School Board query

Yes, and it is heartbreaking. I work with college students every day who have no idea how to think...critical thinking skills have had no place in their high school experience. (This certainly is not true of every student--but, unfortunately, it is true of the majority I see.)

Instead, they are concerned with process. Asked to write a 1,000 word essay, they approach it by asking how to begin paragraph one; where to put the thesis statement...can I say this, or that...they are attempting to write as they would take a true or false test!

None of them has any idea of how to convey a message, because none of them has ever been taught to find the answer to the question: what do I want to communicate?

It is so bad that I designed a Writing Class for them and called it: "Beyond the Five Paragraphs"..apparently the English portion of the FCAT requires them to know how to write Five Paragraphs. It is pathetic.

We simply must do a better job teaching our students critical thinking skills; teachers can not do that when they are boxed in to only teaching so called
appropriate materials.

If we allow our students to explore and learn how to use their imaginations, they and we as a society will be better off for it!

Her resume could say 1 year and she is still more qualified.

Your factchecking is more like nitpicking.

Why? Why would she be more qualified? Her great education in our great and glorious colleges that attempt to teach you not to think for ourselves but to walk in lock step with what a particular professor believes? While it is true that was not the case when Ms. Wilkerson went to college, every indication I see now says it is so today. As I have said repeatedly and what has been totally ignored by the "intellectuals" on this board, is you don't need a college degree to serve intelligently and effectively on a school board. You need "common sense" and the ability to listen, analyze and act on suggestions made to you by your constituents. It helps if you also realize that if you raise the millage rate you also raise taxes.

Several responders in this thread have commented that post high school education isn't as important a qualification as other qualities.

Education does matter. That's the purpose of a school board -- to see that students receive a top-notch, broad education. To "pooh-pooh" that quality in a candidate seems to go against the very thing we're working for in the school system. If "street smarts" is all we need -- why spend more tax dollars to improve Walton County schools?

One of the goals of secondary education is to prepare students for college. We need school board members who understand what that means. We need school board members who can evaluate the weaknesses or strengths in a curriculum-- because budget considerations are often at stake. We need school board members who have read broadly and can look at the arts and literature through the eyes of an educator.

And it is absolutely necessary to have a structured higher education to do this, huh? Of course education matters. It doesn't have to be in the form of a college degree to be effective, however. Oh, and by the way, we are so intent on preparing EVERY student for college that in many of our schools we have lost sight of the fact that not every individual wants to or should go to college. We need to educate our students that desire it in the vocational arts as well. I am not sure we do so in our schools here. Please enlighten me if such is the case.

Certainly one of the characteristics of a top-notch school system is its ability to challenge ALL students, including the top 25%.

That's my concern about a School Board that "cherry picks" which literature students can read, which plays they can produce. . .How can you ever have excellent AP classes when the curriculum is limited by the values of a certain segment of the population? How can students learn to evaluate literature or scientific theories THEMSELVES if our school system does it for them ---keeping everything but the most conservative/bland out of the libraries and out of the curriculum?

Teaching students to be "critical thinkers" means they have to be confronted with ideas or thoughts that may be foreign to them and their values. How else will they be challenged to invent, to create, to dream -- if all they are taught is to accept the status quo? "We should be teaching students HOW to think; instead we are teaching WHAT to think."

We should be teaching students how to read and write.

if robert actually strung up an effigy of obama and had children hit it as a pinata, what in the heck is he doing running for any office here????? this is the first i've heard of it. it certainly makes me glad i didn't vote for him!

if robert actually strung up an effigy of obama and had children hit it as a pinata, what in the heck is he doing running for any office here????? this is the first i've heard of it. it certainly makes me glad i didn't vote for him!

I sure do wish someone would show me a picture of Robert holding a pinata shaped like a black man. The one I saw showed a pinata that looked like a blue donkey.

I sure do wish someone would show me a picture of Robert holding a pinata shaped like a black man. The one I saw showed a pinata that looked like a blue donkey.

wouldn't the addition of a picture of someone attached to a pinata personalize it to an effigy?

ef⋅fi⋅gy
   /ˈɛfɪdʒi/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ef-i-jee]
?noun, plural -gies.
1. a representation or image, esp. sculptured, as on a monument.
2. a crude representation of someone disliked, used for purposes of ridicule.
?Idiom
3. in effigy, in public view in the form of an effigy: a leader hanged in effigy by the mob.

So does anyone know why Robert Nelson hasn't commented on this thread? He is normally so quick to respond, I find it interesting that he is M.I.A here.

