A Florida school's solution to encourage achievement. T-Shirt with FIRE on the front.

[madfloridian]

This shirt caught my eye.

I was retiring as a teacher the year all the uniforms came into the elementary schools. Students were being sent home if they had the wrong shade of navy blue...typical over-reaction.

This is what ninth graders at one school will be required to wear for a sense of identity and pride. And to increase test scores and graduation rates. Oh, well, maybe it's just the design that got me.



Kathleen High School Assistant Principal Ginger Rosenau wears and holds up a few of the "FIRE Academy" t-shirt designs freshman students will wear this upcoming school year.
The Ledger/Michael Wilson

The school will have approximately 550 incoming freshman this school year. The Freshman Inspired By Rigorous and Relevant Education (FIRE) program is designed to enable the school to have a 100% promotion rate for the school's freshman advancing onto their sophomore year.

New T-Shirt for Freshmen.

As if their frightened faces didn't already give them away.

This year, Kathleen High School will require its 560 freshmen to wear school-issued T-shirts.

A pocket logo with a K is on the front of the shirt with flames and the words "Fire Academy" on the back. Fire is an acronym for Freshmen Inspired by Rigorous and Relevant Education.

This is the first year Polk County Schools will open freshmen academies across the district. Kathleen is the only school to have a special dress code.

But will a T-shirt change anything at a school that only graduates 67 percent of its seniors?

"It will reduce peer pressure in regards to attire," Rosenau said. "Kids will know what they are wearing every day."

Florida schools are not far from the bottom. They need a hell of a lot more than a T-Shirt with FIRE on it.

[Selatius]

1. It's a bandaid on a sucking chest wound. They need a total revamping of public education in America.

They could start by cutting classroom sizes in half nation-wide, and they need to dump NCLB. Defunding schools that have the most problems? Where does that begin to make sense? Oh wait, it does...if you're a private school that operates on a for-profit basis. Then we just call it privatization.

This is simply half-assing it without addressing the real problems.

[rucognizant]

17. I don't understand?

The cry to cut classroom size in 1/2!
My classes ran to 25-35 kids in the 40's & 50's and we are all BETTER educated than kids today, even though the goal was NOT necessarily to go to college. So your local garage mechanic,/ fast food worker, could read write & spell, even WITHOUT a college degree.
I am noticing those WITH degrees can't spell or speak English these days? whatsup?
Like the Doctor, I saw on CNN the other day, talking about an intricate tumor surgery.BUT he SAID
The word is ES PECIALLY. How did he get all the way through MEd school talking like that?

[Selatius]

22. I wouldn't say kids back in the 1940s were better educated than today.

Back before FDR, there wasn't a legal requirement to put your kids in school, and child labor was still lawful. After FDR died, these reforms were instituted, but the curriculum in the 1940s and 1950s is no doubt not the same as it is today, so I don't see how it would be fair to compare students then with students today. Also, let's not overlook the fact that segregation was still legal and that white schools often got more money for education than black schools.

[LWolf]

29. It's research,

which tells us that the maximum number of students per class, for best results, is 15.

Many people learn in a class of 30+. Many don't. That's the "achievement gap" that NCLB supposedly addresses. The problem is that threatening schools and teachers to close that gap "or else," without changing the dysfunctional structure that creates the gap, just perpetuates it.

Our current system is a factory system, with assembly lines running. It's dysfunctional. While it provides nominal opportunity for every student to learn, it does not provide equal, abundant, high quality opportunity.

Our culture glories in anti-intellectualism. When learning, literacy, grammar, numeracy, is not valued by the general public, all the "get tough" legislation and rhetoric in the world will not change that.

Increase the cultural value of education, and then provide equal, abundant, and high quality opportunity for ALL, not just for those who will manage on whatever is available.

