Word Level Analysis of Florida Senate Bill 736

Matthew U. Blankenship, M.Ed. Erin E. Margarella, M.A, M.Ed., Danielle V. Dennis, Ph.D.
Childhood Education and Literacy Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa
Abstract
Florida Senate Bill 736, signed into law by Florida Governor Rick Scott, calls for the overhaul of education and teacher evaluation in the State of Florida. Through this Word Level Analysis, the researchers attempt to uncover the true meaning by finding the most common words throughout Senate Bill 736 and finding how they are situated within the entire document. From this, the researchers found the two most common meaning words to be performance and evaluate. Performance is often situated into a sentence with words containing negative connotation and evaluate often implicate a larger system that needs to be put into place. From this, the researchers discuss the implications of these two findings.

Methodology
In order to establish a firm grasp on Florida Senate Bill 736, we began by naming and controlling for biases. Next, we used an Internet based program in order to provide an accurate word count. Then, we combined various cognates of words into new codified words and eliminated Frys first 300 sight words. Then we went through looking for the two most used codified words, evaluate and performance in connection with the words surrounding it. This created meaning chunks. These meaning chunks were reanalyzed to grasp a larger meaning. To begin, we located the final version of Florida Senate Bill 736 and completed a focused independent reading. This involved each of us [the two primary investigators] reading the bill separately while pulling out major ideas and information. We then met to discuss our initial findings and compared general understandings. We situated upon an emergent coding technique from Creswell (2007). This produced a document left with only words pertinent to the legislation. After completing this process, we eliminated the first 300 sight words (according to Frys 300 instant sight words list) (Fry, 1980) because we concluded they did not provide pertinent connections to the policy goals. The sight word school was left in because of its relevance to the topic. This left 607 distinct words pulled from Florida Senate Bill 736. The two most frequently used meaning words from Senate Bill 736 were performance (N=130) and evaluate (N=124). The top two words, school (N=289) and district (N=206), were initially reviewed for meaning and eventually disregarded as placeholder words. We then reanalyzed the document focusing on the words surrounding performance and evaluate. For this process, we noted the words immediately preceding and following. For this process, we used a word processing program to highlight all of the instances of perform (the codified word) and eval (the codified word). We then read through the document separately noting the words before and after the two codified words in order to provide a richer situated and extended meaning chunk.

Discussion
The word evaluate involves the assessment of individual teachers, school-based administrators, schools, district-based administrators and districts. This word is used a total of N=124 times in the entire document and typically involves the creation of a new system, process and/or procedure for assessing teacher performance. This, as with any new system, requires resources to create and maintain. With most, if not all, school district budgets facing drastic funding cuts in the current economic climate, this legislation seemingly calls for a huge economic commitment from schools, districts and the legislature. The word performance and its conjugations take on a different meaning and understanding than evaluate. The most prevalent understanding of the word performance is situated in a negative context with the words unsatisfactory and deficiencies 16% of the time, higher than any other connotation found within Florida Senate Bill 736. This could have a negative consequence when the bill comes into full effect during the school year 2013 - 2014. Policy bureaucrats responsible for implementation and monitoring of legislation may transfer this negative connotation into implementation and approach stakeholders with distrust. However, others often cite the need for specific policy directives for negative outcomes outlined in the policy to protect parties involved. However, it is our view the legislation should add additional information about the positive outcomes of high performing individuals. Words often associated with a positive outcome like successful, satisfactory, effective, and improved are paired with performance only 3.07% of the time (N=4) and no words with a decidedly positive connotation appear in the top 20 words used in the entire legislation. The combination of the words performance and evaluation demonstrate legislators intended outcome of Florida Senate Bill 736. As stated in the press prior to and during the 2011 Florida Legislature Session, Florida representatives intended to have an effect on the performance of students through the evaluation of teachers, administrators, school and districts. This intention came through predominately through the diction of the document. The words performance and evaluation are frequently used in connection to each other along with both appearing as the third and fourth most frequently used words in the entire document. With the frequency of the words evaluation and performance, along with their conjugations, the policy drafters often repeated the words in the same sentence. This often made the sentences hard to understand and could result in bureaucrats misunderstanding the document and misapplying the documents intent. In order to prevent this from happening, bureaucrats should consult and review committee hearings and floor debates from the legislative session for specific word intent.

