The "calendar committee" is a creature of the collective bargaining agreement between the teachers, staff and school board. The committee is made up of appointees from the school superintendent; the unions and one school board member. I have served as the school board member several times and I do not believe we have a parent/public member of the board per the contract. However, the meetings are adverstised in the media and we have had public input. I, personally, would love to have more public input. The State of Florida mandates a starting time (with exceptions) and we must have 180 days of instruction, certain holidays, certain number of days in each grading period, certain contractual teacher planning days. It sounds simple to do, but, in reality, takes a lot of hard work and time to put it together. But, again, I think parent input is invaluable.
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High School Test Scores
- Thread starter melscuba
- Start date
Susan Horn
Beach Fanatic
Mark,
I appreciate your willingness to investigate getting fresh local food into the schools. I haven't had lunch in a Walton County school in a while, but when I worked at Bay (LONG ago), the food was vile. Even the "good stuff" they served teachers. And when onw of our boys went to South Walton (one year only), the food was nasty, and most of the students ended up getting by on sodas and expensive little bags of engineered fatty salty sugary "food" from vending machines or the nearby Tom Thumb.
Along this same vein, has Walton County followed the lead of many school districts by banning junk food machines in schools? Why not have juice, trail mix, that sort of stuff in the vending machines rather than chemical junk?
BTW, if there are state regs against having real food in lunchrooms, there must also be some way around it. Like having Home Ec, Biology, Vo-tech (hospitality, gardening, ag) classes, whatever, in which students grow the food, prepare it, serve it and eat it. That would be a start at least. If Alice Waters can serve local fresh food in CA schools, there must be a way around whatever Fed regs are in place...
Thanks Susan: I am going to meet with Mr. Terri Miller, our food service coordinator and I will express your concerns and ideas to him. He is a great guy who cares deeply about children. I am sure that if there is a way, he will find it. Thanks again.
M
O.K., I am going to ask a pointed question. We are considering moving to SoWal full time in the summer of 2010. We have three school age children who will be in both the elementary and middle school grades by that time. I am satisfied with answers I've gotten about academics and the overall school environment for both. What concerns me is the High School choices. Neither South Walton HS or Arnold have very strong FCAT scores (46% are reading at or above 10th grade level when they took the test). We are coming from schools who test scores are in the high 90's. What is being done about this? Does anyone see any changes for these high schools? There are many wonderful reasons for moving to the area, but I can't ignore what is on paper about these schools. Any information would be helpful. And honestly, don't give me the "test scores aren't everything" line. A score of 46% is unacceptable, and as a future community member, it's not good enough for our kids. Is anyone talking about how to solve this problem? Am I missing something?
We moved to South Walton in the summer of 2006 from out of state. The previous schools I had attended were the elementary and middle schools that feed into a public high school that Newsweek rated in the top 70 in the nation. Here in Florida I attended Emerald Coast middle School, Seaside, and South Walton. The first one was Emerald Coast and I felt some teachers had very low expectations of their students. Very much class time is wasted not working and there was minimal homework. I was also shocked coming from a school in Texas where it seemed like every child in middle school wanted and planned to go to college regardless of economic background that here only the biggest of overachievers (relative to the other kids at the school) have any plans of even attending a mediocre college (I think that idea is cemented by the stat about how many South Walton students took the SAT). I had one teacher who spent the first part class complaining about how she had to drive from Defuniak every morning. A certain history teachers version of teaching was us reading silently from the textbook for the entire class. This was shocking to me because in the past my history classes had entailed discussions of how the facts impacted history rather than only learning the facts and not why they mattered. I consider only having students read from the textbook during class every day lazy teaching. I would say the Math and science classes were stronger because at least they had regular homework and more interactive teachers.
