Sixty years after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, not all classrooms reflect the dream of desegregation.
Here’s a question:How do you teach a class of all black students in an all black school that Brown v. Board of Education ended segregation decades ago?
That isn’t a hypothetical question, but one I remember clearly asking myself. I was teaching American History for the first time in one of our nation’s many embarrassingly homogeneous schools. I could not, with a straight face, teach my students that segregation had ended. They’d think that either they or I didn’t know what the word segregation meant. Continue Reading →
The median earnings of Florida associate in arts graduates was $26,504 in their first year, while the median bachelor’s graduate (not divided by arts and science) earnings was $33,652. Nursing, accounting and teaching graduates earned the highest median pay among bachelor’s graduates. For bachelor degrees earned at Florida colleges, the median pay was highest for nursing, computer and information technology and dental hygienists.
The median associate in science earnings was $45,060, with emergency medical technicians, nursing and physical therapy the most lucrative fields.
The University of Florida’s education school and a UF graduate also teamed up on a project, creating the online Algebra Nation. Algebra Nation is a combination of online videos, traditional workbooks and an always-available online network of professionals and peers able to help students solve for Y.
Algebra Nation surveyed teachers about what they wanted, said Ethan Fieldman, the founder of a tutoring firm that helped launch Algebra Nation. Most teachers weren’t happy with the available online videos and wanted something more tailored for Florida’s math standards.
“Khan Academy videos are nice,” Fieldman said, “but they’re boring, and the students want to connect with real people…that they can see on the screen.”
The percentage of students passing all four of Florida's end-of-course exams increased last school year.
More Florida students passed the state’s final exams for algebra, biology, geometry and U.S. history, according to test results released Monday.
The tests, known as end-of-course exams, are required by state law. Students must pass the Algebra 1 end-of-course exam to graduate high school.
State leaders were pleased with the results.
“I think that is just a testimony to the great work that’s being done in our districts and in our schools and in our classrooms,” said Education Commissioner Pam Stewart.
The biggest improvement was on the U.S. History exam. Two-thirds of students passed the exam on their first attempt, an increase of 10 percentage points. Stewart said the increase might be because students enrolled in Advanced Placement history classes took the test to earn the state’s new scholar designation on their diploma.
On the required algebra test, 65 percent of students taking the test for the first time passed — and increase of one percentage point. But ninth graders are the largest group of students taking the algebra test, and the percentage of high school freshmen passing the exam held steady at 52 percent.
We’ll find out today if those numbers improved when the Florida Department of Education releases this year’s end-of-course results.
But Pinellas County schools aren’t waiting. Hundreds of incoming ninth graders will return to class this week to begin a six-week summer Algebra 1 boot camp.
About two-thirds of Pinellas County ninth graders did not pass the Algebra 1 end-of-course exam given last spring.
Students will use a computerized curriculum which will let them spend less time on concepts they understand, and more time on lessons they struggle with.
This is what the first day of summer feels like for some folks.
School’s out for summer across Florida.
In honor of the much-anticipated break, we asked teachers, students and administrators to describe that first day out of the classroom by filling in the blank: The first day of summer is like ____.
For some, it’s a welcome respite.
For others, it’s the beginning of the next school year.
Check out the responses in the Storify below. Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments.
Our partners at WLRN put together a special education hour of the Sunshine Economy this week. The conversation ranged from a talk with Broward County’s superintendent about Common Core to a chat with a group of high school students about diversity in the classroom:
stockimages / freedigitalphotos.net
School's out for summer.
In this edition of The Sunshine Economy:
The school year may be over, but the next chapter in public education begins in less than three months: Common Core State Standards.
However, Florida public school kids won’t follow Common Core, at least not in name. The state has dubbed the standards “Florida Standards.” Still, the principles of Common Core remain: more rigorous education standards to better prepare students for college and careers.
The employment stakes of education are huge. In May, the U.S. job market marked a milestone. The number of jobs created since the recession ended is now equal to the number of jobs lost during the economic collapse. But the recovery is lumpy to say the least. The job gains are concentrated among those with at least some college education. The number of people who have solely a high school diploma or less and a job remains well below what it was before the recession. Continue Reading →
A summer job used to cover more of college than it does now.
A summer job for a college student isn’t what it used to be.
Anya Kamenetz from NPR’s education team explored the economics of rising college costs over the years—and the comparatively creeping change in minimum wage. What she found is that a summer job just doesn’t cover what it used to:
“Let’s look at the numbers for today’s public university student. They’ve all changed in the wrong direction. In 2013-2014, the full cost of attendance for in-state students was $18,391. The maximum Pell Grant didn’t keep pace with that. It’s $5,550. That leaves our hypothetical student on the hook for $12,841.”
You canread the full storyhere and listen to the conversation from All Things Considered:
Leslie Augustin, 13, an eighth-grade student in the guitar class, gets individual attention from Jonathan De Leon, founder of the guitar program at the school.
When Jonathan De Leon left his home state of New Jersey to teach at North Miami Middle School in 2007, he immediately saw possibility — both in the school and the students.
A post-graduate teaching job in an affluent neighborhood in Philadelphia quickly convinced De Leon that North Miami Middle — persistently a low-achieving school, according to the Education Transformation Office, an arm of Miami-Dade Schools that supports targeted schools — was the place he could make a significant impact.
When he arrived, De Leon says he remembers a “nonexistent” music program with no instrumental electives and an over-enrolled chorus class, the only option available.
“I started here in 2007 as a social studies teacher and it was both challenging and wonderful,” said De Leon, 28. “Teaching history was great, but my passion has always been music.”
That passion gave impetus to what administrators, teachers and students at the school are calling a culture change: a transformation that started with the music program.
Correction: An earlier version of this story identified Michael Kamen as the director of the the film, Mr. Holland’s Opus. He in fact is the composer who wrote the film score.
Students man a computer help desk at Ocoee High School and assist classmates. The school has to end the program because of a state requirement for end-of-course exams.
A recurring theme in Florida education is that policies intended to address separate issues can and do conflict with each other.
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