[ellenfl]

2. amen

"Florida schools are not far from the bottom. They need a hell of a lot more than a T-Shirt with FIRE on it. "

if jebbie has his way, we'll be lower than the bottom. if you live in florida, don't vote for amendments 7 and 9 in november (if the aclu has not gotten them removed from the ballot). they don't use the verbiage but they are just a scheme to codifiy vouchers to religious schools . . . and take more money away from our already underfunded public schools. remember when the lotto was supposed to be SUPPLEMENTAL funding for the school appropriation? we have had republicans making up the rules . . . and defunding our schools . . . for much too long in florida.

if you have not already done so, please sign the petition for fair districting in florida. the gerrymandering is killing our public education.

ellen fl

[madfloridian]

3. A judge took amendment 5 off the ballot today...but 7 and 9 remain.

So far. Several lawsuits are being filed to get them off the ballot. They would tear down any barriers between church and state and public tax money.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/2451

The same judge (I think) ruled in favor of keeping them on the ballot. Jeb's baby. He is still hurting our state.

[OmahaBlueDog]

4. We left Florida, in part, because we have a smart daughter and they have bad schools

We lived in North Lauderdale, and then in Sunrise (outside Fort Lauderdale). My daughter had some wonderful teachers, but the schools increasingly did nothing but teach to the FCATS (note to non Floridians: the FCATs are a standardized test by which schools are measured, vouchers are given, and students can be passed or failed). They were doing a wonderful job teaching my kid to take tests, but not to think.

In Broward county, the passage from Elementary to Middle school also meant an introduction to the gang issues that are rampant in parts of West Broward. When I had a chance to transfer to the Midwest, I took it.

In Omaha, the first and most noticable difference was that my daughter got to play a musical instrument. School band/orchestra was cut from Broward elementary schools years ago. She also got to stop wearing the so-called uniform (don't get me started on that one), and strngely, law, order, and discipline did not break down. She continues to excel, and is starting Middle School in a much better place.

I'm surprised Kathleen has such a bad graduation rate. If it's the same Kathleen I've ridden my bike through (outside of Lakeland), it seems like a kind of quaint, countryish town. MadFloridian, if you have some insight into that situation, please let me in on it.

[Peregrine]

5. FL's graduation rate is a bit skewed

FCAT only counts for the student twice, in 3rd and 10th. If a student doesn't pass the reading part of the FCAT in 10th, he has 2 more years to pass. If he doesn't then he will get a certificate of attendance not a diploma. Those students who receive a certificate are not counted as graduation, even though they attend all 12 years and pass all of their classes. No other state does this.

[noamnety]

6. That is brilliant!

I never would have dropped out of high school if they'd given me a free tee-shirt with bad typography.

[madfloridian]

34. LOL

Just saw your statement

[eppur_se_muova]

7. The day is saved by clever acronyms and T-shirts ...

so much more appealing than planning, say, education and stuff.

[rucky]

18. How D.A.R.E. you!

[madfloridian]

28. Is that still around?

D. A. R. E

Do they still have those programs.

[Firespirit]

8. I don't think graduation rates matter

What matters is the college admittance rate.

I never graduated, but I went to college. I was #1 in my class, but I'm on record as a high school dropout. :rofl:

Schools are failing the gifted students badly, and it's affecting America's status as a scientific and innovative leader (along with the anti-science brigade and the corporate conformist culture). However, it is not obvious when the very bright are underperforming, because underperformance tends to be relative to one's potential. When average and below average kids underperform, it's very evident and people act on it. Not so with the gifted.

[madfloridian]

9. Yes, schools are failing the gifted.

But in Florida they are failing everyone equally. My state is an equal opportunity failer, so to speak.

What do you expect of a state that thinks a T-Shirt will the trick?

:eyes:

[geckosfeet]

10. T's are a lot easier and more feel good than solving the problem.

And it lets me funnel state funded business to uncle Mo the t-shirt printer behind the pawn shop.

[JVS]

11. Beavis would love it.

[mikeytherat]

12. The "Freshman Inspired By Rigorous and Relevant Education (FIRE)"

Shouldn't that be FIRRE?

School FAIL.

mikey_the_rat

[uppityperson]

15. That was my though also. FIRRE, not FIRE.

[theboss]

13. What am I missing about this town? Why is the graduation rate so abysmal?

I looked up the county on Wikipedia and there was nothing obviously horrible about the place. What's up?

[AngryAmish]

19. It is in Florida

People in Florida are pretty stupid.

[YDogg]

25. As a long-time FL resident I disagree.

My guess is you are at least half-kidding, anyway. Part of the rest of the story is Florida's abysmal record of funding public education, which has been well-documented. The system has been gutted and left for dead by the likes of jeb bush and charlie crist.

