Recruitment & Retention

Qualifications Questioned

By Rhea R. Borja — April 25, 2006 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Two senators in the Sunshine State may sue the Florida education department if it doesn’t release the names and qualifications of $10-an-hour temporary workers who grade the state’s high-stakes tests.

Sen. Lesley “Les” Miller Jr. and Sen. Walter G. “Skip” Campbell Jr., both Democrats, gave the department until 5 p.m. on April 22 to give the information about the temporary workers who score portions of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT. If the department refused, the two were “prepared to seek all legal remedies as provided by law,” according to an April 18 letter from the lawmakers.

The letter was the latest salvo in an escalating fight between the state lawmakers, who question the competence and fairness of the temporary workers, and the education department and the company that administers the test, CTB/McGraw-Hill. CTB is a subsidiary of the McGraw-Hill Cos., based in New York City, and subcontracts with Troy, Mich.-based Kelly Services Inc. to score the FCAT.

Florida has an $86.5 million, three-year contract with CTB to administer the FCAT. About 1.7 million Florida students each year take the tests, which are used to grade schools’ performance and to determine whether students are promoted to the next grade.

Both the Florida education department and CTB officials say that the information being requested by the senators is a “trade secret” and thus exempt from disclosure under the Florida Public Records Act. “Further, releasing the names to the public would subject scorers to potential intimidation and attempts to influence their work,” a CTB lawyer wrote to the department in an April 6 letter.

Florida has used temporary workers to score the FCAT for 10 years, Cathy Schroeder, an education department spokeswoman, said last week. “Nothing has changed,” she said, “but the picture has been painted that just because they’re temporary workers, they’re unprofessional, which is not true.”

All temporary workers who grade the FCAT must have a bachelor’s degree, and more than half are former educators, she said.

Ms. Schroeder said the department would not supply the information the lawmakers requested.

That’s not good enough, Sen. Miller says. He says test-graders should have a bachelor’s degree in education or experience in teaching. “You have to realize that this test is the ultimate determining factor in a child’s academic career,” he said.

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Recruitment & Retention Some Positive Signs for the Teacher Pipeline, But It's Not All Good. What 3 Studies Say
Teacher-prep enrollment is stabilizing, but school-level turnover is still high.
8 min read
A classroom at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Pa., sits empty on May 3, 2023. Teachers in the state left their jobs at an accelerating rate, according to an analysis that found attrition in Pennsylvania doubled in the 2022-23 school year. New studies paint a complex picture of the national pipeline.
A classroom at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Pa., sits empty on May 3, 2023. Teachers in the state left their jobs at an accelerating rate, according to an analysis that found attrition in Pennsylvania doubled in the 2022-23 school year. New studies paint a complex picture of the national pipeline.
Matt Rourke/AP
Recruitment & Retention The First Step to Hiring a Diverse School Staff: Believing It's Possible
District leaders who want to prioritize diverse staffing need to search widely for new job candidates—and give them reasons to stay.
3 min read
Middle school history teachers discuss their lesson plans.
Middle school history teachers discuss their lesson plans.
Allison Shelley/EDUimages
Recruitment & Retention Video How Workplace Culture Can Affect Staffing Shortages
A recruiter and a teacher share possible solutions to ongoing teaching shortages in schools.
2 min read
Recruitment & Retention Letter to the Editor Teacher Housing Is a Critical Need in Native Communities
We can't forget about Indian lands school districts when talking about teacher housing, says this letter to the editor.
1 min read
Education Week opinion letters submissions
Gwen Keraval for Education Week