John O'Connor is the Miami-based education reporter for StateImpact Florida. John previously covered politics, the budget and taxes for The (Columbia, S.C) State. He is a graduate of Allegheny College and the University of Maryland.
Senate President Don Gaetz wants to requires students receiving tax credit scholarships to take state standardized tests.
The debate over whether to require students using one of the state’s private school scholarship programs take state standardized tests is flaring up again.
Florida lawmakers want to expand the state’s private school scholarship program for low-income students funded with tax credits. But Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, thinks the scholarships should also come with the requirement that those schools administer the same statewide test as Florida’s public schools, as the Orlando Sentinel reported last week.
The issue is important as Florida chooses a new statewide test tied to Common Core language arts and math standards to replace the FCAT. Education Commissioner Pam Stewart is expected to recommend a new test next month.
The median income of a high school graduate in 2013 was about two-thirds that of a college graduates the same year. In 1979, the median income of a high school graduate was about three-quarters that of a college grad.
The good news is that students are earning college degrees at a higher rate than at other points in the past 50 years. One-third of students in the Millennial Generation (born after 1980) have earned a college degree. That’s up form about one-quarter of the three previous generational cohorts, Gen Xers, Late Boomers and Early Boomers.
The bad news? Inflation-adjusted median annual income has remained flat across the four generations. That’s because as college graduates have earned more, those without a college degree have earned less.
Education Commissioner Pam Stewart has recommended changes to the school grading formula.
Florida’s school grades would focus on student performance on state tests, graduation rates and earning college credit or industry certifications, according to a proposal posted at the Florida Department of Education website.
Florida’s school grades were intended to be an easy-to-understand way for parents to know how their child’s school is performing. But educators have complained the formula has gotten too complicated as state officials added more and more components to the formula.
School grades are important because good grades determine which schools and teachers are paid bonuses, while low-performing schools must come up with a plan to improve their grade or even be closed. High-performing schools can even raise nearby property values.
With Florida moving to new K-12 math and language arts standards and a new statewide test next year, Education Commissioner Pam Stewart wants to simplify things a little.
The proposal trims the number of components that make up the school grade score.
Experts say they've seen a positive effect in school using Common Core standards. But critics believe the standards are a distraction from the real issues with schools.
Thomas said Common Core is a distraction from real problems with schools.
“If you’re an African-American male student,” he said, “you are disproportionately likely to be excluded from advanced classes and you’re also likely to sit in classrooms with teachers that have no experience and possibly no certification. There’s absolutely nothing in Common Core that addresses any of those inequities.”
Nancy Gavrish has taught for 36 years, most of them teaching art to students at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne.
But, lessons that worked for Gavrish at the beginning of her career weren’t as effective later.
“I realized for years that I was not able to keep students’ attention like I used to,” she said, “that demonstrations just weren’t doing it anymore.”
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The staff at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy. From left: Nancy Gavrish, Cathy Koos, Brad Meyer and Teresa Schultz.
So Gavrish turned to technology to lure students in. First she dabbled with YouTube — with limited results — before turning to online museum collections, virtual tours and an electronic whiteboard. Eventually, she had her students create art based on a historical figure and use iMovie to compile video portfolios.
Gavrish said students now dive into their assignments, but admits she had a tough time making the initial plunge into technology.
“I was scared at first,” she said, “because I realized that even my own children and the children I was teaching knew more than I did. They were OK with just sitting down and going for it, where I was very hesitant.
“I realized that if I wanted to continue to really connect with those children, I had to do it.”
The bill would require state colleges to accept two years of computer programming if the courses applied to a student’s major. State universities would have the option of accepting those courses instead of a foreign language.
Senate education chairman John Legg, who is sponsoring the bill, said it would prepare students to fill high-tech jobs. Advocates argue Florida won’t produce enough computer programmers over the next decade to fill available jobs.
Staff from CPALMS, a Florida site created to help teachers with standards and curriculum, show off a 3-D printer. CPALMS is creating a pilot program with some Florida districts to let schools and students try out the high-tech printers.
Some items that were created with a 3-D printer. The staff at CPALMS, which provides standards and curriculum help for Florida teachers, were demonstrating the printer.
Educators check out a demonstration by Amplify, an education technology firm owned by News Corp. and run by former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein.
Educators check out the products from Lenovo, a Chinese company which makes computers, tablets and other electronics.
Lincoln High School history teacher Stephen Veliz had his first breakthrough using technology in the classroom when he had his sixth grade students blog.
Susan Bearden, director of information technology at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne.
Some cubes created with a 3-D printer. The cubes may be the same size, but the printer can created them with different densities. Staff at CPALMS, a Florida site which helps teachers with curriculum and standards, were demonstrating the printer at FETC.
Last week Orlando hosted one of the oldest and largest education technology conferences in the country.
Sarasota County schools partnered with the Gulf Coast Community Foundation to upgrade middle school math and science classrooms.
Florida schools could get more money to upgrade classrooms, purchase new computers, tablets and other technology and train teachers and staff how to use them.
But they’ll have to meet new goals set by the Florida Department of Education, submit annual technology plans and document how they’re spending the money.
That’s according to a bill supported by House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate Education committee chairman John Legg. The two Tampa Bay-area Republicans plan to introduce the bill today.
A screenshot from the ACTAspireFlorida.org website. The state is expected to choose a new exam in March.
Testing firm ACT has launched a website to advertise and educate the public about its new exam as the Florida Department of Education decides which test will mostly replace the FCAT.
The ACT Aspire is one of five exams which submitted bids to become Florida’s test for use with new Common Core math and language arts standards. The American Institutes for Research, CTB/McGraw Hill, McCann Associates and Pearson also submitted bids.
Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said she will recommend a new exam in March. That could be one of the five bidders, or she could recommended another choice.
ACT spokesman Dianne Bean said the site, ACTAspireFlorida.org, could help answer questions about the new exam.
“A lot of people don’t know much about assessments,” she said, other than just “hearing things.”
“We’re a reputable company that’s been around a long time.”
President Barack Obama delivers his 2010 State of the Union speech.
President Barack Obama again asked Congress to expand access to early childhood education programs and defended a major federal grant program, but didn’t propose any new initiatives.
President Barack Obama placed education at the center of a broad strategy to bolster economic mobility and combat poverty—calling on Congress in his State of the Union speech to approve previously unveiled initiatives to expand preschool to more 4-year-olds, beef up job-training programs, and make post-secondary education more effective and accessible.
“Last year, I asked this Congress to help states make high-quality pre-K available to every 4-year-old,” said Obama, whose education agenda in his second term has shifted away from K-12 toward prekindergarten and college affordability. “As a parent as well as a president, I repeat that request tonight. But in the meantime, 30 states have raised pre-K funding on their own. They know we can’t wait.”
Obama used his speech to mount an indirect defense of the common-core standards and a more spirited, direct defense of the program that spurred states to adopt them: Race to the Top. This, too, from an administration that has been blamed for threatening the future of the Common Core State Standards by supporting them—and from a president who hasn’t talked much at all about Race to the Top in recent major speeches. He credits his Race to the Top competitive-grant program with helping raise standards—and performance (which many may argue it’s too soon to tell).
Several analyses of the address pointed out that funding universal pre-k is going to be a hurdle. Claudio Sanchez of NPR put it this way: Continue Reading →
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