By the end of October I got to the top of the waiting list at Seaside (the charter middle school) where admission is solely based on a lottery. Seaside had a much different feel than Emerald Coast. The teachers seemed like they were happier than the ones at emerald coast they were much more involved in each students progress. Seaside was a national blue ribbon school last year with very high test scores for the area and respectable compared to the rest of the nation (reading; 91%, Math; 97%). Ive always thought these state standerized tests are very below grade level and should easily be passed easily by anyone who even thinks they have a chance at college. The only negative thing I could say about seaside is that there are some students that although smart don't seem to be very motivated and that slows down the pace of some very good teachers who are forced to babysit rather than teach.
Like most public high schools across the country South Walton has many different types of students from drugees to very smart over achievers. I feel as though the school fails the smarter more motivated students the most. they are getting rid of block scheduling so i think that will help a lot because when I was there some teachers were unable to keep a lesson going for 82 minutes and it led to way to much down time and that meant at the end of the semester we hadn't learned everything neccessary. A math teacher told us (her class) that she had recieved an incoming class of students for algebra 2 honors from what was supposed to be algebra honors and they had only finished half of the algebra 1 book. So she had to waste loads of time teaching algebra 1 in what was supposed to be an algebra 2 honors class. The honors classes at South Walton are jokes there was a student in my algebra 2 honors class that mabye turned in 2 homework assignments the entire semester. We waste so much time grading homework and tests in class that we have to rush through the lesson with no questions. Some people might say what other students do in class shouldn't effect you but when the teacher has to spend time getting kids to stop goofing off it hurts everyone. And in English and history classes which at a high level should include the teacher being more of a moderator of an advanced class discussion than a lecturer; the teachers can't do that because some students aren't prepared so it ends up hurting the entire class. One english teacher whom I have much respect for often said there should be 3 levels of classes struggling, normal and advanced, because there are to many kids in honors that shouldn't be and it hurts all the students that should be in honors because she can't teach the class at a high enough level.
The biggest worry I had at South Walton and a big reason why I left was even the teachers at the school (mainly ones that had taught elsewhere) told me that South Walton does not prepare you for college because there is not enough studying away from school, the honors classes do not develop complex ideas, and some teachers let it all happen.
I don't blame all of the teachers at South Walton there are some of them that recognize what is going on and are trying to end it. I believe the problem are the students who don't want to be there, disrupting everyones learning as well as the (decreasing) number of teachers who don't do their jobs and want to be friends with the students rather than their teachers.
[/QUOTE]In my opinion the FCAT scores would not go up. The FCAT tests Reading, Writing, Math and some science. You are right, we are focused on those four subjects and we probably do not spend enough time in literature, higher math, history, arts, geography, non-FCAT science, etc. Thus, if you spread you resources to the other subjects, you probably get diluted resources spent on the FCAT. The better students would do okay on the FCAT, but, the lower performing students would be underserved. So, I think what would happen is that your FCAT scores would go down, while, the rigor of your overall curriculum would go up. Kind of ironic, huh....
That's why I have always argued that high schools should be graded by requiring every student to take either the SAT and ACT and measure the school's performance by the average score and how much those scores improve..... Just one opinion....[/QUOTE]
I agree 100% with you on both of those points
I also agree that not enough time is spent in more advanced subjects like literature and higher level thinking in history and math. Its probably right that better students would still do okay on the FCAT if the curriculum became more college prep based, but lower level students would struggle.
But I don't see why (although i usually attributed it to budget problems) the school cant be more selective in who takes honors classes. I always felt like so many potentially very smart kids in my "honors" english class were being left behind when my teacher would tell us that 30% of us are more than ready to have our "quality of instruction" (your number one priority). Increased and go onto more advanced literature and other things. But she can't because theres kids in this class who she says should be in regular english
That's why I have always argued that high schools should be graded by requiring every student to take either the SAT and ACT and measure the school's performance by the average score and how much those scores improve..... Just one opinion....[/QUOTE]
I agree 100% with you on both of those points
I also agree that not enough time is spent in more advanced subjects like literature and higher level thinking in history and math. Its probably right that better students would still do okay on the FCAT if the curriculum became more college prep based, but lower level students would struggle.
