Legislative Goals 2003-2004

FCSS / FASSS
Position Paper on 2003-04 Legislative Issues


ISSUE ONE: Student Progression Law Language (Number One Priority)

- Current law requires educators to review a student’s performance in Reading, Writing, Math, and Science when being promoted from one grade level to the next. Moreover, should a student be found to be deficient in his/her performance in of these core subject areas, parents must be notified and an opportunity for remediation of that content needs to be made available to the student.
- To permit the current law to state that students’ performance in social studies need not even be considered for promotion purposes – when reading, writing, math and science must be – is an intolerable and ominous development for the future civic health of our state and nation.
- As a core curriculum area, social studies instruction provides a rich basis for student learning and has as its goal the application of such knowledge and attitudes to enable students to exercise their civic responsibility. Without a foundation in each of the four major areas represented in the Sunshine State Standards for social studies, we fail to prepare an informed citizen and a student’s education is incomplete. As so many recent surveys can attest, we can no longer afford the luxury of assuming students actually are learning about the heritage of our nation or that they possess the essential economic, civic, geographic and historic competencies to equip them for the role they will ALL assume upon graduation – that of citizen! Moreover, as a nation and state we are totally ignorant of what knowledge, skills and dispositions our students actually do possess! See Issue three below.

RECOMMENDATION: We recommend inclusion of “social studies” in the state Student Progression Law (F.S. 1008.25)



ISSUE TWO: High School Graduation Requirements

- Senate Bill 30A (passed last year) allowed students the option to graduate with 18 credit hours with the stipulation that they fulfill “3 credits of social studies”. The more traditional 24 credit requirement continued past practice of requiring students to master three total credits in American History, American Government, Economics and World History. DPS Memo 04-015 partially corrected this problem by leaving it to district discretion whether some or all of the above named courses should be required for student graduation. Research reveals students today virtually adrift in civic ignorance and these requirements must continue to constitute the minimum requirement for ALL high school students.

RECOMMENDATION: The previous requirement that ALL Florida High School students must successfully complete courses in American History, American Government, Economics and World History must be reinstated. (Or the early 18 credit graduation option should be repealed.)

ISSUE THREE: Eventual inclusion of social studies as part of Florida’s Comprehensive Assessment Test. (long range goal)
- Social studies professional organizations has since 1984 called for a statewide assessment of student understanding of the core content areas of History, Geography, Economics and Civics.
- Soon the state will once again be modifying FCAT to include student performance in the ‘mechanics of writing’. We now have MULTIPLE measures of student performance in Writing, Mathematics, Reading and Science in grades three through ten. These subjects are assessed not only as part of FCAT, but as part of the federal “No Child Left Behind” legislation, both SAT and ACT college entrance examinations, and through the state by state comparisons on NAEP administrations.
- Compared to all these multiple measures in the area of reading, math, writing and science, Florida has NEVER had any idea how well its students understand their past heritage, our governmental and economic systems nor the world around them. Nor, seemingly, does Florida care what its students know about these subjects. Once the mainstay of public education, these subjects comprise the forgotten area of the curriculum.
Again, the current Student Progression Law states that although a student’s performance in reading, writing, and math MUST be taken into account when promoting a student from one grade level to the next, their understanding of our nation’s history, our governmental and economic systems and the world around them need not even be considered for this purpose. Moreover, American History and American Government no longer exist as required courses of study for ALL Florida students! It is inconceivable that we shall in the near future find citizens willing to volunteer to defend our way of life, when repeated surveys inform us that vast numbers of our students are illiterate in terms of citizenship education. Although we realize that financial constraints impede efforts to immediately add social studies to the state’s assessment program, we feel that the legislature must state the goal of adding it to FCAT some four or five years from now. If knowledge of civic education is not MORE important than the ability to discern whether or not our students understand the correct use of a comma versus semi-colon, how to properly use a plural possessive apostrophe or how to describe the life cycle of a species, it ought to at least given EQUAL attention.
RECOMMENDATION: FCSS favors amending Florida Statute 1008.22 by adding social studies as an area for statewide assessment. This law should go into effect no later than 2009.

ISSUE FOUR: The length of time for which an ESOL student’s F.C.A.T. score should be used for accountability purposes. should be extended from two to three years.
- Research states that it takes six or seven years for a student whose native language is different from English to be proficient in reading and writing in our language. Federal guidelines for No Child Left Behind use a three year period of time before such scores are factored into accountability measurements. Florida’s accountability provisions should not be more punitive than federal standards.

RECOMMENATION: The length of time for which an ESOL student’s F.C.A.T. score should be used for accountability purposes should be extended from two to three years.



ISSUE FIVE: Transfer of Florida’s Heritage / Educational Resources

Last year, the Governor submitted a budget with proposals to enable the following cost cutting proposals to be made. Several departments serving social studies classrooms were obviously going to be effected by proposals briefly submitted by the Governor. The attempt to pass this law was delayed for one year and may return this coming session.
Custodian of State Records, Records Management and Archives – Transfer to the Department of Management Services.
Florida State Library – Eliminate the library as a state government function and transfer collections to the Florida State University.
Florida State Museum and state historical sites – Transfer to the Department of Environmental Protection to be consolidated with the State Parks Program.

