On June 10, 2020, Miami-Dade School Board members met to discuss adding anti-racism education to the district’s curriculum. This was introduced by Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, who experienced racism firsthand in Miami-Dade County at 3 years of age, when the school board wanted to build an all-white school in her black neighborhood.

Afterwards, school board member Marta Perez commented, “This school district is a shining example throughout the years of inclusion in all matters. If there has ever been a wrong, we have stepped up and corrected it very quickly.”

There have been instances when the school board made situations right; however, to call it a shining example of inclusion is a bit of a stretch.

My family experienced three generations of racism and bigotry in this district firsthand.

My mother arrived in Miami in 1985 as a high school student. Immediate ostracization occurred when fellow classmates discovered she was Haitian. Often mistaken for Hispanic because of her skin tone, she bore the brunt of multiple bigotries.

For example, when she spoke Creole, vile words were spewed at her along with threats of violence for all three years of high school.

More than a decade later, my experiences were similar.

Classmates called me a “boat person” regularly. They asked if I “eat cat” or if my family does voodoo. Many of the children who taunted me came from a Latino culture where they themselves had had to deal with bigotry. Some comments came from adults, who should have known better.

People wondered out loud about my mother’s light skin compared to my darker tone.

“Are you adopted?”

“Why are you so dark?

“Where are you from?”

“You speak well for a Black girl.”

My mother advocated for me to get an education and become the successful Black woman I am today. That meant getting me into a magnet school, an hour away, and finding a job closer to that school. For high school, she applied for me to attend a charter school. When that didn’t work out, I was redirected to my zoned district school, which wasn’t a good fit, so she fought for me to attend a better school another hour away.

My sisters currently attend school in Miami-Dade County and the comments continue.

My eldest little sister submitted paperwork that clearly identified her as Black. Yet the school’s administrator changed it to white, because of her lighter skin tone.

“Where are you from?”

“Why are you so light?”

“Are you sure you’re Haitian?”

My mother must continue to fight for her daughters to make it in a world where Black children are too quickly funneled and categorized by systems, all while dealing with racism and bigotry.

An anti-racist education would help schools with students from multiple ethnicities and cultures, improving race relations between and among them.

In the words of Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall:

“Racism is a learned behavior, it’s taught, and as a school system, we also teach. Just like we teach students in the classrooms and in schoolhouses, we must also teach our students in the classroom of life. The ideals and ‘jokes’ children hear at home manifest as microaggressions and implicit bias from students and later teachers and in order for Black students in Miami and the United States to no longer be victims, there must be an education that has been missing from all schools, including Miami-Dade.”

Editor’s note: During this holiday season, redefinED has published our best articles of 2019 – those features and commentaries that deserve a second look. This podcast from Step Up For Students’ director for policy and public affairs Ron Matus features a public school superintendent who understands the value of education choice. The post originally published Oct. 23.

You can be forgiven for thinking, given the vivid “tsunami of choice” metaphor used by Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, that America’s fifth-biggest school district saw the rapid expansion of charter schools and private school choice a decade ago and concluded, If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

But listen to Carvalho for a few minutes and you might arrive at a different take – that Miami-Dade sized up the forces of choice and customization re-shaping public education and decided they’d beat competing sectors at their own game.

“I think it would be fair to say that I am by nature a reasonably competitive guy, and my team is as well,” Carvalho told me in a recorded interview in April, as I was putting together a paper on Miami-Dade for the Education Cities conference at Harvard. “But I can also tell you that we stopped trying to out compete others long ago. And now we’re in a phase of work where really we’re trying to outperform ourselves.”

“It really was a transition,” Carvalho continued. “We have seen the growth of the charter school movement in our community. But we’ve seen an even more aggressive … growth of public school choices within the previously-known-as traditional schools in Miami-Dade. So yes, I would credit in part our success, and the explosive nature of choice programs in our system, to, at least in part, to competition. But it was strategic competition. It’s not just to win the gold medal in anything. It was actually competition to deliver choice at much higher levels, being strategic in the deployment of choice programs, by analyzing their existence by zip code, across the district, and filling in the gaps.”