It is only a guess but probably because he has the good sense not to do so. After all, the whole thread, except for two or three of us, is negative toward him.

wouldn't the addition of a picture of someone attached to a pinata personalize it to an effigy?

ef⋅fi⋅gy
   /ˈɛfɪdʒi/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ef-i-jee]
?noun, plural -gies.
1. a representation or image, esp. sculptured, as on a monument.
2. a crude representation of someone disliked, used for purposes of ridicule.
?Idiom
3. in effigy, in public view in the form of an effigy: a leader hanged in effigy by the mob.

No. I haven't seen a picture of the picture of Obama, just a rumor that there was one. And unless Robert was the one who built the pinata or pasted the supposed picture - which has not been a part of ANY version of the rumor - I don't have a problem with it.

And I REALLY have a problem with people finding the untimely holding of a stupid pinata - which, yes, was a lapse in judgement - worse than the opposing candidate announcing on the radio that the decisions of the School Board don't raise or lower taxes, just the millage rate.

"We need to educate our students that desire it in the vocational arts as well. I am not sure we do so in our schools here. Please enlighten me if such is the case. "

I totally agree that our current educational system is a cookie cutter one -- one size has to fit all. My previous comment related to AP Classes for the 25% of the students who are outstanding achievers and want to be accepted into competitive colleges and universities.

We do need to have a curriculum for those students who want to learn a trade and have employment by the time they leave high school. But, with the comments on this thread -- NO ONE wants the Board to raise millage. Providing equipment, teachers, buildings etc. for a top-notch vocational curricumlum would certainly require additional funding. What are our priorities and how will we pay for them?

Funding Levels Per Student levels are readily available from the State Department of Education and are broken down into four categories. Regular, Exceptional, At-Risk and Vocational. These are the comparitive numbers for Walton and Okaloosa County school systems.

Data is from FDOE and the latest available data is for the 2006-2007 school year.

Regular
Walton $7,226
Okaloosa $6,531

Exceptional
Walton $10,763
Okaloosa $9,560

At-Risk
Walton $ 6,549
Okaloosa $5,885

Vocational
Walton $10,610
Okaloosa $5,974


Interesting when you make the comparison to graduation rates, test scores, reading level, drop-out rates, Capital expenditures per student and the perception of the overall quality of education received in schools.

Bob:
You should have learned the facts never get in the way of a good political rant. Who cares about numbers like you present when we can talk about someone playing pin the tail on the liberal or some other such game.

No. I haven't seen a picture of the picture of Obama, just a rumor that there was one. ...I don't have a problem with it.

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So perhaps I was wrong about Obama on the jackass's butt. Honestly, if I had been asked to hold the dam thing, the only thing I would have been worried about is whether I was tall enough to avoid personal bodily injury from getting hit with a stick.

Take care.

Graduation Rate Comparison Okaloosa vs Walton

We want them all !

Okaloosa County Graduation Rate

2006-2007 - 84.7%
2004-2005 - 85.2%

Walton County Graduation Rate

2006-2007 - 74.2%
2004-2005 - 77.8%

Source FDOE Website: Data is for the 2006 -2007 School year

The following surrounding system have a higher graduation rate than Walton County.

Bay, Okaloosa, Franklin, Santa Rosa and Calhoun

Why ?

Funding Levels Per Student levels are readily available from the State Department of Education and are broken down into four categories. Regular, Exceptional, At-Risk and Vocational. These are the comparitive numbers for Walton and Okaloosa County school systems.

Data is from FDOE and the latest available data is for the 2006-2007 school year.

Regular
Walton $7,226
Okaloosa $6,531

Exceptional
Walton $10,763
Okaloosa $9,560

At-Risk
Walton $ 6,549
Okaloosa $5,885

Vocational
Walton $10,610
Okaloosa $5,974


Interesting when you make the comparison to graduation rates, test scores, reading level, drop-out rates, Capital expenditures per student and the perception of the overall quality of education received in schools.

Interesting figures and they bring about some questions from one without children in the school system.
1. I note that funding for the exceptional category is above all others. What specific programs are in place to assist these students?
2. Right behind the exceptional category is vocational. Do the schools have the type workshops necessary to train these students in the specific vocational categories?
I recently returned from my 60th class reunion in Pueblo, Colorado and one of the events during the reunion was a tour of the present high school facilities. I was amazed at the laboratories available to the students. They were first class as far as equipment was concerned. Also, the automotive shop and carpentry shops would have paralleled any of the professional shops in business in the city. Do we have these types of facilities available to the students of Walton County? If not, why not? Again, since I have no children in school, I am not aware of the curriculum and facilities available to our students but would certainly be willing to hear more about our situation. To me, these are the type of questions and the pursuit of answers members of our school board should be seeking.

