the state and the district can
6 help them to get there, on teaching, on
7 learning, on assessments, on all of these
8 activities.
9 What are the next steps? First of all, we
10 hope to bring back before you in May the
11 contract for the FCAT development, which is
12 again that external assessment that will be
13 created over time. We'll talk about that
14 time line in just a moment. And very much in
15 keeping with what --
16 (Secretary Mortham exited the room.)
17 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: -- most states are
18 doing as far as developing their external
19 assessments. We are right now looking at the
20 grade levels, and it appears as though once in
21 10th, once in 8th, the elementary teachers --
22 and I had a meeting with 50 of the 67 teachers
23 of the year in Tampa not too long ago.
24 They came up with a great recommendation
25 that we're looking at at the elementary level,
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1 and that's not to test at elementary all in one
2 grade level. That is to test reading and
3 writing in 4th grade, and mathematics at
4 5th grade. That it's not absolutely essential
5 that you do it all in one sitting. And it's
6 also a good indicator to involve two different
7 grade levels, it also doesn't put the entire
8 onus at the elementary school level on that
9 major a test being given at just one grade
10 level. So that's something we're looking at
11 right now as well.
12 The communication is critical. We have to
13 communicate with, and again, actively have
14 participate, the people you see there:
15 Educators, parents, and then other
16 stakeholders.
17 It is vital that as we used and -- and
18 tapped the services and the talents of people
19 all over the state to get where we are, that we
20 now need to begin the communication process to
21 the entire state as to where we hope to be over
22 the next several years; and most importantly,
23 how it is we hope to get there; and then utilize
24 those stakeholders in further developing our
25 staff development opportunities, further
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1 developing many of the issues that still remain
2 out there. And we've got to involve those
3 people. And we're developing the plans as to
4 how we would communicate those kinds of things
5 even now.
6 I already alluded to the fact that very
7 important to me, and I think you, as State Board
8 members, is communicating with those mothers and
9 fathers. Actually putting in their hand, as
10 some states have, in easy to read, easy to
11 understand fashion, what those standards are.
12 So mom and dad can see.
13 If their child is in elementary, middle, or
14 high, at any given time, what the
15 state of Florida really believes is important
16 for that youngster to know and be able to do.
17 We think that'll also help the level of
18 parental involvement by truly making them a
19 stakeholder in the day-to-day learning that goes
20 on in our schools and the teaching thereof.
21 (Secretary Mortham entered the room.)
22 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: We also want to
23 involve as a stakeholder -- continue to involve,
24 the business community. They were a vital link
25 in what happened in Palisades.
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1 They are crying for educational reform.
2 They believe that strong standards are
3 necessary, they believe that strong
4 accountability is vital, and they absolutely
5 seem committed to the fact in this state,
6 through the Council of 100,
7 Associated Industries, Chamber of Commerce, and
8 groups that I haven't named, committed to trying
9 to help education and educators do the enormous
10 job of seeing to it that children can achieve
11 those standards.
12 They are the recipients of our product.
13 They are the people who will engage these
14 youngsters at some point in the world of work.
15 Continual improvement. This process, the
16 reason I have asked this to be put there is, I
17 want you to understand something very
18 important. This is a living process.
19 At no time should we as a state be able to
20 say, there, it's finished. We are constantly
21 going to need to look at the standards. Once
22 they are ultimately approved on a regular basis,
23 to make certain that they stay challenging and
24 rigorous, and based on what our children can
25 know and be able to do. It's important that we
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1 constantly look at that assessment system to
2 make certain that it's right for the state of
3 Florida.
4 One idea that I took away from Palisades
5 was, there's constantly the question about --
6 some of the questions that are asked on programs
7 like Florida Writes, some people might feel that
8 the question isn't appropriate or it's too
9 vague.
10 And what another state does -- that I very
11 much am interested in, they annually put
12 together a team of people: Teachers, business
13 people, parents, et cetera, to review the
14 questions that are going to be asked in that
15 given year. And if they find one that's
16 controversial, they agree to throw it out; if
17 they find one that's vague, they agree to throw
18 it out, or make it less vague.