We at redefinED converted the interview into a podcast to complement the paper on Miami-Dade, which Education Next published this week. Among other points Carvalho makes about educational choice:

Resistance is futile. “We recognized … that the choice tsunami was upon us. And I was not going to do what lot of my colleagues did. Which is, ‘Let’s hope and pray it doesn’t hit us. Or let’s just allow this to go through. Like all things, this is a fad that will go away.’ … I could anticipate the policy shift in the state of Florida and across the country. And we were right. It has, quite frankly, materialized exactly as we predicted. But rather than being a spectator, or a victim of it, we were an active participant in it.“

More choice, better outcomes. “It’s not disputable that students that are enrolled in these choice programs usually perform academically better than those who are not. I think we ought to celebrate that. But the celebration should not last very long. We ought to replicate the success and continue to amplify through equitable access to the same opportunity that’s now being granted to 70 percent of our kids, but needs to be granted to the rest of them.”

You ain’t seen nothing yet. “Ten to 20 years from now, how will we be teaching kids in America? In Miami-Dade? … The most honest answer to that question is, we don’t know. And I say that because I think the mode and model of educational work will be significantly different from anything we know and understand today, as a result of three powerful forces: digitization, automation and artificial intelligence. You put those three forces together and you have to anticipate a dramatic shift, perhaps the most powerful shift we’ve seen in education in the history of mankind.”

Enjoy the podcast, and read last week’s redefinED post about Carvalho here.

The massive Miami-Dade school district could have done what many districts do and fought the expansion of educational choice. For those who view competition as a threat, it had plenty of incentive. In Florida, no urban district has a higher rate of students enrolled in charter schools and private schools. In Florida, everybody knows even more educational choice is on its way.

But Miami-Dade didn’t fight choice, at least not in the conventional sense, as I lay out in “Miami’s Choice Tsunami,” published today in Education Next. Under the leadership of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, the fifth-biggest district in America decided, instead, to crank up its own creative, choice-driven programming. To use the superintendent’s colorful metaphor, Miami-Dade didn’t try to outrun the choice tsunami.

It surfed it.

“I was not going to do what a lot of my colleagues did, which is, ‘Let’s hope and pray it (the tsunami) doesn’t hit us, “Carvalho said. The expansion of choice “materialized exactly as we predicted. But rather than being a spectator, or a victim of it, we were an active participant in it.”

The result? Over the course of a decade, the percentage of Miami-Dade students enrolled in magnet schools, career academies and other district options climbed from 35 to 61 percent. Counting charter schools, educational choice enrollment in Miami-Dade is at 69 percent. Counting private schools, it’s at 74 percent. “Let 1,000 flowers bloom” isn’t an aspirational goal in the 305. It’s the new normal. And coincidentally or not, academic trend lines have risen as choice has become mainstream.

The Surfin’ Supe isn’t the only character in this story. Fully half of the Miami-Dade charter sector, now enrolling 70,000 students, is affiliated with Academica, a company that remains mostly off radar despite evidence of strong outcomes. After the district, it’s the single biggest educational provider in the 305. You can’t tell the story of Miami-Dade’s transformation without including Academica.

You also can’t ignore the new educational species emerging down there. I included a bit about a former district teacher who felt the system wasn’t serving her or her son with autism. With the help of Gardiner Scholarships, Florida’s education savings account for students with special needs, Ana Garcia created her own home education cluster. (Gardiner Scholarships are administered by non-profits like Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog.) There were 1,469 students using Gardiner Scholarships in Miami-Dade last year, which doesn’t sound like many. But 20 years ago, there weren’t many enrolled in Miami-Dade charters, and zero using private school choice.

We should all keep an eye on the models that sprout when more parents and teachers get more freedom to choose and create. We should also keep an eye on how districts like Miami-Dade respond as even bigger waves roll in. But for now, the choice tsunami in this great American city looks an awful lot like a rising tide.

Lead photo: Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has ridden the wave of increased education choice in Florida, overseeing more than 380 specialized programs. PHOTO: Donna Victor

Low-income students in Florida continue to outpace their peers in most other states, with particularly strong, relative outcomes in some of Florida’s biggest urban districts, according to national test results released this morning.

The overall results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress were not flattering for Florida or the nation. Often called “the nation’s report card,” the NAEP math and reading tests are given every other year to representative samples of fourth- and eighth-graders in all 50 states.

The 2015 results showed national averages falling in three of four tested areas and stalling in one. In Florida, they stalled in three and fell sharply in one: eighth-grade math.

But on the bright side, low-income students in Florida, which has among the highest rates of low-income students in the nation, now rank in the Top 10 in three of the four tested areas, including No. 1 in fourth-grade reading.

