Lacking Data, Legislature Should Refuse to Expand CBE Pilot (HB401/SB226)

On February 13, the House PreK-12 Education Innovation Subcommittee (watch at 12:00) learned from Dr. Linda Hayes, Director of University of Florida’s P.K. Yonge Lab School, that the goal of the current Competency-Based Education Pilot is to transform Florida’s entire K-12 education system to a tech-laden, post brick and mortar, mastery/personalized learning system of education. Confirming such “transformation” will result in improved education outcomes seems to be less of a priority.

This session, companion bills HB401 and SB226 have been filed, designed to rename the Department of Education’s (FLDOE) current Competency-Based Education (CBE) Pilot program, allow some flexibility for the awarding of credits & letter grades to pilot participants and offer expansion of the pilot to all 67 districts despite a complete lack of data showing the program to be effective. We think such expansion is a bad idea.

The Competency-Based Education Pilot was initially passed in 2016 (HB1365 and SB1714). The pilot was scheduled to begin in the 2016-2017 school year and to be administered, by the Florida Department of Education for a period of 5 years. Now, just 2 1/2 years into the 5 year pilot, lawmakers are asking to allow the expansion of the program to all 67 counties, despite no data to show the program is even working.

The original CBE Pilot Program defined “competency-based education” as “a system in which a student may advance to higher levels of learning after demonstrating a mastery of concepts and skills instead of after a specified timeframe.” Though this might sound good, we have significant concerns regarding competency based education. Despite the popularity of Competency-Based Education in the “reform crowd”, there is no sound research proving these CBE/Personalized Learning programs are actually effective educational models.

This year’s bills also seek to change the name of the pilot to the ” Mastery-Based Education Pilot.” Why? Apparently because message testing, market research (performed by Echelon Insights) and conducted on the behalf of Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE)) revealed more people liked the word “mastery” than “competency,” when describing personalized learning. We wonder, if this really is simply a pilot project, why would we need to change its name to something more “likable” in the middle of a 5 year study?

We suspect this was never a true pilot program but simply a “foot in the door” to allow the expansion of FEE’s personalized learning priority to all of Florida’s school districts, transforming our K-12 schools despite little to no real evidence of effectiveness. Without data, we think that is ill advised.

Currently, there are 4 pilot program participants: P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School and the Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Seminole County School Districts. After review by their new superintendent, Lake County School District, an original pilot participant, appears to have dropped out of the program.

The initial application to participate in the pilot program (as defined in f.s. 1003.4996) required the inclusion of, at a minimum: “Annual goals and performance outcomes for participating schools,” including, but not limited to:

• Student performance as defined in s. 1008.34 (meaning performance on the Florida Standards Assessment or FSA.
• Promotion and retention rates.
• Graduation rates.
• Indicators of college and career readiness.

The pilot also requires the Department of Education to “annually, by June 1, provide to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a report summarizing the activities and accomplishments of the pilot program and any recommendations for statutory revisions. ”

Interestingly, despite requiring annual goals and performance measures from the participating districts, the mandated Annual Reports from the FLDOE (2017 and 2018) are completely devoid of outcome measures: no FSA results, no progress monitoring, no promotion/retention rates…nothing. The districts describe how they collect assessment data (for example, using iReady, AMP Specific Florida Standards Quizzes and Unit Standards Assessments in Palm Beach County) but don’t share a single data point.

This lack of interest in performance data is particularly surprising for the Florida Department of Education, which gives out awards for “data driven success.”

When Representative DiCeglie presented HB401 to the House PreK-12 Innovation Subcommittee, on 2/13/19, he claimed the pilot program had seen “incredible results.” When Representative Patricia Williams asked to see that data, Rep DiCeglie admitted he didn’t have any “specific data” but he had gotten some good “feedback” from participating districts. Later when questioned by Representative Dotie Joseph, DiCeglie even seemed unaware of the existence of the pilot’s recent Annual Report.

During debate, Williams noted the lack of concrete data on which to make a decision, saying “we aren’t absolutely sure that this actually works.” She asked why would we expand a program if there is no data?

Good questions.

While there might be a reason to allow the needed flexibility needed for the awarding of grades and and credits for the students currently participating in this pilot program, we agree with Reps. Williams and Joseph that expansion of the pilot seems premature.

CALL TO ACTION: Unless you want unproven competency based education programs (like iReady) “transforming” your district, we urge you to contact your legislators and ask them to stop the expansion of the CBE/Mastery-Based Pilot (HB401 and SB226) before it completes its scheduled 5 years and its effectiveness can be evaluated. Why transform Florida’s public schools to something ineffective?

You can find your representative here. You can find the members of the House Education Committee here. You can find the members of the Senate Education Committee here. Please contact them today.