JMI Resident Fellow William Mattox gives a presentation about his policy brief on expanded learning.
Researchers with the James Madison Institute argue that schools work better when students have more options for their education.
The group released a policy brief, Expanding Students’ Learning Options,to coincide with National School Choice Week. The Tallahassee think tank is an advocate for limited government.
The brief features six case studies of students involved in alternative forms of learning. All have unique schedules and reasons for not going the traditional route.
“Florida students need greater access to digital, charter and private schools, and every combination in between,” Mattox said. “The stories from our featured students demonstrate that school choice makes a world of difference.”
Vince Verges with the Florida Department of Education presented a rundown of what’s different about the test on the final day of the FETC education technology conference in Orlando.
The highlights:
1) The test is computerized, and can be taken on a tablet computer as small as 9.5 inches. Verges believed students will be allowed to use a separate keyboard with tablets. Some of the answers will require students to type in their reasoning, including students as young as 3rd grade.
We played with the latest toys and sat in on a few discussions about how schools in Florida and elsewhere are using technology.
Here’s what we learned:
1) Use The Old Bait And Switch
Palm Beach Gardens High School media specialist Deb Svec showed off a product called Cranium CoRE, a quiz program made to look like a television game show.
Gov. Rick Scott told reporters gathered at the Capitol that jobs and education are his top priorities for the upcoming legislation session.
Gov. Rick Scott is proposing a $1.2 billion increase in education funding for Kindergarten through 12th grade.
He told a gathering of reporters and newspaper editors at the Capitol today that education is one of his top agenda items for the legislative session that begins in March.
Alluding to the $1.3 billion cut to education in 2011, Scott said,”We had to make some tough choices in order to get our state back on track when I came into office. Now, we are in a position to strategically invest in statewide priorities.”
His proposal amounts to total per student funding of $6,800, an increase of more than $400 per student.
“This total includes $10.7 billion in state funding for Florida K-12 schools, the highest state funding in state history.”
The growth of the education technology, such as interactive whiteboards, has also put more emphasis on researching which products work. Experts say the best reviews still come from classroom instructors.
Today’s status symbol in classroom technology is the interactive white board.
For teachers who have one, it’s a flashy way to rev up lesson plans and add content from throughout the Internet. Teachers who don’t have one are envious.
But Duke University business professor Aaron Chatterji asks whether interactive white boards actually improve instruction.
“My mother’s a teacher,” Chatterji said. “She has a smart board in her classroom and a lot of teachers have those across the country. To my knowledge, we don’t have great data to know whether smart boards actually make a difference.
“As we invest all this money on new technology and new hardware, we ought to know if we’re spending our money on the right things.”
The report released today finds that Florida is among the states that are “best positioned to support the growth of high-quality charter schools” based on NAPCS model law.
This is the fourth year the group has examined state laws to determine which states best support charter schools, and the ones where students are most in need of better public school options.
42 states plus the District of Columbia are included in the rankings.
Twenty components are considered when ranking the states. They include measuring quality and accountability, equitable access to funding and facilities, and limited caps on charter school growth.
National School Choice Week shines a spotlight on all effective education options for children, according to the public awareness campaign.
It’s National School Choice Week, the week advocates spotlight alternative education options for students.
They include “high-performing public schools to public charter schools, magnet schools, private schools, online learning, and homeschooling” according to a statement from schoolchoiceweek.com.
The public awareness campaign is highlighting events around the country – 672 in Florida alone – such as rallies, roundtable discussions, festivals, and school fairs.
The campaign says Governor Rick Scott signed a proclamation officially recognizing this week as “Florida School Choice Week.” Scott has been a strong proponent of school choice. Continue Reading →
It’s a chance for Florida school districts to learn more about two big approaching changes: The switch to new, tougher education standards known as Common Core and Florida’s requirement that schools begin using more digital instruction materials.
StateImpact Florida reporter John O’Connor spoke with Jennifer Womble, who helps organize the event.
“There’s been a transition from technology being a tool on the side of education,” Womble said, “to technology being completely integrated into the education day.”
When 12th grade English teacher Mariolga Locklin’s students started thinking Shakespeare was nothing but an old fogey, she told them to pull out their phones and pull up Google.
A quick search proved The Bard was occasionally bawdy.
Locklin found allowing her students at Miami Palmetto Senior High School to use their smart phones and other high-tech devices in class kept them involved.
“I’m techy. I have an iPhone,” Locklin said. “I’m always looking things up.
“When we have vocabulary, they prefer to look up the words on their phone,” she said. “They have their phone out anyway, and I just turn to them and say ‘look this up.’”
About 10,000 of Locklin’s fellow techy teachers will gather in Orlando this week for FETC, one of the nation’s largest education technology conferences. The 33-year-old conference used to be called the Florida Education Technology Conference, organizers said, but was renamed as the event grew and began to draw a national following.
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