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Paddle Presentation

Publisher Jeff M. Hardison accepts a paddle trophy on Tuesday (June 18) from Keith Maynard, president of the Wild Hog Canoe Race organization. The paddle trophy was to ‘Jeff & Sharon Hardison’ as thanks for their continued support of the canoe race that helps raise money for the Levy County Association for Retarded Citizens. Maynard has been an instrumental part of the Wild Hog Canoe Race since the mid-1980s. He has helped with organizing the event as well as the building of the famous paddle-shaped trophies. Maynard is a four-time champion of the race in the Recreation Class (1987, 1988, 1989, and 2008) in addition to three, second place finishes in the Experienced Class (2010, 2011, and 2012) and a third place finisher in the Recreation Class (1990). ‘Sharon and I are glad to have helped the Wild Hog Canoe Race again this year,’ Hardison said. ‘The main thing is helping the clients of LARC, but we love seeing all those people competing and having fun with canoes too.’
Photo by Daniel Maynard

Robert Hastings blasts
state grading of schools

Among the people present for the meeting Tuesday (June 18) are from left Levy County School Board members (from left) Paige Brookins, Rick Turner, Robert Philpot and Cameron Asbell, and Superintendent of Schools Robert O. Hastings. School Board member Chris Cowart is in Washington, D.C., with the Levy County Safety Patrol.

Story and Photo
By Jeff M. Hardison © June 18, 2013
     BRONSON – Dr. Patrick Wnek, the director of curriculum for the Levy County School District joined Superintendent of Schools Robert Hastings as they told the School Board on Tuesday morning (June 18) about some issues with schools being graded.
     Dr. Wnek provided a report that showed Levy County schools showed gains in test results for mathematics in third through fifth grades; in reading for ninth and tenth grades; and in science for fifth grade. The district exceeded the state average on end-of-course exams in algebra 1, geometry, biology and U.S. History, Wnek said.
     The state has not released a timetable, however, for the announcement of new school grades, Wnek noted.
     School grade rules and FCAT cut scores have caused concern for schools throughout Florida, Wnek said. Most recently, elementary schools all over Florida have experienced the greatest impact by the state’s increasing of grade level cut scores. Elementary schools will bear the brunt in the coming year, he said.
     To understand the measurement and evaluation of students learning in Florida today requires more than a layperson can grasp. And, according to Superintendent of Schools Hasting, the grades given to schools are arbitrary.
     For instance, The Florida Department of Education last year had a rule to allow a school to be dropped by only one letter grade per year. That rule has expired. Today, a school may be dropped two or more letter grades from its previous ranking, Wnek said.
     So the school that showed a “C” last year when it had actually dropped to a “D” as a result of the methods used by the state to award grades to schools, may be listed as a “D” or an “F” school this year, if the measurement presents that as the grade.
     The new cut scores are going to have a dramatic effect on every school in Florida, Wnek said. While there were 52 to 54 percent of the schools rated as an “A” school last year that will drop to the low 30 percent range in number of “A” schools this year, he predicted.
     Administrators know how hard the students work to learn and they know the effort put forth by teachers to help the students learn, Wnek said. As lower grades are announced for Levy County and other school districts, Wnek said, it will create concerns in communities around the state.
     By inflating the writing scores last year, Wnek said, due to the low scores from tests, an improvement by schools this year will be offset.
     Hastings pulled no punches.
     He spent Wednesday evening, Thursday and Friday at a statewide meeting in Tampa for superintendents with Florida Commissioner of Education Dr. Tony Bennett. There were many matters that needed more discussion, Hastings said, but the focus of the conferences was on school grading.
     One policy that superintendents disagreed with the State Board of Education about was school boards having to pay tuition to community colleges for public high school students taking dual enrollment classes, Hastings said.
     “This was a tremendous hit to our budget,” he said.
     It is unfair to support community colleges “on the backs of the k-12 system,” Hastings said. There was an idea shared to bill the community colleges with costs the public high schools experience due to dual enrollment, Hastings said, such as sending them an invoice for the cost of counseling those students, and the added expense of paperwork required for those students.
     Some community college presidents were sympathetic to the burden being placed on public schools, Hastings said. College of Central Florida President James D. Henningsen, Ed.D., was understanding of the issue, Hastings said.
     “Some of them were very unsympathetic to the K-12 system,” he added.
     Beyond this issue and several others, schools’ grades became the topic that kept being discussed, he said.
     “Superintendents across the state are livid over what the State Board of Education is doing to the public school system as far as school grades go,” Hastings said.
     For instance, in Hillsborough County, two elementary schools received “F”s last year, and this year there are 20 elementary schools projected to get “F”s in Hillsborough County, he said.
     All five Levy County elementary school principals were brought to tears, Hastings said, because of their projected grades.
     “Those that normally receive ‘A’s, like Williston Elementary, are projected for a ‘C,’ or an ‘A-B’ school going to a ‘C’ or a ‘D.’ It’s devastating for these principals that pour their hearts into it.
     “School grades are something that is arbitrated,” he continued. “I did say this to the commissioner, and to the governor and the staff in a public forum as the superintendent. “
     Hasting then shared a statement which many staff members have heard him express before.
     “The state can do whatever it wants to,” he said, “in regard to school grades. They manipulate them however they want to manipulate them.”
     He went on to mention that in 1999, when school grades started, there were seven public high schools in the state that were graded as “A.” Ninety-two percent of all elementary schools made “A”s or “B”s that year, he continued and 84 percent of all middle schools and combination schools made “A”s or “B”s.
     He said the state board of education then wanted to be sure everyone “felt good” and “did wonderful.”
     “Elementary teachers and principals thought they were just gurus in teaching,” Hastings said, “because they were all ‘A’s and ‘B’s – all over the state.”
     After a few years, the state board of education arranged it so the middle schools had a heavy set of high grades, he continued.  All of sudden the shift went to the middle schools, Hastings said, and those schools’ grades went up.
     Three years ago, the state decided to help high schools with better grades. So the state leaders in education changed the format to access school grades, he said.
     “And now, high schools are doing well,” he said. “Our high schools have done well the last three years in Levy County. And they will continue to, until the state decides otherwise. But they can manipulate the grades and make them so that as many schools pass, or as many schools don’t pass, as what they want.”
     Hastings expressed his opinion to Commissioner Bennett.
     “What I told the commissioner was that it was his song,” Hastings said, “and he could make them dance however he wanted to make them dance.”
     (Florida Commissioner of Education Tony Bennett is NOT the singer who was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on Aug. 3, 1926.)
     “The grades (of schools) are arbitrarily chosen by the state,” Hastings said.
     Hastings said he put no stock in the grades awarded to schools. However, he does put stock in the performance shown by students who have learned with help from their teachers.
     Test scores in relation to surrounding counties and to similar rural counties, he said, and in relation to the state average, show the county has some bright spots. The end-of-course exams reflect this, he said.
     One example of this is Levy County’s third grade math scores being in the top 10 of the state, he said.
     However, there are some areas where students are not performing at or above the state level, he said.
     “I do not believe there is any reason for our children, our students, to be performing below grade level,” he told the School Board. “And these things have to be addressed. I’ve said this to you, and to everybody else, education takes place in the classroom. It’s an interaction between the student and the teacher.”
    Areas where performance is below expectations must be addressed, he said.
    “It’s not about teacher evaluation or teacher performance for pay,” Hastings said. “It’s about what are we doing to get our children ready for their next step in life?”
     Hastings pledged to take the needed steps to assure that students will be able to perform adequately.

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