19 So you constantly have to involve the
20 stakeholders in this process. This entire
21 process will constantly be up for review.
22 Staff development never ends. Please don't
23 get the idea that the plan we're developing has
24 a beginning and an ending. It is an ongoing
25 process that will constantly need to be updated,
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1 revamped and revitalized to see to it it's
2 always on the cutting edge of what our teachers
3 and our administrators and our parents need in
4 order to do the job that we're asking them to
5 do.
6 The student standards themselves, I alluded
7 to that. These are the standards that
8 ultimately we will ask you to approve coming in
9 the month of May.
10 But recognize, you are the State Board of
11 Education, and we will be bringing those
12 standards back to you if at any point we feel as
13 though they need to be upgraded, or they need to
14 be changed or altered in the future.
15 The time line. 95-96. We're in the middle
16 of -- or near the end, actually, of the
17 development of standards, assessment, and staff
18 development.
19 Development of standards. We again in the
20 month of May hope that we can have not only the
21 final version of the math and language arts that
22 you have before you today, but all of those
23 other seven subject areas for your review during
24 that month of May. And we're finishing those
25 and working on those even as we speak.
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1 The actual training will begin virtually
2 immediately. We desperately need to get on with
3 the business of staff development. As I've
4 suggested, we've already sent out the initial
5 RFP to start to get some responses from out
6 there in the state as to what people think they
7 can do for us in terms of our need for staff
8 development.
9 The FCAT itself, we would like to be in a
10 position to be able to finalize the external
11 assessment -- the one we'll give once in
12 elementary, once in middle, once in high --
13 field test that during next year.
14 Now, the field test is simply a process
15 issue. To gauge level of questions, to get
16 feedback from the participants, as to how the
17 questions were asked, what the responses to --
18 look like, were there any problems with the
19 process.
20 The following year is 97-98. That's where
21 we would intend to fully administer for the
22 first time the FCAT to all students in those
23 grades appropriate: Elementary, middle school,
24 and high school. That would be for purposes of
25 identifying a baseline of data.
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1 Any time you're going to use a test of this
2 significance, you need to first make certain
3 that you develop that baseline of data. This
4 would also give us two full years of staff
5 development, of curriculum integration, of
6 teaching strategies, whatever it happens to be.
7 And teachers would know that in 97-98, we would
8 be administering that test to gather a baseline
9 of data that we could use in future
10 administrations.
11 And then by 88-89, the test would be
12 administered. So you know, currently we have
13 on -- in law, the standardized testing for the
14 appropriate grades today. We would not want to
15 change those until this test is ready to be put
16 in its place in its entirety.
17 Currently there are seven different
18 standardized tests being given in the state of
19 Florida, and we have three grades that are
20 required to report their results to the
21 state of Florida.
22 Those are the tests that we currently use
23 to identify critically low performing schools.
24 We will continue to use that testing methodology
25 until this test is ready for full implementation
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1 in the state of Florida, and that's an important
2 issue.
3 That is the time line that we would hope
4 for. It is an ambitious time line, there's no
5 doubt about that.
6 But let me tell you, the good news is is
7 that we are behind a few states, we are far
8 ahead of the most -- of most of the states in
9 the state of Florida.
10 People who are looking to begin this
11 process, as it was discussed in Palisades, are
12 really looking, as President Clinton called for,
13 for a two-year journey to get where some states
14 already are, and I think where this state is
15 about to be.
16 We have also, I think, in this state gone a
17 little further than some states, in that we
18 currently have the school improvement process
19 already in our school system. We already have
20 stakeholder involvement more than many other
21 states via that process.
22 We've established our state goals. We've
23 established and are establishing the other
24 expectations that go along with readiness to
25 start school, and with those other goal areas
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1 that are not listed up here. We will have
2 identifiable expectations for schools and
3 districts on all of the goals in the state of
4 Florida.
5 So we are very close to putting together a
6 total package of classroom, of school, of
7 stakeholder, and of statewide involvement to see
8 to it clearly that our youngsters are able to
9 know and do the kinds of things that they have
10 to do in the 21st century to be successful.