And good questions they are Andy.

Does your child deserve a in-field certified teacher

Comparison of Teachers teaching out of field.

Much has been said about the growth in teacher salaries in the past few years. Reported to be 35% by the incumbent in the school board race.

How is Walton County Doing in this key State Evaluation Point ?

WORSE !

Walton County had 10.5 % its teachers who were not "in-Field" in 2006-2007 vs 3.3% in 2002-2003.

Franklin County had 0% Okaloosa 5.5% Santa Rosa 6.0%.

Frankling county has not had a teacher teaching out of field in any year since the 2002-2003 school year.

Walton Counties % of teachers with advanced degrees has dropped from 35.4% to 30.9.

Walton Counties average years of experience in teaching has dropped from 12.6 years to 9.5%

Why?

Honestly, if I had been asked to hold the dam thing, the only thing I would have been worried about is whether I was tall enough to avoid personal bodily injury from getting hit with a stick.

Not being directly associated with the beating of the effigy of a presidential candidate? Don't get me wrong, you and Robert are of course free to behave any way you like. It just doesn't seem like that's the most positive image a political candidate wants to be presenting to the voting public. Different value system, I suppose.

It would appear that many are so entrenched on one thing that they have failed to ask this question?

Why should she be given another term to address the needs when she has done nothing about these Basic criteria used in an overall evaluation of the system not just FCAT scores. Someone needs to ask what she would do about them.

Can our children and grandchildren afford another four years of the same failed leadership?

It would appear that many are so entrenched on one thing that they have failed to ask this question?

Why should she be given another term to address the needs when she has done nothing about these Basic criteria used in an overall evaluation of the system not just FCAT scores. Someone needs to ask what she would do about them.

Can our children and grandchildren afford another four years of the same failed leadership?

No we can't but we will have to if people do not learn to vote on the issues instead of continuing to make local politics a popularity contest.

Hey Bob: You know me, I don't hide from numbers good or bad. The certification number you mentioned has me real concerned. I have tried to be diligent the past eight years about hiring teachers out of field. In fact, I will have to credit Donnie Richardson for crusading on that issue. Do the numbers you have reflect out of field with ESOL or just straight out of field?

Also, frankly, the graduation rate does not suprise me. We discontinued an important drop out prevention program or graduation progam two years ago that I believe was making an important dent in the graduation rate It was called the "CAPS" program. As you know,during my re-election campaign, the graduation rate/drop out rate problem was one I want to to attack. I have the staff now looking a specific groups of students to find out what the true rate is. What I mean by that is they are tracking a group of ninth graders through the twelth grade (that graduated last year) to determine what happened to those that did not graduate. For instance if 200 students entered Walton High School as 9th graders and only 140 graduated four years later, what happened to the other 60. Did they actually drop out, transfer, go to the Vo-Tech (Career Developlment School), receive a GED, graduate early (now very possible) or did something else happen to them?I don't think we can attack the problem without knowing someting about where they are going.

We have an outstanding school to work (formerly known as Vo-Tech) program in this county. We just do a horrible job promoting it and convincing students and parents that is a good option for their kids. The actual program is located in DFS. It is called the Career Development Center. We are now working with those staffers at the Center to move portions of the program into the various high schools. That is expensive, but, doable. In the DFS Career Development Center, there are outstanding programs for automotive shop, masonary, electrical, nursing, computer training (graduates become Micrsoft certified techs). Again, we just don't do a good job promoting that program or that school.

Part of the reason our student reimbursement is higher that other counties is the crazy FEFP formula. It gives us more money because we are a low student number large geographic area county (the "sparsity" factor). Our ESE reimbursement is much higher because we have a much higher percentage of students with disabilities than neighboring counties (the last time I checked). Do we get the most bang for our buck? As hard as it is for a school board member to say so, I don't believe we do. I really think we have taken some steps backward the last four years. Though our FCAT scores are up, I agree with the poster that way too much time, effort and money is spent on getting those scores up and we sacrifice other skills. The poster is right about critical thinking skills and writing skills especially. I have fought this battle ever since A+ for education was passed back in 1998, but, it is one I continue to lose and have lost badly the last four years. When history teachers tell me that they have to spend a part of their teaching time on FCAT prep every day, something is wrong. All administrative effort and time is spent on the FCAT, FCAT prep, and school grades. But, as long as the public judges schools by those "school grades," then I assume the public will demand that we do well on that exam. What I have argued for years is that if teachers teach the curriculum in a creative and enthusiastic way, then the test scores will take care of themselves. We need to teach every subject like it was tested on the FCAT....

