Is This Due Process----or a Fleecing of the Taxpayer?

Recently,  school board members received a list of 9 employees who have been  "placed on suspension with pay pending an investigation into allegations of misconduct".

This memo was labeled "for informational purposes only", and on the bottom of the memo was listed an appropriate district HR person to contact if Board Members wanted additional information.  So I called and received a brief synopsis of each of the allegations leveled against each of these employees.

I think the district moves cautiously, which is in most cases very wise to do---but my issue here is that we are moving so cautiously that we are costing taxpayers large sums of money unnecessarily. 

The offenses of these nine employees, while all are significant,  run the gamut from bad to really bad to

Escambia County Teacher of the Year Finalists Announced

The 5 Teacher of the Year Finalists for Escambia have been announced, congratulations to them for this achievement!

Fran Cook--Helen Caro Elementary

Marjorie Stradley--West Florida High School

Jeffrey Pribble--Escambia High School

Terri Pernia--N.B. Cook Elementary School

Catherine Rudd--Scenic Heights Elementary

The Escambia County Teacher of the Year will be announced at the Golden Apple Awards Dinner on February 23.

FDOE School District Rankings = Flawed

Data Does Not Tell the Whole Story

Recently, a succinct 1-67 ranking of all school districts in Florida was released to citizens and the press by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE).  These rankings were based upon a series of calculations directly tied to the administration of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) in each of Florida’s 67 Counties.   Some districts, like St. Johns (south of Jacksonville) and Santa Rosa (#1 and #2 respectively) have much to be proud of, as they ranked very highly.  Hats off to them for the great work they are doing.

For districts like Escambia (ranked #44), the data is much less palatable.

Are we to assume that because districts like Santa Rosa and St. Johns are ranked so high—that they are exponentially better at learning delivery than their lower ranked peers like Escambia?  [CAUTION, HUMOR AHEAD]   I actually think that if Escambia swapped teachers with Santa Rosa, and kept everything else equal, Santa Rosa Would be holding the #1 slot!   [INSERT: RIM-SHOT]   Okay, maybe that’s a bit simplistic and over the top, and was of course stated in jest,  but according to the press portrayals of this FDOE  data I have read—one could easily reason that the higher the district ranking the better the School District, period.

And therein lies the problem.  

The release of data like this without thoughtfully conceived disclaimers, explanations, and footnotes can and does lead to incorrect and negative public perceptions.  This is because data alone does not tell the whole story.  And Commissioner Gerard Robinson’s 5 second blurb about poverty being a factor during his 2 minute introduction of the data does not cut-it as a disclaimer.  Nobody (except me) watched that video.

Complex data should be carefully developed and the “press-release” of such data requires thoughtful deployment If accuracy is valued.  Apples should be compared to Apples.

A striking yet very apt analogy is the community crime statistics released yearly by the FBI. 

When statistics about murders, assaults, forcible rapes and other vicious crimes are released annually, these data are put into tables and organized by events per 100,000 citizens of a particular community.  For example, (Utilizing 2010 data) the murder/non-negligent manslaughter rate in New Orleans (pop. 356,000) was roughly 50 times higher than it was in either El Paso, Texas (pop. 624,000) or Lincoln, Nebraska (pop. 260,000).  Does this mean police departments in El Paso and Lincoln are way better than the Cops in New Orleans?  Of course not.  This is why the FBI takes great care in providing a carefully worded disclaimer on its website along with the yearly crime stats. Community issues, poverty, demographics, and a myriad of other social ills affect crime rates—and educational outcomes.  

So I propose that the next time the FDOE wants to release rankings, perhaps they should consider utilizing the following disclaimer (taken directly from the FBI website, School District substituted for Law Enforcement, Educational Failure substituted for crime)

“Individuals using these tabulations are cautioned against drawing conclusions by making direct comparisons between cities. Comparisons lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents. Valid assessments are possible only with careful study and analysis of the range of unique conditions affecting each local School District jurisdiction. It is important to remember that Educational Failure is a social problem and, therefore, a concern of the entire community. The efforts of a School District are limited to factors within its control. The data user is, therefore, cautioned against comparing statistical data of individual agencies.”