Research Questions
In order to develop a greater understanding of Florida Senate Bill 736, we will attempt to answer the following questions: 1. What are the most frequently used meaning words in Florida Senate Bill 736? 2. How are these most frequently used meaning words situated in the larger context of Senate Bill 736? These two questions will begin the process of unpacking and analyzing the bill for its true meaning.

Word Cloud of Senate Bill 736

Results
Through our analysis, we found the words performance and evaluation to be the most frequently used action words. Interestingly, these two words were used in conjunction with each other, performance evaluation, a total of N=37 times. Performance. We found that performance was paired with unsatisfactory (N=11) and deficiencies (N=10), words with negative connotations, 16.2% of the time. Other common parings focused on the act of performing from administrators (N=5) and employees (N=4). Finally, the word performance was paired with salary schedule for a total of N=16. Evaluate. The word evaluate was often used in a different sense. For 43.5% (N=54) of the use of evaluate, Senate Bill 736 referred to the process, procedures and systems that must be introduced into the school system as a result of this bill. Performance evaluation combination. The most apparent word connection from Senate Bill 736 were the paring of performance and evaluation for a total of N=37. This pairing often included information concerning the act of assessing assigned duties.

References
Dimitriadis, G., & Kamberelis, G. (2006). Theory for education. New York, NY: Routledge. Education Personnel of 2011. (2011). SB736, 2011 Legislature. Gee. J.P. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies: ideology in discourse (2nd ed.). London: Taylor & Francis. Gee, J.P. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis: theory and method. London: Routledge. Hess, F. M. (2011, April 11). Florida's Senate Bill 736: With "wins" like these... Frederick M. Hess. Retrieved May 15, 2011, from http://www.frederickhess.org/2011/04/florida-senate-bill736-with-wins-like-these Jaworski, A., & Coupland, N. (Eds.). (1999). The discourse reader. London: Routledge. Labov, W. (1972a). Language in the inner city: studies in black english vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Labov, W. (1972b). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Mallette, M. H., & Duke, N. K. (2004). Literacy research methodologies. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Mayer, R. R., & Greenwood, E. (1980). The design of social policy research. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Rogers, R. (2004). An introduction to critical discourse analysis in education. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates.

Literature Review
We situated our analysis and framework within discourse theory. Dimitriadis and Kamberelis (2006) posit that, discursive knowledge regulates, among other things, what can be said and done, what constitutes right and wrong, and what counts for knowledge in the first place (p. 113). Through our focused analysis of written policy discourse, we can acquire new and meaningful knowledge of the text. Foucault (1981) believed in finding the truth of any discourse or society requires effort on the part of the inquirer. Truth, in its most authentic form will not appear, in a transcendental way (Duke & Mallette, 2004, p. 55) and must therefore be sought after by a careful researcher. Discourse analysis theory includes two distinctions. These distinctions are word-use and structure and style. Gee (1996, 1999) describes the use as being a situated meaning where words often take on an altered form when paired with others allowing for a wide range of meanings. Policy is typically characterized as a set of laws or normative guidelines (Levinson, Sutton & Winstead, 2011) that provide direction for various stakeholders within an organized society. Schneider and Ingram (1997) posit policy design has significant consequences for democracy (p. 66) and must, therefore, be examined closely. We believe policy, as a form of discourse (Bacchi, 2000), transcends the actual text and conveys more substantial meaning than can be interpreted from the written words alone. While this is true for all texts, policies in general and educational policy specifically, have significant importance for youth and the future. The written text of legislation and policy can provide powerful insight into the goals and visions of policy makers, legislators, administrators and political actors involved in an attempt to decipher the truth.

Top 20 Words in Senate Bill 736

POSITION 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 9 WORD school district performance evaluate employed board personnel instruction contract student COUNT 289 206 130 124 115 104 98 95 84 84 POSITION 11 12 13 14 15 15 17 18 18 20 20 WORD salary assess section state provide schedule required administrator teach annual education COUNT 73 61 60 58 56 56 54 52 52 48 48

Contact Information
Matthew U. Blankenship ~ mublanke@usf.edu Erin E. Margarella ~ erinmargarel@usf.edu Danielle V. Dennis, Advisor

RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN 2012

www.PosterPresentations.com