These boys are part of the All Male E.A.G.L.E. Academy at Bond Elementary School in Tallahassee. The acronym stands for Extraordinary Ambitious Gentlemen Leading in Excellence.
A handful of public schools in Florida have either all-girls or all-boys classrooms. More could be coming.
“With the idea that children all learn differently, this is a way that we can provide those parents – that don’t have the resources to send their students to a private school or a parochial school that has a gender specific setting – a local public school where they have access to it,” Diaz said.
A handful of public schools around the state already have single sex classrooms.
“They’re great standards. They’re higher level standards. They’re common sense,” Ford said. “They allow teachers and students to dive deep into the subject matter as opposed to covering a variety of issues very, very thinly.”
But he’d like more time for students and teachers to make the transition.
“Teachers are going to have to have time to retool absolutely everything they’ve been doing because these standards are so much better,” Ford said, “but they’re higher level and they require different ways of teaching.”
Progress Florida says ALEC has too much influence inside state houses. ALEC defended its work.
Two groups named yesterday in a report which criticizes ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council – for its “damaging influence” on public education policy have responded.
The organization has a series of task forces comprised of legislators that “develop model policies to use across the country.” Subjects range from Civil Justice to Communications and Technology.
The report claims ALEC’s task forces are under the influence of corporate interests.
“The policies of ALEC’s Education Task Force prioritize profit over results, secrecy over accountability, and cuts over kids,” the report states.
Lindsay Russell, director of ALEC’s Task Force on Education, sent StateImpact Florida this statement: Continue Reading →
The American Legislative Exchange Council – better known as ALEC – describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan organization that focuses on policy relating to “free markets, limited government and constitutional division of powers between the federal and state governments.”
The transition to Common Core may be a challenge that some teachers choose not to take.
Before she retires, Shara Holt is getting teachers around the state ready to use Common Core standards. Holt is a literacy coach in St. Johns County who’s spent 41 years as an educator.
It’s a new way of teaching that focuses heavily on fewer subjects, sets benchmarks for students at each grade level, and forces students to explain their answers.
“Gone are the days when a teacher can go to the filing cabinet and pull out a lesson plan from five years ago, blow the dust off and use the same lesson plan,” said Holt. “Now we have to look at the needs of the students…instead of just teaching what’s there and (saying) ‘If they get it, fine – if they don’t get it, too bad.'”
It’s a change that Holt thinks could lead to an exodus from the classroom.
“I’ve seen teachers already who have left the system,” Holt said, “not only because of the change coming with Common Core but also with the teacher evaluation system.”
These teachers are learning how to make math an interactive, engaging experience for students under the new Common Core State Standards.
They were led by Ilea Faircloth, a staff training specialist for Bay County schools.
“With Common Core, if we are implementing the math practices with fidelity and to the intent of the mathematical Common Core writers, we are instilling in them the love of mathematics,” Faircloth said. “We are challenging them and pushing them. We’re not giving them answers – we’re making them think.”
And “It’s fun and it’s engaging, and it’s not boring,” Faircloth said.
Teachers in this training session are learning techniques that Faircloth says will work for students of all ages.
Common Core will have kids thinking out loud, discussing solutions with each other, and explaining their answers. Continue Reading →
This new way of teaching is designed to better prepare students for college and a career.
Thousands of teachers are getting help from the Florida Department of Education at training sessions this summer – studying a different way to guide student learning.
Principals and other school personnel are learning, too.
K-12 Deputy Chancellor Mary Jane Tappen says administrators need enough knowledge about the standards to recognize them in the classroom and lead teachers through the transition.
“It’s to help administrators recognize what a classroom where Common Core is being taught should look like and how to support teachers with resources and lesson study,” Tappen said this week during a training session near Pensacola. “So administrators have some skills but also some resources to help them.”
It’s a big change for long time educators like Bagdad Elementary School Principal Linda Gooch in Santa Rosa County. She’s worked in education more than three decades, seven of those years as an administrator.
Q: What are administrators learning at these summer institutes?
A: We are learning how to be the instructional leader that we need to be to make sure that our teachers are able to implement Common Core in the way that it should be.
We have to have a little bit of information about all of the different areas because it’s up to us to make sure that we are providing the professional development that our teachers need and encouraging our teachers to be leaders – to work with their grade levels and to work with other grade levels because we can’t do it all. Continue Reading →
K-12 Deputy Chancellor Mary Jane Tappen was constantly on the move, ducking in and out of dozens of training sessions.
“Next year, we are doing blended course descriptions which means in all English language arts and math classrooms, they’ll be teaching the Common Core,” Tappen said.
New Jersey Congressman Scott Garrett is behind a proposal to keep education funding at the state levels and enable states to withdraw from Common Core.
A New Jersey Congressman has proposed a bill that would allow states to bypass the strings which come with federal money.
During a Common Core briefing at the Cato Institute this week, Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) said he would introduce the LEARN Act – Local Education Authority Returns Now. The proposal would keep education funding at the state level instead of moving it through the federal government.
“It’s time to return our education policy back to local communities,” Garrett said. “It’s time to start putting actually the students first and not anyone else.”
The bill would also make it easier for states to rescind their support of Common Core State Standards.
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