Commissioner Robinson Resigns

Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson visits Pensacola, 2011

Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson resigned today, effective August 31st.

Tampa Bay Times has a good story on the resignation, along with the letter submitted by Robinson to Governor Scott.

When Robinson came to Pensacola last fall to tour Warrington Middle School and meet with District Board Members and Staff, I was encouraged by his positive attitude and passion for education.  At that time, I still wondered why Eric Smith had been pushed out.

But we had a new Commissioner in town.

But then one problem after another happened with the FCAT scoring.

Scores were adjusted up and down like a yo-yo.  Goal posts were moved after the kick.

 Expectations were not clearly articulated to schools in advance of the changing test.

Problems multiplied, and many lost faith in the DOE;  Many see the DOE as extremely dysfunctional, more so now than ever before.

After fumbling to explain problems with testing and scoring,  Robinson next  unfairly and inaccurately blamed local districts for the plethora of tests foisted on students yearly--which simply was not true.  Shifting blame unfairly is weak;  When you run the DOE and mandate all the testing, own up to it!

Then Robinson attacked the Florida School Boards Association for sponsoring a petition expressing concerns over the number of high stakes tests students had to take yearly.

With all of the problems in the DOE over the last year, many were perplexed and surprised that this commissioner was still in place headed into the new school year.  My sense is that if it were anyone else, they would have been gone long before now.

It will be interesting to see who is next in this slot.....Given this latest round of problems, I almost feel sorry for the next person picked for this job.