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.
From Common Core, to Florida’s next standardized test and changes to high school graduation requirement, education was a top story time and again this year.
Here’s a selection of some of our most important, interesting and favorite education stories of 2013.
Click on the headlines to read the full story and listen to the broadcast versions.
John O'Connor / StateImpact Florida
Emma Jane Miller speaks against Common Core State Standards in October. She said standards developed with support from private groups is education without representation.
Florida’s education commissioner, Pam Stewart, moderated three hearings about the Common Core in Tampa, Davie and Tallahassee. The listening sessions came out of an executive order issued by Gov. Rick Scott. Along with the request for public input, the governor has been distancing Florida from its position as a leader in a consortium to create a Common Core-aligned test.
More than 750 people showed up to the listening sessions. Parents, teachers and activists all took their four minutes at the microphone to tell Florida’s education leaders what they think of the Common Core.
There were impassioned comments from speakers on both sides of the standards—many of whom stayed hours past when the listening sessions were scheduled to end.
New testing data shows Hillsborough County schools beat the performance of other large urban school districts in math and reading. Miami-Dade fourth grade readers outscored other large urban districts, but were on par in eighth grade reading and fourth and eighth grade math.
The results come from the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ sample of 21 large, urban school districts known as the Trial Urban District Assessment. The reading and math tests are given every other year to a sample of students in fourth and eighth grades.
The percentage of Hillsborough County students scoring proficient — a level of solid academic performance, as defined by NAEP — beat the national average for large, urban districts on all four exams. A higher percentage of Miami-Dade fourth graders scored proficient or better than the national average for large, urban districts.
Neither Miami-Dade nor Hillsborough County had a statistically significant score increase on any of the four tests.
“The NAEP scores are the best data available for making valid comparisons,” Hillsborough schools superintendent MaryEllen Elia said in a statement, “so it’s very gratifying to see our students performing at the highest levels compared to their peers in many of the nation’s largest school districts. It’s great to see our hard work paying off. The students, their teachers, and their parents should be very proud.”
The Florida Department of Education released 2013 high school grades, part of the state’s school accountability system. The data includes each component of the school’s score and demographic data. Continue reading →
Nearly half of Florida high schools — 48 percent — earned an A grade on the state’s report card, according to a report Florida Department of Education released Wednesday.
That’s up from 31 percent of high schools earning a top grade two years ago. More than 80 percent of Florida high schools earned an A or B grade.
That performance triggers automatic changes to the school grading system next year, raising the number of points required to earn each grade. This is the first time the 2011 State Board of Education rule has been required.
“This is appropriate,” education commissioner Pam Stewart said on a conference call with reporters. “We are very proud of the work our high schools have done.” The requirement does not change the point scale for elementary and middle school grades.
Like the GED, the new tests will be offered online. Unlike the GED, the competitors will still offer a pencil-and-paper version. And one of the biggest selling points of the new exams is that they will cost less than half of the new GED (though GED argues they have a comprehensive suite of services — such as transcripts and practice tests — that offers more value).
Like the other alternatives to the GED, HiSET came about because some states were concerned about the changes to the new GED.
The transition to completely computer-based testing was not something that the states felt that they could accomplish by January 2014,” said Amy Riker, national executive director for ETS. “We’ve left that option up to the state and up to the test centers and test takers.”
Former Florida education commissioner Tony Bennett is now advising ACT about its new Common Core-tied exam.
Testing firm ACT has hired former Florida education commissioner Tony Bennett as a consultant for the new test tied to Common Core standards the company is developing, according to Education Week’s Catherine Gewertz.
The company said Bennett would advise ACT as state’s decide which exam to choose for Common Core standards. From the story:
ACT spokesman Ed Colby said he could not confirm that Bennett would be doing government relations work for the company, but did confirm that “ACT Aspire has hired him to consult on state level initiatives.” “We understand his focus to be on initiatives related to ACT Aspire as states consider the future of their state assessment programs,” Colby said in an email.
Bennett’s role helping ACT market its Aspire system is only the latest in a series of high-powered talent grabs by the Iowa-based testmaker and by the New York City-based College Board, which is wading into the common-core test market in middle and high school. ACT hired the College Board’s longtime chief of research, Wayne Camara. College Board lured away a number of ACT luminaries, including education division chief Cynthia Schmeiser.
Florida's graduation rate has risen for the seventh consecutive year.
Florida’s high school graduation rate increased for the seventh consecutive year, according to new data from the Florida Department of Education. The percentage of students earning a high school diploma increased to 75.6 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, up from 74.5 percent the previous year.
Graduation rates improved for every racial subgroup, except Asian-Americans, whose rate remained the highest at 88.4 percent.
Nassau County schools posted the state’s highest graduation rate at 90.9 percent. Among the state’s largest school districts in Broward County, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Palm Beach County and Tampa, Miami-Dade schools posted the best graduation rate of 77.2 percent.
GED Testing Service has posted some sample items from the new exam online to give an idea what the new test will look like.
The test is moving online, but most of the questions are still multiple choice. Some of the items take advantage of online features, such as dragging items to create a timeline of Anne of Green Gables events or completing a sentence by choosing options from a dropdown menu.
The items are for the Language Arts, science, mathematics reasoning and social studies exams. The samples don’t include the full range of difficulty of GED test items.
The sample items are posted in both English and Spanish. You can view them online or download them to your computer.
Cynthia Williams is studying for the GED. She said she's had to learn how to use a computer to take the new online exam next year.
One of the big changes with the new GED test come January will be that the exam is going online. Students will no longer have a pencil and paper option and will have to take the exam on a computer.
They’ll get their results the same day they take the exam. They’ll also be able to get copies of their transcript or take a practice GED exam to find out if they are ready.
GED data from Florida and other states shows students taking computer-based tests are finishing their studies quicker, more likely to pass the test and more likely to take the test again if they fail a section, Chestang said.
There’s a secondary reason the tests are going online: It’s tough to find a job that doesn’t require computer skills.
Her unemployment payments have been hung up for six weeks because of the state’s new online system.
And the mother to two lost her Tampa housing and has to move out next month.
John O'Connor / StateImpact Florida
Uzelea Evans, right, and Cynthia Williams, left, talk with GED teacher Travis McGinnis at Metropolitan Ministries. The GED is changing in January, and McGinnis said his students have been planning since September whether to take the old test or the new GED.
But she’s working hard toward some good news in a classroom at Metropolitan Ministries – passing the GED exam.
“My life has been a struggle ever since my mom died,” Evans said. “But I’m just trying to stay focused and keep going. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ve got a lot on my plate but I’ve got to keep going. I’ve just got to keep going – that’s why I need this so bad. So I got to get this.”
Evans works as a cook. Dropping out of high school has hindered her in finding a higher-paying job.
She’s one of about 40 people taking GED classes at Metropolitan Ministries.
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