Next to their peers in 18 other urban districts, low-income students from the Duval, Hillsborough and Miami-Dade districts in Florida also shined. The latter were particularly impressive, finishing No. 1 in three of four categories and showing statistically significant gains in fourth-grade math and eighth-grade reading.

The latest NAEP results come as high-stakes testing and other regulatory accountability policies continue to draw fire around the country, and as many states begin phasing in academic standards spurred by Common Core. Florida fully implemented new standards in the 2014-15 school year.

The Sunshine State’s NAEP scores rose rapidly between 1998 and 2007, but have been mostly flat in three of four testing cycles since. This year, its eighth-grade math scores tumbled, with 64 percent of eighth-graders scoring at basic or above, down from 70 percent in 2013.

At the same time, the overall numbers tend to mask the performance of Florida's low-income students, who are now a solid majority of the state's K-12 enrollment. According to the most recent federal figures, 57.6 percent of Florida students are eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch, putting the state at No. 44 nationally (from least to most).

In the late 1990s, Florida's low-income students were in NAEP’s bottom tier when compared to low-income students elsewhere. But now they’re tied for No. 1 in fourth-grade reading, tied for No. 5 in fourth-grade math, and tied for No. 9 in eighth-grade reading.

After this year’s big drop, though, they’re also tied for No. 34 in eighth-grade math, falling from No. 21 two years ago. (more…)

Charter schools. Charter school advocates are on board with measures to keep out unqualified charter operators. Sun-Sentinel. WUFT talks to charter school critics about capital funding. St. Johns County school officials say they're taking a critical eye toward new charter schools. St. Augustine Record. A network of charter schools with a history of failures got approval to open more schools. WPTV.

Testing. The Badass Teachers Association is wrong about the amount of time students spend testing. PolitiFact. Pasco schools say they're not ready for the new state test. Tampa Tribune. A meeting on testing was helpful to lawmakers. Gradebook. Democrats say GOP Gov. Rick Scott is starting to see things their way. Political Fix.

Safety. A federal complaint is filed over a middle school's handling of a girl's alleged sexual assault. Tampa Bay Times.

Awards. The Tampa Bay Times looks at finalists for educator awards in Hillsborough and Pinellas. A teacher who led the charge against a state test that was later suspended wins Teacher of the Year in Alachua County. Gainesville Sun.

Digital learning. Miami-Dade schools make use of digital math lessons. StateImpact.

Teacher pay. Broward teachers rally for raises. Sun-Sentinel. The Volusia school district remains deadlocked with its union over pay raises. WFTV. Daytona Beach News-Journal. WMFE.

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Magnet schools. Miami-Dade schools unveil a new planetarium to coincide with the debut of a new astronomy magnet program. Miami Herald. WSVN. More on the district's new school choice plans from the Herald.

Testing. Teachers are nervous about the challenges of preparing students for new standards and assessments. Tampa Bay Times. The new tests are expected to be longer and more difficult. Sun-Sentinel. Common Core lessons are tougher, but students are starting to rise to the challenge. Orlando Sentinel. What will lawmakers do about state testing? StateImpact explores.

School choice. Duval parents learn about district choice options during a public expo. Florida Times-Union.

Special needs. A new program in Volusia helps special needs students participate in sports. Daytona Beach News-Journal. Hillsborough schools recruit teachers with non-traditional backgrounds to teach special needs students. Tampa Tribune.

Community schools. Evans High School has improved results since it started offering tutoring, medical care and other services to students in its low-income neighborhood, Orlando Sentinel columnist Beth Kassab writes.

Tutoring. Lee County schools plan to drop free after-school tutoring in favor of a new summer program. Fort Myers News-Press.

Superintendents. Community leaders in Palm Beach hope the coming search for a new schools chief goes better than previous attempts. Palm Beach Post. An activist accused of extorting the Palm Beach superintendent faces additional charges. Sun-Sentinel.

Teacher evaluations. Hillsborough teachers say they should have had more input in developing the district's rating system. Tampa Bay Times.

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Lawsuits. A judge decides parents of children on Florida tax credit scholarships can have the status of a full-blown party to a lawsuit challenging the program's constitutionality. redefinED. News Service of Florida. Palm Beach Post. Times/Herald. The program is administered by organizations like Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog.

Career education. A collaborative effort between schools and industry groups is expected to launch new manufacturing career academies in five Northwest Florida school districts. Panama City News Herald.

