Twenty-eight hundred applications for 10 seats on a volunteer committee due to be chosen in seven days.
And the Florida Department of Education is still sorting through them.
That's a fact, and it's a little shocking, don't you think? One week to go.
If DOE Commissioner Pam Stewart doesn't see storm clouds gathering, she isn't looking up.
Certainly she can't think the parents, teachers, superintendents, school board members, higher education representatives and state legislatorswho took time to apply for the new Keep Florida Learning Committee aren't watching.
In the past year there have been few more incendiary issues among concerned parents and school officials than student tests.
Gov. Rick Scott himself called for the Keep Florida Learning Committee, remember.Its stated purpose: To "examine ways to further deregulation opportunities within the school system, review instructional materials processes used by local school boards, identify strategies to increase parental involvement, and review the implementation of the Florida Standards and the Florida Standards Assessments over the next year."
In other words, keep finding ways to improve on improvements and make sure the FCAT replacement test is being properly implemented.
In December, Stewart announced she would be accepting nominations for the committee. Some of those who applied told Sunshine State News that right up until the Jan. 31 cutoff date, it was like a walk down a blind alley. They couldn't find out what kind of experience the department was looking for, who would be making the selection, or if they're rejected, whether they ever will be told why. Everything clear as mud.
The application itself asked only four questions, giving just a few lines for an applicant to explain what sets him or her apart.
Not to worry, Communications Director Meghan Collins told SSN: Expect more information in the coming weeks.
Well, here we are. With one week to go, that information -- even if it were out there -- can't help the applicants. They're done. They're just waiting to hear.
Just as well some of the most interested education activists anticipated trouble and didn't bother to apply.As Karen Effrem, head of Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, told SSN, I kind of felt it would be less than fruitful.
Keep Florida Learning Committee will include 11 members, but Stewart is automatically on board. That means the Department of Education is looking for one member for every 280 applications. Better odds than the lottery certainly, but eight times worse than casino roulette.
I think we're looking at one of three explanations here:
- The department has no idea what it's looking for because the last thing it ever wanted was some committee of outsiders poking into educational policy -- this time from the inside.
- Those within the DOE who normally wade through a mountain of applications aren't sure what they're looking for and still are waiting for somebody, anybody to give a little direction.
- Department officials (wink, wink) already made their selection. The committee is chosen, to heck with 2,800 applicants they might not know or trust. They've got their team.
It will be interesting in another week to hear Stewart defend DOE's choices and explain what they were based on. But immediately thereafter, she might want to avoid the stormy blowback by diving into the nearest root cellar.
Expect 2,790 fairly restless, rejected applicants.
Better at this point for Stewart and DOE -- if they don't have a committee place promised to 10 people already -- to admit they screwed up and draw names from a hat. At least then they won't have to explain why one committee member was chosen over another.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
