WEST PALM BEACH, Fl -- Palm Beach County's Chief Academic Officer is set to visit another local school Tuesday, hoping to stem the rising tide of protests against him, and his new policies.
For months, many Palm Beach County teachers and parents have been wearing orange, but seeing red.
"I'd like him to see that our kids are kids and not numbers, and that is what it's come down to," said Lisa Goldman, a mother and substitute teacher.
Like hundreds of other concerned parents, Lisa Goldman says she is upset about the recent changes in her kids' curriculum.
So she took her concerns to the web, and created a Facebook page called "Testing is not Teaching."
Now just a week later more than 1,900 other teachers and parents have joined.
They say their main concerns are subject-specific teaching which forces students to move from class to class, and more testing, which critics say gets in the way of teaching.
It seems Hernandez has been taking most of the heat.
In a statement, the school district said, "The goal is to raise the performance of all students to the high levels," and that it realizes, "The changes required to get there are very challenging."
Hernandez was scheduled to meet with the media Friday, but canceled last minute.
The district says it was a "scheduling conflict."
But some suspect last week's sea of orange was the real reason, and that Hernandez did not want a repeat performance.
Hernandez has met with a group of teachers who say, the changes are working, but those opposed say they will continue to rally until the school board meeting next month, when they hope to voice their concerns en masse.