11 You've seen this before. This is not a
12 commercial message. It's simply that it seems
13 as though every time in the state you try to
14 explain one piece of the educational pie, people
15 hear about that and think that's the only thing
16 that you're discussing, and, therefore, think
17 it's being discussed in an -- as an isolate.
18 All of these pieces of the pie we think are
19 absolutely critical to changing for the better
20 all that we do in public education. We do so
21 many things so very well. And we think with
22 these kinds of changes, we can increase student
23 learning, we can increase student achievement.
24 We think, if you give parents more choices,
25 as is being -- are being discussed upstairs
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1 today, as you give much more local control. And
2 while I appreciate the waiver process, I have
3 been a long believer that a waiver is a: Mother
4 May I.
5 If something is shaky enough that you would
6 allow someone not to do it, then you need to get
7 rid of it and allow people to do it as they see
8 appropriate, and that's the accountab-- or the
9 deregulation package we have being taken up
10 upstairs.
11 Safe schools and discipline. While that
12 sounds like a by-product, all of the things that
13 we've talked about become very difficult, if not
14 impossible, if schools are unsafe and
15 undisciplined for children and for teachers.
16 Professionalization reform. You're going
17 to be hearing a lot more about some of these
18 issues in the months to come. But we need, as
19 we approach the 21st century, to take a serious
20 look at the professional educational community,
21 to make certain that what we ask of our
22 professional educators, and what we ask in
23 return, is appropriate to meet the needs of the
24 21st century.
25 You can't reform education, unless you look
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1 at that incredibly important component, which is
2 the professional educational community.
3 The funding issues being discussed
4 upstairs. Part of that is the Florida Lottery,
5 of course; the utilization of technology; the
6 lifelong learning issue. And some people get
7 the stereotypical idea that that means dealing
8 with senior citizens. This means --
9 (Governor Chiles exited the room.)
10 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: -- dealing with
11 youngsters from the day they walk into their
12 first classroom to the day they exit their last
13 classroom. Trying to create a better union
14 between pre-K through 12, community colleges,
15 state universities, vocational technical
16 schools, to see to it that there's an
17 educational opportunity out there for every
18 citizen of the state of Florida that's right to
19 meet their needs.
20 Work force development is something else
21 we're working on right now to try to put all the
22 players at the table, to see to it that training
23 and retraining opportunities exist out there for
24 the citizens of the state of Florida.
25 The involvement of the business and
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1 industry community we've talked about already.
2 It is absolutely essential, and I don't mean
3 that to pay lip service. I'm going to tell you
4 this: I don't think we can do this without the
5 business and industry community acting as
6 partners in the 21st century.
7 Takes us back to accountability and high
8 standards. And we believe that once we finally
9 create a focal point of high standards; high
10 expectations; create that external assessment,
11 as well as deal with the day-to-day assessment
12 process in our teaching strategies, we think
13 that there's no reason that that can't provide
14 the linchpin to what all the other changes can
15 hopefully provide for all of us in public
16 education; and most importantly, make certain
17 that our youngsters take a backseat to no one in
18 the 21st century when they're trying to crack a
19 good quality of life for themself and their
20 family.
21 I underscore again, and then we'll end,
22 that all of the material you have is in draft
23 form. We're bringing this to you for
24 information today. But we very much wanted to
25 see -- wanted you to see, especially on the
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1 heels of the national summit, where the
2 state of Florida is in relationship to what we
3 believe are some critical items that we've got
4 to take up for the 21st century.
5 So with that, I think I've covered
6 everything that I need to cover, and would be
7 glad to try to entertain any questions that you
8 all have.
9 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Commissioner Nelson.
10 TREASURER NELSON: Frank, I want to commend
11 you for this. I think you're headed -- we are
12 headed in the right direction.