John Maxwell Live Part 2--The Five Levels of Leadership, Chris Gardner, and the Dream Test

At the 10AM-Noon Session of todays Leadership training with Dr. John Maxwell at the Pensacola Civic Center, the five levels of leadership were thoroughly covered.

Level one--Position leaders (titled) leaders are followed by people because they have to--this is a good place for leaders to start but a teriible place for leaders to stay.  According to Maxwell, this level describes roughly 70% of leaders.

Level two--Permission leaders are followed because others want to follow these types of leaders.  The three key qualities of Permission leaders are that these types of leaders listen, observe and serve; this level leader focuses on relationships.

Level three--Production leaders are followed because of what these leaders do for organizations.  This level of Leader sets a good example, creates momentum, and attracts higher caliber people to an organization

Level four--People Development leaders attract followers because of what these leaders do for people.  People developers recruit, position and equip the next generation of leaders by utilizing a five step process, they model the behavior, then they model and train, then they allow the trainee to implement the procedure while the leader is present, then level four leaders allow their mentees to go out on their own, and finally, the level four leader encourages his protege to go out and become a people developer in their own right.

Level five--Pinnacle leaders are followed because of who they are and what they accomplish.


After the noon session, lunch was served and at 1:20 Chris Gardner, the real-life inspiration for the hit Will Smith movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" gave an inspiring account of his life and the events leading up to his successful career as a stock broker.

At 3:00 PM, Dr. Maxwell did the final segment of the conference when he delivered a 10 point "dream-test" where he helped the audience to refine and define what an individual's dreams are.  The ten  point self assessmnent was actually a series of ten questions which, if answered truthfully, will help identify where a person's true passions lie.

During the course of the day, Dr. Maxwell strongly encouraged attendees to acquire and read his novels
"The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership"  "Today Counts" and "The 360 degree Leader"

Carlan Consulting, Gulf Power, Pensacola State College, and many other civic organizations and local businesses sponsored this event and were the driving force behind the huge (7,000 + attendees) turn-out.

John Maxwell Live Part 1--What is Success?

Today has been an extremely enlightening day at the civic center as nationally renowned motivational speaker and author John Maxwell has provided leadership training. At the morning session from 8-10 am, after introductions and sponsor acknowledgments, Dr. Maxwell defined success as knowing one's purpose in life, growth to one's maximum potential, and sowing seeds that benefit others. He has spent time expanding upon these points and mixing in anecdotes from his own life. In his mid-morning session Dr. Maxwell will identify and expand on the five levels of leadership.

Escambia Ranked #44 of 67 Florida Counties in Test Data

In a new ranking of all sixty-seven Florida school districts released this morning, Escambia county has been ranked # 44.

This ranking is simply based upon raw test score data, not weighted for poverty or other demographic factors. So, and you read it here first, Tomorrow's PNJ headline will be about how great Santa Rosa schools (#2 in the survey) and Okaloosa schools (#6 in the survey)are doing compared to Escambia.

And of course there will be no exploration of the significant differences demographically between the districts. And this will be frustrating!

127 Bills Filed in the Florida Legislature Through 1-20-12

Once weekly the Escambia County Scool District is briefed on Educational Issues being debated in the Florida legislature.  After these briefs, we typically receive a synopsis of all the bills currently making their way through the process. 

As of this past Friday, there were 127 K-12 Education Related Bills currently working their way through the Florida House and Senate, some of which are quite interesting.  I am attaching the comlete list of these bills here for all to see.

I know more than a few of these potential laws have my attention.  Anyone wishing to research these bills further can create a senate bill tracker account here  (very informative, useful, free, and easy)

To track house bills of interest, create a tracker account here