Virginia-based K12 is the nation’s largest operator of online schools. K12 operates in 43 Florida school districts, including in Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough, Orange and Duval counties.
The company teaches everything from art to algebra to students in kindergarten through high school.
According to Florida law, teachers must pass three exams to earn state certification as well as be certified for the subject and grades they teach. The state investigation, sparked by a complaint from the Seminole County School District, found at least three middle-school K12 teachers in Seminole County who did not have proper subject certification. The investigation, however, did not find teachers without general certification, which was among the allegations in the original complaint from Seminole County.
In Florida, school districts must notify parents if a teacher is not subject-certified. Teachers then have three years to earn certification before the school district is penalized. Seminole County schools said they had no evidence that parents of K12 students were notified that the teachers did not have subject certification.
K12 has refunded the Seminole County school district the $12,800 cost for the 16 courses taught by teachers without subject certification.
A series of emails led Seminole County school officials to question K12's teachers.
Below is the draft report from the Florida Department of Education inspector general. The agency was asked to investigate whether K12, Inc. was using properly certified teachers in Seminole County.
The report finds no evidence that the company used teachers lacking Florida certification. But the report found the company did use three teachers who were not certified for the subject they were teaching.
Both K12 and the Seminole County schools district have disputed the report (read their responses here). the inspector general will consider those responses and could alter the conclusions or recommendations before issuing a final report.
Attorneys for K12, Inc. and Seminole County schools have responded to a preliminary report by a Florida Department of Education investigator.
The Florida Department of Education inspector general has released a draft report in its investigation of online education firm K12, Inc. The agency was asked to investigate whether K12, Inc. was using properly certified teachers in Seminole County.
The report (read it here) finds no evidence that the company used teachers lacking Florida certification. But the report found the company did use three teachers who were not certified for the subject they were teaching.
Both K12 and the Seminole County schools district have disputed the report. The inspector general will consider those responses and could alter the conclusions or recommendations before issuing a final report.
Read K12’s and Seminole County schools’ responses, after the jump:
That’s the tone in a series of exasperated editorials aimed at critics of new education standards known as Common Core.
David Castillo Dominici / freedigitalphotos.net
Supporters of the Common Core have taken an exasperated tone with critics.
Florida has been leading the consortium of 45 states who are developing Common Core standards for education. In the past few weeks, objections to the new national benchmarks—and the new standardized tests that will accompany them—have been getting louder.
Last week, students in New York sat for the state’s first standardized tests tied to Common Core. The New York Times was among the publications that reported on complaints: Tearful students, not enough time to finish the exams, parents who didn’t want their kids to be guinea pigs for the latest in standardized testing.
6th grader Mariah Harris wants to go to college and become a veterinary technician.
Right now, schools determine whether to move a student into special education classes.
But a proposed bill in Tallahassee would give parents of children with special needs more power over their education.
Fort Lauderdale 6th grader Mariah Harris has Down syndrome, and she wants to be a veterinary technician.
“My dream is to go to college with my friends one day,” she told a panel of lawmakers.
She was accepted into a middle school magnet program that caters to her love of science and math. But before the school year started, her mother says the Broward County school district drastically changed the plan for Mariah’s education.
“I feel the school is now providing my daughter with very expensive babysitting service,” said Nancy Linley-Harris.
The most significant change is to high school graduation requirements. For students beginning high school in the 2013-2014 school year, the bill will eliminate some required math and science courses while allowing students to substitute career training for math and science requirements.
No longer required: Algebra II, Chemistry and Physics. Students would only have to pass an Algebra I end-of-course exam. In other classes, end-of-course exams will count for 30 percent of the total grade but passage is not required to graduate.
New York students say they are having trouble finishing new tests tied to the Common Core in the allowed time.
New York students are struggling with redesigned tests tied to new education standards adopted by Florida and 44 other states, according to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
New York schools are giving the new tests for the first time this week. A common complaint? Not enough time:
Initial reports from around the state suggested a common struggle: Some children couldn’t complete the exam within the allotted time. Diana Chen, a sixth-grade teacher at Public School 126 in Manhattan, said her students could have used at least a half-hour more.
“The kids were exhausted,” she said after school on Thursday. “It was the first time where I had kids break down during the test.”
Kristen Huff, a research fellow at the state Education Department, said the department believed it had given students “ample time” to complete the exams after weighing field tests and research from the testmaker, Pearson PLC, and then adding more time on top of the company’s estimates. For the English test, third- and fourth-graders were given 70 minutes on each of three days; fifth- through eighth-graders had 90 minutes.
Most states are moving toward Common Core State Standards – a new way of teaching that dives deeper into fewer topics.
That means new assessments are on the way.
Florida is phasing out most of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The new PARCC assessments are scheduled to be in place for the 2014-15 school year.
PARCC stands for Partnership for Assessments of Readiness for College and Careers.
More than 20 states and the District of Columbia are working together to develop the tests for K-12. (23 other states are part of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium – a different set of assessments also aligned to Common Core.)
Florida Education Association President Andy Ford has some issues with the new tests.
The error rates of test score-based teacher evaluations is "quite high" according to a new report. But the evaluation may still be better than traditional performance measures.
But evaluations based on test scores may still be more accurate, the study argues, than traditional reviews based on certifications, years experience or observations.
“More accurate measures of teacher effectiveness can lead to better decisions by school and district leaders,” the authors write. “But the actions we take based on those measures can have both beneficial and harmful consequences. Clearly, we need a better understanding of the consequences of different systems on teacher development, teacher collaboration, and the desirability of teaching as a profession.”
The standards set benchmarks for each grade level. And instead of learning a little bit about a lot of things, students will be expected to absorb a lot of information about fewer subjects.
Education Commissioner Tony Bennett says Florida’s transition to Common Core is on schedule.
The Florida Department of Education even has an interactive readiness gauge online that measures each district’s progress toward meeting Common Core deadlines.
Q: Where do you think the state is right now in the transition to Common Core?
A: There hasn’t been a sufficient amount of training that’s been done to make sure that teachers understand what the new standards are and how to go about implementing them.
The assessments aren’t online yet in order to be able to have all the proof that we need. Continue Reading →
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