13 I particularly want to commend you for this
14 little brochure. This is brief, it's to the
15 point, it's clear, and it says what this whole
16 process about this State Standards is.
17 Now, could you repeat for me, please, about
18 the teacher training? You said that there's
19 41 million in your budget with regard to that?
20 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: All total,
21 Commissioner, and let me break it out for you.
22 We've got federal dollars, we call it direct
23 impact dollars requested. That's educational --
24 (Governor Chiles entered the room.)
25 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: -- enhancement
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1 centers; teacher assessment training; Title VI
2 money, which is federal money for math and
3 science, performance assessment system for
4 students with disabilities.
5 Because, remember, when you create an
6 assessment system like this, you have to
7 remember that you're also going to be testing
8 students with disabilities. That's one chunk.
9 That's four million seven hundred and ninety
10 thousand.
11 Another chunk is two million six hundred
12 and forty thousand, and that's for Academies for
13 Excellence in Teaching, Florida League of
14 Teachers, Education Reform Training, School
15 Community Professional Development Systems.
16 And then we also have 30 percent of our
17 technology money that is earmarked for staff
18 development and training. And that should come,
19 based on what we've requested, to about
20 21 million dollars in our revised budget, as
21 well as the $6 per FTE in the state of Florida,
22 which is required to be dedicated to staff
23 development. That is another thirty-six million
24 dollars.
25 And if Goals 2000 money is still available,
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1 it is our intent to request Goals 2000 money to
2 help augment staff development activities around
3 the state of Florida, specifically on the issues
4 of teaching and learning.
5 So that comes to a total of 43 million
6 dollars, Commissioner.
7 TREASURER NELSON: Well, that's good.
8 You no doubt have been seeing the spate of
9 recent articles nationally about our concern
10 about technology, which you've heard me repeat
11 over and over.
12 And -- and the fact is that they're getting
13 computers into the classrooms, but it's not
14 doing any good, because the teachers aren't
15 being trained to teach the students to use the
16 newer technology.
17 And so, you know, it's -- it's -- there's
18 an analogy -- a parallel here that's very clear
19 that with all of these standards, you've got to
20 be able to get that trained teacher in there so
21 that they can apply these --
22 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Yes, sir.
23 TREASURER NELSON: -- standards.
24 Thanks.
25 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Yes, sir.
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1 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Governor --
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, ma'am.
3 SECRETARY MORTHAM: -- I'd, too, like to
4 compliment Commissioner Brogan and -- and the
5 entire staff. I think they've done a wonderful
6 job of putting this all together, easily
7 understood.
8 The thing that was most exciting to me was
9 on your mathematics component, particularly
10 grades 9 through 12, the words: And used in the
11 real world was used more than once. And I think
12 that from my vantage point, that's real
13 important. I think the thing that we've missed
14 is the component of relating to the real world
15 for students throughout the process.
16 And my only question is is that if,
17 in fact, a student graduated with this entire
18 packet being completed, we can safely assume
19 then that there will be no need for remediation
20 at the -- at the college level. I'm sure that
21 the answer to that is --
22 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Oh.
23 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Yes.
24 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Yes, ma'am.
25 SECRETARY MORTHAM: But have -- but are we
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1 sure that the colleges -- we're all mixing this
2 together so that the colleges also know that
3 when this is finished --
4 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Yes, Secretary. We
5 actually involved community college and
6 university people in the creation of these.
7 We also utilized the business standards
8 that came out of the SCANS report to make
9 certain that we had our vocational technical
10 people covered as well, and the higher level
11 skills necessary beyond just academia.
12 So, yes, ma'am. The idea is that if a
13 student can move through our continuum and
14 have -- at a minimum. We hope that students
15 will skyrocket above these. But these are --
16 are the kinds of rigorous, challenging standards
17 that would lead us to believe that our
18 remediation rate should drop proportionately
19 over time as these are fully implemented.
