In short, they’re eight broad categories that encompass the breadth of degrees available at Florida colleges and universities and correlate with career fields. A meta-major might include multiple majors, but each of those degrees shares a foundation of common courses.
Meta-majors have been pushed by national education groups seeking to increase the percentage of people earning college degrees or certificates.
“One of the things that the Legislature has long been concerned about — and by the way, so have educators — is students getting into the system and then just wandering,” said Jim Wysong, dean of math and science at Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry campus.
A new law eliminating most required remedial courses means college advisers must meet with new and returning students to determine if they are eligible to skip the classes.
The average adviser at Hillsborough Community College is responsible for 1,500 students.
Advisers and other support staff guide students as they earn their college degree. They help student pick classes and organize their schedule. Others might point students toward scholarships, grants, loans and other financial aid.
But when lawmakers reduced the number of remedial classes — also known as developmental or prep courses — they increased the work for advisers, said Hillsborough Community College registrar Jennifer Williams.
“We did not require new students to meet with advisers before registering,” Williams said. Now new students must meet with an adviser before starting classes.
If you’ve got concerns about Florida’s K-12 math, English and literacy standards — or a suggestion about how to improve them — you’ve got until tomorrow to submit them to the Florida Department of Education.
The agency is gathering feedback at the request of Gov. Rick Scott. So far the agency has received more than 13,000 comments. All comments must be submitted on or before October 31.
The standards, known as Common Core, have drawn opposition as schools approach next fall’s deadline for using the standards in every grade. The standards outline what students should know at the end of each grade. Students will need to show what they know and prove with evidence how they know it.
“I am extremely pleased and appreciate all the feedback from parents, teachers, administrators and the public about Florida’s standards,” Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said in a statement. “We encourage everyone to take this opportunity to let us know their ideas and suggestions to make our standards the best they can be.”
Students at Florida's community colleges can now skip remedial courses.
Most students at Florida’s community colleges now have a choice about whether they want to take the state’s college placement test and any remedial reading, writing and math courses they might require.
The law takes effect this spring — and students are registering for classes right now.
As a result, colleges have to check in with every new and returning student to find out if they’re exempt from remedial requirements. To find out who is exempt from the requirements, click here.
Hillsborough Community College has given its advisers a sort-of flow chart to run through with students. The outline asks new students for their high school transcripts and returning students for their college records and then proceeds from there.
Does the student need to take the college placement exam? Should they?
That’s because Florida lawmakers approved a law (SB 1720) which makes the courses and placement test voluntary for many students. Remedial courses force students to pay for refresher classes before starting on their degree. The classes do not count toward a student’s degree.
Students who entered high school in the past decade and earned Florida’s standards diploma no longer have to take the state’s college placement exam. Likewise, students who earn target scores on the SAT, ACT or the FCAT can use those scores to prove they do not need remedial courses.
Active duty military members are also exempt from having to take the placement exam and remedial courses.
After the jump, read the new law, the State Board of Education rule implementing the law and the legislative analysis of SB 1720. And click here to read our series on remedial education, 13th Grade.
Hillsborough Community College's Dale Mabry campus.
Khadejah Gilbert found out she wasn’t quite ready for higher education when she enrolled in Hillsborough Community College.
She’s one of many students who had to take brush up in basic subjects before starting her associate of arts degree in liberal arts.
The classes cost money, but don’t come with any credit
“I took prep reading and a prep writing before I took English I. And a math class too,” Gilbert said, taking a break from her studies with a game of chess. “I would have wanted to go toward my degree and I’d get some credit for taking it. It’s credit given, but not on my transcript, so, it sucks.”
But no U.S. state beat the top-performing countries in math or science, and Florida has a lower percentage of top-performing math and science students than other countries. The results compared math and science scores on tests taken in 2011 in the U.S. and around the world.
Florida’s average eighth grade math score of 513 ranked it 39th in the world, just behind Finland and just ahead of students in Ontario, Canada. The average U.S. score was 509 and the average international score was 500.
South Korea earned a top average math score of 613, while Massachusetts’ average score of 561 was best in the U.S.
Even as an increasing number of districts and states abolish the practice, corporal punishment remains a legal form of discipline in 19 states, most of them in the South, according to the Center for Effective Discipline, a nonprofit based in Columbus, Ohio, that provides educational information on corporal punishment and alternatives to its use. That’s a decrease from 2004, when 22 states permitted the practice.
… Numbers collected by the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights and released in March 2008 showed that 223,190 students were physically punished in American schools in 2006, the most recent year available.
The decision is important because it could affect federal funding for those students. The common definition could also determine which students receive accommodations on standardized tests, such as more time, use of a dictionary or instructions recorded in their native language.
The label matters, because under the federal Civil Rights Act, schools are required to provide English-language learners with additional services to ensure they master English as well as the material other students are learning.
The wide variety in policies also creates headaches for students who move from state to state, or even from one school district to another, as they may suddenly find themselves lumped into a new category.
Now that nearly all the states have agreed to adopt common standards in English and math, known as the Common Core State Standards, some states are striving for a common definition of an English-language learner. The task likely will take years, given the political and policy thickets that need to be cleared.
A common definition would help English learners to receive better educations, said Robert Linquanti, project director for English Learner Evaluation and Accountability Support at WestEd, a nonprofit education research organization based in California, and one of two co-authors of a recent report.
Speakers lingered hours past when the hearings were supposed to end so that they could share their thoughts on the Common Core with Pam Stewart.
The conversation about Common Core standards hit a fever pitch in Florida last week.
Florida’s education commissioner, Pam Stewart, moderated three hearings about the Common Core in Tampa, Davie and Tallahassee. The listening sessions came out of an executive order issued by Gov. Rick Scott. Along with the request for public input, the governor has been distancing Florida from its position as a leader in a consortium to create a Common Core-aligned test.
More than 750 people showed up to the listening sessions. Parents, teachers and activists all took their four minutes at the microphone to tell Florida’s education leaders what they think of the Common Core.
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