The business-supported think tank Florida TaxWatch has just released a report promoting the idea – put into law by the 2019 Legislature – that 60 percent of working-age Floridians should “hold a workforce specialization, whether from a certificate, credential, training, or degree” by 2030. The report says that Florida is presently 791,000 people short of this goal.
The report includes a series of general recommendations for reaching the 60% goal by 2030. The first recommendation is to “Promote academic readiness throughout the education system”:
Achievement gaps start early, and data show that these gaps are correlated with postsecondary enrollment. In elementary school, students need to be on track to read by 4th grade and exposed to career options. By the end of middle school, students should be exhibiting strong skills in math and science and beginning to explore careers. In high school, learning and career development should collide, as students begin experimenting with career paths through classes, internships, and trainings. This tracking readies students to graduate high school and execute the steps needed to start their aspired careers, but Florida has yet to close academic achievement gaps.
The report goes on to propose the expansion of the Florida Grade-Level Reading Program to address the importance of 4th grade reading and mentorship programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters and Take Stock in Children. All of these things are good.
But already, only a few paragraphs after mentioning the importance of math and science skills in middle school, the authors of the report have forgotten about it. Of course, they have every reason to set this issue aside: On the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test administration (in 2019), only 31% of Florida’s 8th graders tested “proficient” in math. That’s behind the national rate of 34%. (Unfortunately, the last time Florida was compared to the rest of the nation on a NAEP science assessment was 2015)
The problem with setting “strong skills in math and science” as a goal is that there is really only one way to get there from where Florida is. Florida must recruit and retain many more strong math and science teachers for its middle schools – and that means recruiting and retaining more individuals who themselves have strong math and science skills and can make a good living in the non-teaching market.
And recruiting and retaining more individuals who are strong in math and science to teach in middle schools will be (wait for it) expensive. The State of Florida has mostly taken the very first step by mostly funding an increase in the salary earned by a starting teacher to $47,500 (many districts haven’t been provided enough money to fully fund that new starting salary). The next step will be even more expensive – providing enough money so that experienced teachers earn significantly more than starting teachers. That will be a multibillion-dollar-per-year investment.
Then Florida will have to (in the words of the state’s new Education Commissioner) “make teaching cool again”. That means giving teachers the autonomy, respect and flexibility they need to feel they can make a difference in the lives of their students. It’s fair to say that at the present time Florida is going backwards on that.
If Florida TaxWatch is serious about improving the math and science readiness of the state’s students, it will have the guts to make a detailed proposal – including budget – for improving the math and science teaching corps. But the organization is not serious yet.
Bridge to Tomorrow 