20 That's a big part.
21 You also mention real world. The
22 governors, including ours, and the CEOs who were
23 in Palisades used that phrase, real world, more
24 in a day-and-a-half than I thought possible,
25 really calling upon us to create real world
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1 opportunities for students.
2 And, again, in the assessment, to make
3 certain that they could actually think
4 critically and solve a real world problem,
5 rather than just be able to color in a bubble.
6 That real world issue has come up time and
7 time again.
8 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Well, and I don't think
9 that there's any question, without the training
10 component -- which I know everybody up here, and
11 you in particular, are concerned that we get
12 that training component under control.
13 But without that component, there's no way
14 that this actually can happen because -- and it
15 dates back to when -- when we were probably in
16 school. Particularly in mathematics, it has not
17 been related to the real world.
18 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: That's right.
19 SECRETARY MORTHAM: And so that training
20 component is very important that we make sure
21 that when, in fact, somebody is taught the
22 Pythagorean theorem, that there is some world
23 com-- real world component with that. Or else,
24 you know, it's kind of just out there.
25 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Net bans,
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1 for example.
2 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Yeah. Exactly.
3 Very good.
4 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Thank you.
5 SECRETARY MORTHAM: That's a good one.
6 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: I was paying
7 attention.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: I want to certainly
9 compliment the Commissioner. I also want to
10 compliment the Accountability Commission, which
11 the Commissioner serves as the -- as the
12 Co-Chairman.
13 I -- and the Legislature for the steps that
14 they've taken with the -- the help of the State
15 Board of Education and the Department of
16 Education to get us to where we are. I think
17 with this report, we're beginning to see some
18 flesh on the skeleton. And we're beginning to
19 see if -- an end process, as we see when we
20 expect to get these demonstrated.
21 I think we will go back to 1991, we began
22 to see the beginning of this process, and a lot
23 of steps that have taken place from then to
24 bring us up to that.
25 And I'm just delighted to see that it is
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1 beginning to really take shape now. That's --
2 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: Well, Governor, and I
3 want to thank you, and especially your point
4 man, who's been Buddy MacKay. You mentioned
5 that he and I are the Co-Chairs of the Statewide
6 Accountability Commission.
7 And he has been more than supportive of
8 everything that we have been trying to do. It
9 goes back to that issue of -- of
10 bipartisanship. I really don't think we're
11 going to be able to do for education what it is
12 we must in an -- in a partisan fashion.
13 And I think Governor MacKay, and I; working
14 together with the Accountability Commission;
15 working together with staff; and most
16 importantly, working together with the people of
17 the state of Florida to hear what it is that
18 they're asking us to do, and then take up the
19 cause, I think as you mentioned, is starting to
20 put some flesh on the skeleton.
21 And we appreciate, as always, the State
22 Board of Education members, each and every one
23 of you. You only get credit for what is seen up
24 here.
25 But for those in the audience and those in
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1 other places, the State Board of Education
2 members also spend an enormous amount of time
3 behind the scenes working with individual staff
4 members, their own and ours and others, on
5 understanding these issues to make certain when
6 they sit here, they can do the job that they
7 have to do. And we deeply appreciate that.
8 I wish all states had State Board of
9 Educations that got as involved as you all do.
10 And we thank you very much for that.
11 So with that, Governor, I will conclude my
12 remarks and let you know that we'll be back with
13 much more. And again, thanks for indulging me
14 for the presentation.
15 But we thought it was very important at
16 this point in time that you see it and you have
17 the chance to ask some questions.
18 Thanks, Governor.
19 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you, sir.
20 SECRETARY MORTHAM: I move to accept the
21 report.
22 GOVERNOR CHILES: It's been moved and --
23 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
24 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- seconded.
25 Without objection, the report is accepted.
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1 DR. BEDFORD: Item number 6 is the proposed
2 contract for the development of the Florida
3 Comprehensive Assessment.
4 We would respectfully ask to withdraw that
5 item at this time.
6 COMMISSIONER BROGAN: So move.
7 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Second.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
9 Without objection, the motion to withdraw
10 is approved.
11