Early estimates from individuals in the Department of Historical Resources reported that 31 positions at the Museum and over 40 at the Library were scheduled for elimination. Employees were to be transferred to other departments and were encouraged to “look for other employment”.
No one at the time could confirm that positions pertaining to educational programs and state history would be secure or that programs such as Florida History Day, the Florida Heritage Education Program, etc. would be supported.
People to contact concerning this are:
Gina Brunson, Bureau Chief, Museum of Florida History – phone 850-245-6386. She’s informed us that all of her 31 full time staff have received letters stating that their positions will be eliminated by summer. (Mr. Vernon Peoples, long time Florida legislator, cautioned that only the legislature can actually eliminate these positions by it’s approval of the budget process. This is being taken under consideration at the present time.)
Janet Mathews, Director of Division of Historical Resources – phone 850-245-6300. Basically, her division would be drastically downscaled leaving perhaps 20 persons in a department that would manage Historic Preservation Grants and National Historic Registry matters. The Museum, state archives, State Library, sites such as the San Luis Historic Site, the Old Capitol and others would be transferred to the State Parks and Recreation Department.
Fred Gaske, an administrator in Janet Mathews’ division (not sure of his title) who has the details as to the impact the changes will have. (Phone: 850-245-6300) It was Mr. Gaske who informed us, when we asked him to comment on whether current educational services and programs to teachers would continue, that staff cuts were probably going to cause these to be eliminated There was “no guarantee” anyone would be available to assist teachers in these efforts.
Jennifer Nash – The director of the State Library. (Phone: 850- 245-6518)
FCSS seeks to obtain some answers to the following questions . . .

1. What provisions will be made to continue teacher in-service programs on the subject of Florida’s heritage to teachers ? (Rationale: This is mandated instruction by the state and few resources currently exist.)
2. What assurances exist that curriculum development and other instructional materials will continue to be developed? (Again, districts to not have much in the way of resources and the Florida Heritage Program materials and other such resources need to be electronically produced on CD ROM, and much more needs to be done in this area.)
3. What are the advantages of dispersing the state library to other sites across Florida? (FSU, as it was originally planned was to take the collection, but doesn’t want it. Dispersing it will make historical research much more difficult, will allow documents and resources to possibly deteriorate, and relegates our states’ heritage to a ‘garage sale’ type mentality.)
4. What are the advantages of reducing the division of Historical Resources and collapsing programs such as the Museum of Florida History into the Dept. of Parks and Recreation? (We must figure that the entertainment and tourism function will probably outweigh the educational mission of instilling in our children an awareness of our states’ unique history.)
5. What assurances do we have the Florida History Day Program will continue to be coordinated with the assistance of people in the Museum of Florida History? (Whereas President Bush has cited this as one of three outstanding ways to revitalize the teaching of history in our schools, we ought to be cautious the Gov. Bush’s plan might eliminate support for this. FCSS has a vested interest in the program and has given about $7,000 in student scholarships and other support to the program in the last two years.)
6. How many staff positions in the Division of Historic Preservation are scheduled for elimination? (I’ve been told 31 will be eliminated in the Museum of History and over 40 at the Library.)
7. How many documents, books, maps and other resources are currently available, and thus prone to ‘loss’ at the State Library? What are some of their more valuable resources that are contained there? (Nick Wynn, President of FHS says there are one million books going back to the days of print – the Gutenberg Bible, 250,000 photos, thousands of maps and other documents. These all require proper storage & protection from the air, light, etc. The FHS alone estimates that they spend over $3,000 housing their own collection and they don’t have the resources to take on additional responsibilities. Nor did FSU wish to do so? This likely will mean that these valuable resources will be at risk of deterioration.)
8. How will the Archives branch of the State Library be affected by the change?
9. How will this change impact the department of Mrs. Glenda Hood, the new Secretary of State, who will soon be sworn into that office? (Where is her department to be “housed”?)
10. Will staff positions at the OLD CAPITOL be eliminated?
11. How is it that NEW MONIES for a residential Math-Science High School are able to be placed in the budget when there appears to be drastic cuts made in the educational mission of teaching our youth about Florida’s unique history and preserving this history?
RECOMMENDATION: At this time FCSS strongly opposes the dismantling of the State Archives, State Museum and reconstitution of the Florida State Museum. Rationale: The cost of moving these resources to other sites and the loss of support for the teaching of Florida Studies is too great for us to support the Governor’s proposal. Moreover, in our belief it is better to eliminate some sales tax exemptions and thereby raise needed financial resources for this fiscal year than to perhaps permanently lose our state’s vital heritage education programs and resources, many of which have been procured over the last 150 years.

ISSUE SIX: National Testing of social studies with state by state accountability
Current Status: Although there are no current plans to test social studies as part of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) an upcoming National Assessment for Educational Progress survey of Civics and United States History is scheduled to take place in 2006. Social Studies loses much of its punch in not having state by state comparisons (Reading, Writing, Math and Science are assessed in this manner and much more frequently) which hold the governors accountable for these educational programs and student progress. NCSS has recently reversed its stand on the need for national testing and two FCSS members, Deborah Gallagher and Marsha Yoder, will help to carry this message on to the national level.
The reasons in favor of state by state comparisons are described briefly below. See file “FCSS Legislative Goal: The Argument for NAEP State-by-State Comparative Data”