Tax credit scholarships. The program is a "win-win" for public education, a Sarasota school board member writes in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Class size. A rule giving schools of choice more flexibility under state class-size mandates helps Brevard schools comply. Florida Today.

Teach for America. The organization plans to bring recruits to Orange County schools next year. Orlando Sentinel.

Testing. State lawmakers are already floating ideas to address concerns about excessive testing. Tampa Bay Times.

Public records. A group that picks hundreds of public-records fights  has targeted charter schools, including one in Southwest Florida. Naples Daily News.

Aspirations. Charter schools and high school sports culture figure into a Tampa Bay Times feature on the football-fueled hopes of children in the tiny town of Pahokee in interior South Florida.

Catholic schools. A Tampa Catholic school student takes part in a mission trip to help Indian tribes in South Dakota. Tampa Tribune.

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In the first case of its kind, the state has sided with two South Florida school administrators who faced retaliation for trying to convert their public school to a charter.

This month's ruling by the state Department of Education upholds the findings of an administrative law judge, who found Miami-Dade schools unlawfully retaliated against a principal and assistant principal by assigning them to other jobs, where they had to perform menial tasks.

Florida law protects school employees from reprisal by school districts if they support charter conversions, and this is the case in which administrators relied on those protections.

Administrators will be compensated for attorneys fees bonuses they would have received if they had remained in their leadership posts at Neva King Cooper Educational Center.

But their charter conversion efforts remain thwarted, and the school district will not have to return them to their old positions. The department's final order in the case notes that the school district has placed them in equivalent positions.

A Miami-Dade school district spokeswoman told the Miami Herald, which first reported the ruling, that the district was now "satisfied" with the outcome.

The original ruling in the case can be found here. We explored the significance of this case in an interview with Robin Gibson, the attorney who represented the administrators.

A wealthy enclave of Miami-Dade County is considering buying space for its residents in a local public school.

Setting aside whether this is fair to other families hoping to enroll their children in Henry S. West Laboratory School, this story in the Miami Herald should lend further credence to idea that parents - including those who can afford to send their children to private schools - want more options from the public school system.

Students in Coral Gables are five times more likely than the average Florida to attend private school, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. And families there are more likely to be able to afford it without the help of a private school choice program. The median household income is roughly twice the average for Miami-Dade County as a whole.

Yet the Herald reports that families in the city are lining up for slots in the popular magnet school, which is located within the city's limits, but is oversubscribed due to high demand from all over the county. The city government is looking for ways to accommodate their desires to enroll their children.

“In my neighborhood, everyone goes to private,” said Dave Kelly, a Coral Gables resident. “It’s not because they don’t want to go to public schools. They just can’t get in.”

To give residents a better shot at landing a seat, Coral Gables officials on Friday discussed paying the school district a one-time fee of $23,000 per student to establish a separate lottery program just for residents who want their children to attend West Lab. As it stands now, the proposal is to buy between 22 and 44 seats per grade level.

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If Florida public school administrators decide to convert their school to a charter school, they have the law on their side.

An administrative law judge's ruling against the Miami-Dade school district last week was the first-ever ruling under Florida statutes that bar school districts from taking "unlawful reprisals" against employees who support charter conversions. But the question remains: Will those protections prevent school districts from derailing those efforts before parents and teachers can have their say, as happened in Miami-Dade?

According to the ruling by Edward Bauer of the state's Division of Administrative Hearings, the district tried to deter efforts to convert the Neva King Cooper Educational Center to a charter school. When administrators kept at it, the principal and assistant principal were transferred out of their jobs into what their attorney, Robin Gibson, called a "purgatory kind of existence," replacing their administrative duties with menial tasks like sorting crayons and organizing car keys.

Bauer ruled that was against the law, and that Alberto Fernandez, the center's former principal, is entitled to $10,000 worth of bonuses he would have received if he had remained in his old job.

However, the district still managed to thwart the charter conversion. Bauer declined to reinstate the two administrators to their old positions, noting the law requires them to be returned to "equivalent" jobs and that there are new top administrators in place at the school.

Gibson said he will likely contest that part of the decision. For the time being, he said, "the district can privately congratulate itself on still being unscathed."

Gibson said the ruling helps establish that if districts retaliate against employees who support charter school conversions, they'll be breaking the law. Now, "the question becomes, what are they going to do in light of this decision?" (more…)