Students and civil rights activists are still asking Florida to hold black and Hispanic students to a higher standard.
It’s been a little more than a year since the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County filed a federal civil rights complaint against the state’s race-based academic goals.
There have since been a number of protests by activists who oppose lower expectations for minorities.
But to understand how the race-based goals play out in the classroom, StateImpact Florida sat down with a panel of high school students to talk about the expectations:
Sammy Mack / StateImpact Florida
We spoke with a panel of students about Florida's race-based education goals.
But the number of schools earning the state’s highest rating also increased this year.
“The increase in the number of schools earning an ‘A’ this year is great news for students and teachers who have worked hard for this success,” Commissioner Pam Stewart said in a statement. “I appreciate the work by the educators and families and students and know they will continue to improve in the future even as we transition to a new grading system.”
The is the final year schools will earn grades based in part on results from FCAT exams. Next year the state switches to the Florida Standards Assessment, which will test students on Florida’s Common Core-based standards.
Department of Education officials pointed out 116 schools improved by at least two letter grades.
The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote tomorrow on a plan to emphasize wireless Internet connections.
Tomorrow the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on a plan that would add $2 billion over two years to help schools and libraries purchase high-speed wireless Internet access.
The plan’s full details are not public, but the agency has published a short summary of the proposed changes.
The plan has three broad goals:
Expand the amount of grants available to help school purchase and maintain wireless Internet networks.
Change eligibility to broaden the number of schools and libraries that can receive grants.
Make the program simpler and faster for participating schools and libraries.
A Republican FCC commissioner and two Democratic senators have questioned the proposal this week. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said the plan numbers “don’t add up” and that the changes would mean higher charges on phone bills. U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller, of West Virginia, and Edwrd Markey, of Massachusetts, were concerned emphasizing wireless would come at the expense of funding for other, wired broadband Internet connections.
Bennett admits using state resources for his 2012 reelection campaign. But Bennett was also cleared of any ethics violations related to changes he sought to Indiana’s school grading formula in 2012.
Emails showed Bennett, A Republican, asked staff to adjust the state formula after learning an Indiana charter school would receive a lower than expected grade. The school was founded by a prominent political donor who favored Republicans in statewide races.
Even if the Federal Communications Commission adds $2 billion to a program to help purchase high-speed Internet, urban school districts said they'll probably receive less money.
City school districts say a plan to expand a federal program that helps schools and libraries purchase high-speed Internet access will actually reduce the amount of money those districts receive.
Miami-Dade school officials and the Council of Great City Schools said proposed changes to the E-Rate program will force city school districts to pay more to match federal grants and reduce the overall value of those grants.
The goal is to put a higher priority on wireless networking. Wireless grants were only funded if any of the $2.3 billion E-Rate money was left over after wired grants were awarded. Few wireless grants were funded the past few years.
The proposal would also add $2 billion over the next two years.
StudentsFirst, the education advocacy group founded by former D.C. schools' chancellor Michelle Rhee, is powering down its Florida efforts.
Former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee’s education advocacy group is scaling back its Florida efforts, Travis Pillow scoops for redefinED.
StudentsFirst spokesman Lane Wright said Florida has already adopted many policies the group promotes, so they are focusing efforts elsewhere.
That’s true. But, the group can’t exactly claim victory and walk off the field. StudentsFirst has failed to win approval for their top legislative priority each of the past three years.
StudentsFirst has been a major proponent for the “parent trigger,” which allow parents at schools earning failing grades to vote how to restructure the school — including converting to a charter school. The bills died in the Senate on a tie vote in both 2012 and 2013.
Curtis Lanoue teaches music in a trailer behind Oliver Hoover Elementary School in Miami. His colleagues have interactive smart boards in their classrooms.
Those are like 21st-Century chalk boards that can can plug into the school’s network — and the Internet.
Elle Moxley / StateImpact Indiana
Schools are switching to mobile carts like this, loaded with iPads, and Wi-Fi hot spots for new online tests and high-tech lessons.
But Lanoue doesn’t have a smartboard — or the Internet — in his portable classroom.
“YouTube might not be the greatest thing to let a kid use unattended,” he said, “but for the teacher to use it there’s a ton of resources on there.
“It would help a lot to show performances; to show historic stuff would be great.”
Miami-Dade schools are finishing a $1.2 billion overhaul of schools across the district. Most now have fast wireless networks — as of the end this school year. Others will soon – like Oliver Hoover Elementary.
The Florida Department of Education has released practice questions for the new assessments that will replace the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test next year.
The tests, which are aligned to the new Common Core-based Florida Standards, are available at the Florida Standards Assessments website. Some questions are similar to what students might have seen on the FCAT—asking test-takers to identify main ideas in a text or figure out a percentage in a word problem.
And as promised, there are some new tasks in the design of the test, too. Like a prompt that asks students to drag and drop images as an answer to a question about a reading passage: Continue Reading →
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