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.
Florida is one of 45 state to fully adopt the standards. The standards outline what students should know at the end of each grade, and to emphasize critical thinking skills, ask students to show what they know and prove how they know it with evidence.
The standards are scheduled to be used in every Florida grade at the start of the next school year.
But critics worry the standards aren’t as good as what Florida is currently using, will mean less local control over educational content, are expensive and will increase the amount of time students spend testing, among other concerns.
Before you head to the hearings this week, here’s a selection of StateImpact Florida stories to give you some background on the debate:
1. Your Essential Guide to the Common Core — Find out the basics here, and check out our timeline of Common Core’s development. “The standards set clear expectations for student achievement at each grade level. They also require students to show they understand what they’ve learned. The goal is to tackle learning problems early on — so more students graduate ready for college or a career. Florida is phasing in Common Core over four years. Full implementation is expected in the 2014-15 academic year.”
A sign from a California protest against Common Core State Standards.
The Florida Department of Education is holding three public hearings this week to gather criticisms and support of Florida’s new math and English standards known as Common Core.
Florida is one of 45 states to fully adopt the standards, which outline what students should know at the end of each grade. Designers say the standards emphasize critical thinking skills, asking students what they know and to prove how they know it.
But as Florida schools prepare to use the standards in every grade starting next school year, critics are pushing back. They worry Common Core will increase time spent testing, will be costly, will reduce local control over educational content and will not be as challenging as Florida’s current standards.
Florida is three years in to implementing Common Core. The standards are fully in use in kindergarten through second grade, while other grade are using a combination of Common Core and Florida’s previous standards.
Hearings on Common Core State Standards are scheduled for next week.
The Foundation for Florida’s Future and Foundation for Excellence in Education, influential and public supporters of shared English, literacy and math standards known as Common Core, won’t be present at three public meetings next week debating the standards.
Foundation spokeswoman Allison Aubuchon said staff would likely not attend the three three-hour meetings in Tampa, Davie and Tallahassee scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week.
“While we wish we could be there personally, I don’t think we’ll actually have a team member on the ground.” Aubuchon said. “Our grassroots team has been encouraging folks to attend.”
Gov. Rick Scott asked the department to hold the hearings last month. Scott wants the public to present concerns about specific Common Core standards. Florida is one of 45 states which have adopted the standards, which outline what students should know in English and math at the end of each grade. Florida is transitioning to the standards now, which will be used in every grade starting next fall.
The University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida earned the highest scores on a new performance funding formula.
Florida universities can start making plans to spend two new pots of money lawmakers created earlier this year.
The University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida earned the highest scores — and therefore the most money — in the first round of performance-based funding for state universities. The Board of Governors said they released the money to schools Wednesday.
State universities will split $20 million based on how well they did in three measures: percentage of bachelor’s graduates employed or back in school a year later; average full-time wage for graduates a year after earning their degree; and average institutional cost per undergraduate. Schools earned between zero and three points depending on how well they did (see the chart below).
UCF and USF both earned six points, 13 percent of the 46 total points scored by state universities. Those scores earned UCF and USF 13 percent of the $20 million pot, or $2.6 million each.
A new Florida law asks schools to crack down on online bullying.
Florida schools are running into a handful of problems as they try to carry out the state’s new law targeting online or electronic bullying, according to testimony at a Senate committee meeting today.
Florida lawmakers approved HB 609 in May. The bill defines online, or cyber, bullying, and allows school districts to investigate if off-campus online bullying affects a student’s school work and life.
Sam Foerster, a deputy chancellor with the Florida Department of Education, said school districts have learned its hard to keep up with kids these days, technologically.
“The ever-evolving landscape of social media presents some challenges,” Foerster told lawmakers. “By the time a specific type of social media has become well understood by the grown ups in the building, very often it has lost favor with the young people.”
Overall, more than half of teachers think the standards, adopted by Florida and 44 other states, will have a positive effect on students. About one-third said the standards will not change much, while 8 percent said the standards will have a negative effect.
Common Core is a multi-state effort that outlines what students should know at the end of each grade. The standards also emphasize analytical thinking, asking students what they know and to prove how they know it.
Maxwell wrote his column as an open letter. He said he no longer trusts Florida leaders about education after they have cut essential subjects and punished schools for low performance — except when too many low grades would look bad for the state grading system.
Florida Parents Against Common Core protested a national meeting discussing the standards in Orlando in June.
The Florida Department of Education will hold public hearings on Common Core State Standards in Tampa, Davie and Tallahassee on consecutive days later this month, according to an email from House Majority Leader Steve Crisafulli.
Gov. Rick Scott asked the department to hold the hearings last month. Scott wants the public to present concerns about specific Common Core standards. Florida is one of 45 states which have adopted the standards, which outline what students should know in English and math at the end of each grade.
Florida is three years in to implementing the standards, which are scheduled to be used in every classroom starting next fall. But Scott said he wants to listen to community concerns about the standards. Activists on the political right and left have opposed the standards because of concerns about quality, loss of local control, cost, testing, data collection and more.
The Florida Department of Education has put it’s daily tweeting of Common Core State Standards on hold while the agency prepares for a series of public meetings on the math, English and literacy standards.
Tweeting out a standard a day, Follick said, might give the impression the agency was favoring certain standards over others. Scott has asked the public to come to the meetings prepared with criticisms of specific standards.
“For us to tweet out one a day could create the appearance we’re favoring some,” he said. “We’re asking everybody to review [Common Core]. I just want people to look at it with a clean slate.”
Follick said the practice could resume after the public meetings, which are expected later this month.
Century Tower at the University of Florida. UF Online will open in January.
Last week the Florida State University System Board of Governors approved the business plan for a legislatively-created online university at the University of Florida.
The school, UF Online, will start offering classes in January. Students will be able to earn their baccalaureate degree completely online (though they may need to complete some lab at a state college or other facility). The school will offer degrees in seven majors to begin: Biology; business administration; criminology and law; environmental management in agriculture and natural resources; health education and behavior; psychology; and sports management.
We sat down with Andrew McCollough, associate provost for teaching and technology at the University of Florida, to talk about UF Online
McCollough says he doesn’t yet know who the typical UF Online student is, but expects the school initially will have a stronger appeal to transfer students. He also explains why the University of Florida is emphasizing that the UF Online will be similar to being an student on campus.
In ten years, the school expects to enroll 24,000 students and offer 35 degrees.
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