But I don't see why (although i usually attributed it to budget problems) the school cant be more selective in who takes honors classes. I always felt like so many potentially very smart kids in my "honors" english class were being left behind when my teacher would tell us that 30% of us are more than ready to have our "quality of instruction" (your number one priority). Increased and go onto more advanced literature and other things. But she can't because theres kids in this class who she says should be in regular english
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Matt J
SWGB
Bump
melscuba
Beach Fanatic
In my opinion the FCAT scores would not go up. The FCAT tests Reading, Writing, Math and some science. You are right, we are focused on those four subjects and we probably do not spend enough time in literature, higher math, history, arts, geography, non-FCAT science, etc. Thus, if you spread you resources to the other subjects, you probably get diluted resources spent on the FCAT. The better students would do okay on the FCAT, but, the lower performing students would be underserved. So, I think what would happen is that your FCAT scores would go down, while, the rigor of your overall curriculum would go up. Kind of ironic, huh....
That's why I have always argued that high schools should be graded by requiring every student to take either the SAT and ACT and measure the school's performance by the average score and how much those scores improve..... Just one opinion....[/QUOTE]
I agree 100% with you on both of those points
I also agree that not enough time is spent in more advanced subjects like literature and higher level thinking in history and math. Its probably right that better students would still do okay on the FCAT if the curriculum became more college prep based, but lower level students would struggle.
But I don't see why (although i usually attributed it to budget problems) the school cant be more selective in who takes honors classes. I always felt like so many potentially very smart kids in my "honors" english class were being left behind when my teacher would tell us that 30% of us are more than ready to have our "quality of instruction" (your number one priority). Increased and go onto more advanced literature and other things. But she can't because theres kids in this class who she says should be in regular english[/QUOTE]
If anyone thinks that students are all going to learn at the same pace and on the same level, they're not thinking as the educator they were trained to be... even in honors courses! I can't understand how a teacher can give that as an excuse to hold certain kids back from learning new material. You are taught in EDU 101 how to deal with that. If that is truly happening, it's an administrative issue that needs to be dealt with. The teachers will absorb the attitude of their administrators. If they feel their ingenuity in the classroom is not valued and/or rewarded they won't give it. Adults behave the same as children. They will only go as far as the bar is set. Don't blast me... I feel confident the teachers at SWHS are talented and dedicated. A standard has to be set with clear direction on how to get there.
That's why I have always argued that high schools should be graded by requiring every student to take either the SAT and ACT and measure the school's performance by the average score and how much those scores improve..... Just one opinion....[/QUOTE]
I agree 100% with you on both of those points
I also agree that not enough time is spent in more advanced subjects like literature and higher level thinking in history and math. Its probably right that better students would still do okay on the FCAT if the curriculum became more college prep based, but lower level students would struggle.
But I don't see why (although i usually attributed it to budget problems) the school cant be more selective in who takes honors classes. I always felt like so many potentially very smart kids in my "honors" english class were being left behind when my teacher would tell us that 30% of us are more than ready to have our "quality of instruction" (your number one priority). Increased and go onto more advanced literature and other things. But she can't because theres kids in this class who she says should be in regular english[/QUOTE]
If anyone thinks that students are all going to learn at the same pace and on the same level, they're not thinking as the educator they were trained to be... even in honors courses! I can't understand how a teacher can give that as an excuse to hold certain kids back from learning new material. You are taught in EDU 101 how to deal with that. If that is truly happening, it's an administrative issue that needs to be dealt with. The teachers will absorb the attitude of their administrators. If they feel their ingenuity in the classroom is not valued and/or rewarded they won't give it. Adults behave the same as children. They will only go as far as the bar is set. Don't blast me... I feel confident the teachers at SWHS are talented and dedicated. A standard has to be set with clear direction on how to get there.
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Busta Hustle
Beach Fanatic
i guess there is no stopping the "white elephant" middle school in lieu of more, better, and highly trained teachers?
Or maybe it isn't a white elephant but i keep hearing that enrollments are shrinking.
Or maybe it isn't a white elephant but i keep hearing that enrollments are shrinking.