I was not aware that our advanced degreed teachers had dropped so rapidly. I knew our teaching force was getting younger. There is actually a historic reason for that. As many of you might know, Florida had a teacher strike in 1968. Walton County was the only district in the State that fired all of the teachers that actually participated in the strike. Thus, that year and the few years that followed, Walton County had a huge influx of first year teachers. For the past five years or so, many of the those teachers have retired (with thirty plus years of experience) and our staff is getting younger. That is also why (the younger staff) our "average teacher pay" is lower than neighboring counties. Lower because our "average" teacher is lower on the years pay scale.

I have proposed some ideas for getting teachers to get advanced degrees in their fields, i.e., math, science. But, they have not yet received any traction. I am still working on that issue pretty hard.

So yeah, I will be the first to admit that we have problems and we need to be more creative in attacking them. Please no one take this as an endorsement or condemnation of any of current school board candidates.

I wanted to address the poster about exceptional student education. To answer his question, yes we have specific programs all over the county that address specific disabilities. This is a huge challenge for our district. It is huge because for some reason, our ESE population is so large. I believe it is one out of every 6.5 students. Frankly, I believe that we are slow sometimes in getting the right help for the students, we our staff, teachers, etc., try mightily to do so. I am sure that there are parents who are not happy with the programs that we offer, but, in talking with many parents, generally speaking, we do pretty good with our ESE programs.

I get asked this question alot and it is a valid one === You have been on the board for 13 years, why haven't you solved these problems before now. First, let me say, the problems have changed. When I got on the school board, the worst problem we had was a complete lack of adequate facilities, i.e, one small elementary school across the bay, facilities that were simply inadequate for the 21st century. We are close to having those problems solved. Not there yet, but close.

The other problems I think are directly related to FCAT. But, that is an argument for a different day I suppose. In any event, I have a school board email and like to hear from members of the public, not just when I am running.

As you know, I respect Bob and he and I keep a great give and take going on various issues.

Sorry for the long post, but, I wanted to put my two cents worth in. Thanks guys....

... another four years of the same failed leadership?

this sounds vaguely familiar.

That may be the purpose, but is it reality? If it is about ensuring that students receive a top-notch education, why is most of the focus and concern on the lower 25% of the students? Isn't that portion of the classes the focus on the testing improvements? What about the top 25%? Sure, there may be AP classes here and there, but why is there such a focus on the bottom 25%?

That is one question I can answer. The truth of the matter is that the school grade assigned by the state is dependent on how the bottom 25% improve on the FCAT examination. The greater the improvement, the better the school grade. Freeport High School is a perfect example. Check their scores and you will see that their move from a "D" to an "A" was because their bottom 25% did much better than they did the year before. While that is a good thing, and I applaud the school and their teachers for that effort and result, it raises a valid question, do we sacrifice other parts of the curriculum to get that result? Sadly, I think we do in some instances. It is also arguable that those kids in the bottom 25% are also being cheated.

Let me explain. The current law in Florida is that if a student in middle school makes a 1 or 2 on FCAT reading or math, she must be remediated in those subjects in addition to her regular reading, read English, and math curriculum. Well, what do you think gets sacrificed? It is P.E., band, art, etc. Now for many struggling students, P.E., band, art, etc., are the reason they are staying in school, yet we take that away to get their test scores up in reading and math. Again, why are they having to be "remediated" when the FCAT is supposed to test the curriculum being taught in the first place. And, how is possible that our elementary school continue to make "As" and have for 8 years or so, and we still have a number of students that have to be remediated in middle school and high school? Its a crazy system.....

To change this "emphasis" there needs to be wholesale changes from Tallahassee. Have you noticed that the State Rep candidates never discuss this travesty. Thanks for letting me blow. I get frustrated by this sometimes.

Lastly, I agree with Tootsie to some extent. In fact, I asked a State Legislator once that if he wanted to be a school board member he should run for that job. As a school board member, I have fought against dumbing down our curriculum. It should be more than the FCAT and those subjects tested. Our teachers, adminstrators and staff should be judged by more than just that one limited examination. But, until some changes occur in the current law, that is how we are judged by most members of the public. But, I agree with Tootsie, it is not the way to go. That is why I continue the good fight.....