What's happening in DeSantistan 2.0

They claim it’s all because of COVID. However, Florida was one of the fastest states to get its kids back to in-classroom learning. And so COVID provides no rationale or excuse for Florida’s scores falling below other states.

The one constant is DeSantis interference with Florida’s education. Bush provided the much-needed funding and reforms which objectively improved Florida from a bottom-half state to one of the best states in education.

DeSantis and his hate war brought changes, too. Since his changes, Florida’s scores have plummeted, disproportionately lower than other states. Likewise, we have educators who have returned in large numbers and who have not been replaced. Our college professors are leaving in record numbers. Why?!?!?!

 

I can see him accelerating his move to cut ties with the College Board. Same thing during the Pandemic. You don't want to know the numbers, stop testing...

 

The educational benefits of school choice, if they exist, are expected to come from experimentation. The first years should theoretically be marked by increase in variation in school quality, with no expect directionality in over all average quality. If school quality is measurable, this variation should lead to proliferation of high quality schools at the expense of lower quality schools in the long run. If quality isn’t measurable, then it doesn’t matter what we do, because we will never know the results anyway.

 

It’s almost looking like an all-Florida government.

 

Ready for Senator Lara Trump? MAGA pushing Desi to appoint her

 

Could you explain this again?

 

If we try lots of different things, student achievement will move lots of different ways. Over time we will do more of what works and less of what doesn't.




The theory is good. But we've found the things that work in a school setting- more time in school for students, more parental involvement at school, much smaller class size (<17). Now we should be focused on applying those things that work across all schools.

60-80% of variation in student achievement (varies by age and subject) is associated with factors outside the schools. Things like SES, gender, race, intelligence, family structure, books in the home, all that kind of stuff. about the same percentage of what is left (generally closer to the 80% side, but sometimes as low as 60%) is peer effects. Who else is in the school and the classroom. Only about a sixth of student achievement is explained by factors the school can actually control. Something like 3% is associated with the actual teacher.

To make real improvements in student achievement, we need to be looking outside the schools. Even in low achieving schools, the teachers are working miracles. Students come in three years behind grade level and leave only a year behind. And the school gets marked as a failure despite doing amazing work.

 

My wife and I are presently vacationing in DeSantistan.

It’s a glorious place.

 

My DIL is a 4th grade teacher. She is frustrated having to get these voucher kids up to speed when the fake school they went to closes down mid year and she gets them. We just can't make our school system for profit.

Blue states rank higher consistently than red, there's a reason for that. Blue states think outside the box and spend more on head start.