[tomreedtoon]

14. It isn't simply politicians. It's "professional educators," too.

Teachers are the most presumptive, authoritarian and wrong-headed people (as a class) I've ever known. In the decade during which I dated a junior high/high school teacher, she enthusiastically supported the nonsense the school district did instead of teaching. She wore a Max Headroom T-shirt to school with the other teachers to prove she was "hip." She, and other teachers, like assuming dramatic poses instead of being authentic human beings before their charges.

If you're talking a "complete overhaul" of the American educational system, that should include firing everyone currently involved in education, from the teachers to the criminal enterprises that publish overpriced, crap textbooks. Obama wants to build high-speed rail across the country; let them all work on putting in the rails and learning something about the real world.

[RebelOne]

20. You are so totally wrong.

Not all teachers are "the most presumptive, authoritarian and wrong-headed people." My daughter is a teacher in a charter school in South Florida. She is a wonderful teacher and totally dedicated to her students and profession.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. "presumptive, authoritarian, and wrong-headed"

:rofl:

[madfloridian]

24. I got in trouble for refusing to allow myself to be dunked in a tank during a school event.

I never did toe that line, and often paid for it.

Don't paint all educators that way, please. Most of the teachers I worked with were just great, and we were all victims of the system.

[Iggo]

16. I think they should give them armbands.

Nothing gives the little stormtroopers more pride than a little flash on their uniforms, eh?

[peekaloo]

21. Where are the local fundies? Red Devils and the FIRE's of Hell!!!!

;-)

btw this is my old high school aka Red Neck Tech.

[WinkyDink]

26. First of all, it would be FIRRE. Secondly, "Kathleen" HS?

[nikto]

27. Assistant Principal Ginger Rosenau is probably A FAILED TEACHER

Most of you folks may not know a simple fact about most American Public School districts.

They are administrated by FAILED TEACHERS.

Most administrators left teaching after less than 3-4 years (the minimum
in many districts), and went on to become Coordinators, then Deans, then APs, etc.

MANY hardly associate with kids, except on a ceremonial basis--Akin to Politicians posing.

Sure. Some adminstrators were long-time teachers (10 yrs or more) at 1 time,
BUT MOST WERE NOT--- LESS THAN 1/3 in many districts.

Want to have some fun?

Next time you go to Back-To-School night, go around and ask EVERY ADMINISTRATOR YOU CAN,
"How many years were you a classroom teacher before you became a member of
out-of-classroom personnel"?

The answers you will get will provide no end to hilarity---Many will change the subject,
just talk BS to avoid the question ("politician-style"), ANYTHING but admit that,
well, yes, they've been an administrator for 18 years, after teaching PE for 3 years.

Don't just ask about the duration, ask WHAT THEIR SUBJECT AREA WAS
before they left the classroom.

MOST ADMINISTRATORS COME FROM NON-ACADEMIC SUBJECTS LIKE PE, HEALTH,
HOME EC, etc etc----I'm not saying these are not important subjects,
but they are NOT the *academic* subjects where students and teachers are
under the greatest performance-pressures (Math, English/Lit, History, Science).


This is one of the main problems with Public ERducation in the U.S.,
and you never even hear about it!!!!!

I have been a Public School Teacher in Los Angeles for 29 years.

I speak The Truth.

[LWolf]

30. "Identity and Pride."

No value in learning, in thinking, in intellect, in the satisfaction that comes from success.

Value/pride and identity comes from gang/team affiliation. Perhaps all their teachers should wear short skirts and carry pompoms?

[madfloridian]

31. Well, there are FCAT rallies where everyone cheers and shouts

before the testing begins.

:wow:

[LWolf]

32. Yes,

and there are principals who kiss pigs etc. when AYP is made.

It's amazing the way NCLB has manipulated the American love of teams and sporting events to put spin on "closing the achievement gap" while gleefully furthering the destruction of public education.

And people still show up and cheer.

[madfloridian]

35. A principal here shaved his head for good FCAT scores.

It was so pathetic to see a good friend lose his dignity that way.

:eyes:

[LWolf]

36. I'd shave my head to make NCLB go away.

Somehow I don't think anybody will work enthusiastically to make that happen.

My vote is my only weapon.

[DU GrovelBot]

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