School officials said one class at most of the county’s schools will try out the new exam. Students will take the math and language arts exam in two sections, once in March and another in May.
Florida is replacing most of the FCAT as part of the switch to new K-12 standards, known as Common Core. Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said she will recommend a new exam by the end of March.
Hillsborough schools spokesman Stephen Hegarty said the district signed on before PARCC became public enemy number one for the next generation of standardized tests.
“It’s good to be a part of that,” Hegarty said. “We saw it as being a benefit.”
This round of hires is funded with an additional $4.7 million of state and university funds. The school will hire faculty in nanomedicine, social network analysis, creative writing, obesity research, African studies and more.
“We run the whole gamut from science to engineering…to the social sciences to the humanities,” University of Florida provost Joe Glover said.
Education Commissioner Pam Stewart on a listening tour with Gov. Rick Scott.
The Florida Department of Education could suggest about 40 changes to the state’s K-12 standards, including requiring the teaching of cursive writing and the use of decimals when counting money.
But Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said the changes were minor and would have little impact on students, teachers and administrators preparing for the final switch to new standards, known as Common Core, when classes start this fall.
Stewart spoke to the Senate Education committee Wednesday, outlining the agency’s plans for adjusting Common Core, choosing a new statewide test, altering the state’s school grading and teacher evaluation rules and protecting student data. Lawmakers had asked her to appear as they made plans for the upcoming legislative session.
“With the total, spread over K-12, of being 40-some changes, I don’t think would have a serious impact on each grade level,” Stewart said.
Teacher Darcy Bedortha is writing about her 15 months working in a K12 online school.
A former teacher at a school run by online education firm K12, Inc. said she felt overwhelmed by the size of her class rosters and that online classes weren’t the right choice for the mostly poor communities K12 targeted.
I was an English teacher, so my students would write. They wrote of pain and fear and of not fitting in. They were the kinds of young people who desperately needed to have the protective circle of a community watching over them. They needed one healthy person to smile at them and recognize them by name every day, to say “I’m glad you’re here!” Many of my former students do not have that.
The last thing these young people needed, I came to realize during my time with K12 Inc., was to be isolated in front of a computer screen. A week or two or three would often go by without my getting a word from a student. They didn’t answer their email, they didn’t answer their phones. Often their phones were disconnected. Their families were disconnected. My students also moved a lot. During my first year at the school I spent days on the phone trying to track students down. This year I struggled to not simply give up under the weight of it all.
Bedortha left her job with K12 in November after 15 months with the company. She said she struggled with the choice to write about her experience because some students depend on and benefit from the virtual school.
Sen. John Legg, R-Port Richey, says lawmakers need some advice from education commissioner Pam Stewart on Wednesday.
Wednesday the Florida Legislature will start in on the heavy lifting of this year’s session with regard to education policy.
The Senate Education Committee has asked education commissioner Pam Stewart to outline the agency’s plan and update lawmakers on where things stand with the final switch to new K-12 English language arts and math standards (scheduled for this fall), choosing a new standardized test to mostly replace the FCAT (first use scheduled for early 2015), upgrading school technology, teacher evaluations and more.
StateImpact Florida recently sat down with Legg to talk about the session.
“We’re going to kind of jump in to the deep end of the pool in January,” Legg said. “Those issues…will probably dominate the legislative session.”
Legg said Wednesday’s meeting will be key for lawmakers setting their agenda for the upcoming session. Legg said lawmakers could plan what they will and won’t do during the session based on what Stewart says.
Florida gets a new GED exam today. The high school equivalency test is going exclusively online.
Education advocates are greeting it with mixed feelings.
The new GED has been retooled to emphasize workplace and college skills. That’s part of why advocates say it makes sense to offer it only as a computer-based exam. Test-takers will also get their unofficial results instantly.
But some educators are concerned that degree-seekers who are not computer proficient will be left behind. And the new GED has a new price: $128 for the full exam. The old paper and pencil test was $70.
StateImpact Florida has been looking into the new exam. Here’s a collection of stories to get you up to speed:
Lawmakers expect Education Commissioner Pam Stewart to have a plan for the switch to Common Core. Stewart will speak to the Senate Education Committee next week.
The chairman of the Senate education committee is asking the Florida Department of Education to have its plans for new standards and assessments ready when commissioner Pam Stewart speaks at a meeting next week.
The education committee will meet Wednesday in Tallahassee.
Chairman John Legg said what Stewart says could determine whether lawmakers delay new exams, or make changes to the school grading formula or teacher evaluations.
“We’ve held off on asking her to come before us up until now because we felt they needed adequate time to assess these issues,” Legg said. “We’ve given that time and we’ve asked them to come forward with their recommendations and their plan in January.”
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