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.
Yesterday we published the answers of two teachers. Here’s what another two teachers think about Common Core.
Name: Alexis Hill
School: Thomas P. Corr Elementary in Hillsborough County
Teaches: 2nd grade
Experience: 7 years
Q: How well prepared do you feel for the switch to Common Core?
A: It’s going to be new this year for second grade, so it will definitely still be new ideas and new standards and things are changing – but they constantly change in education. It’s different, but I still feel like we are getting trainings. It started throughout last school year and then the opportunity for the summer trainings have been tremendous. There’s been lots of availabilities for you to come in. And just today I walked in and they found a training for me. The opportunity is there for us. It’ll be new, but I feel like we’ve been prepared.
New Advanced Placement data suggests little benefit for student taking Advanced Placement courses who can't pass the final exam.
Students failed nearly 1.3 million Advanced Placement exams last year, according to an analysis by Politico. And the overall passage rate for the exams has declined since 2002.
In addition, The College Board, the nonprofit which administers the Advanced Placement exams, said research no longer supports the idea that students benefit just by taking the more difficult classes. Instead, research now shows students only benefit if they earn a passing score of 3 or higher on the exam.
Florida is among the states pushing more students to take accelerated coursework such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate. The state grading formula for high schools gives credit for the percentage of students taking an AP or other accelerated course.
UPDATE: Low-income Florida students have been more successful, with nearly 28 percent passing at least one AP exam in 2012. Just 7 percent passed an exam in 2003.
Here’s the key graphs from the Politico story:
The trend challenges a widespread philosophy that students exposed to higher standards will find a way to meet them. Graded in part by college professors, AP exams provide a fairly objective measure of performance — and the results suggest that when the bar is raised too high, a good number of students trip.
“Well-meaning policy makers encourage Advanced Placement in order to set high expectations,” said Kristin Klopfenstein, an education professor who has studied AP trends and now runs the Education Innovation Institute at the University of Northern Colorado. “But their eagerness for expansion has gotten ahead of the support systems in place for these kids.”
The Oscar Wilde statue in Dublin. Wilde was almost as quotable as some of the education experts in this month's Whiteboard Advisors survey.
Every month, Washington, D.C.-based education policy firm Whiteboard Advisors anonymously survey “insiders” about their views on education issues.
August’s survey is all about former Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett.
Whiteboard’s insiders were evenly split — 50/50 — on whether Bennett should have resigned.
Whiteboard also asked about the effect Bennett’s resignation will have on Common Core State Standards, whether Florida will ditch the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and other issues — and that’s where the fun starts. Even usually boring eduwonks can become as quotable as Oscar Wilde when granted anonymity.
You can read the full survey here, but this is a sampling of the most interesting questions and answers:
We asked teachers the same three questions about Common Core as they prepared for next year’s deadline to use the standards in every Florida classroom.
Name: Tricia Craig
School: Walden Lake Elementary in Hillsborough County
Teaches: Fifth grade
Experience: 11 years
Q: How well prepared do you feel for the switch to Common Core?
A: I feel totally prepared. This summer I had taken the math and the reading, and I feel like before anything else this is the first time that we switched over standards that I’m ready. We’re not really rolling them out until the following year, but I’m excited to implement the things that can be implemented this year. Because they have given us so much background in the ‘Whys?’ that it’s going to be easy.
Venice High School English teachers, from left, Larry Burke, Kathleen Jones and LaRay Biziawski write a learning goal at a recent Common Core training. Venice High School assistant principal Joshua Leinweber, in the blue shirt, joined them.
We spent a lot of time this summer watching and listening as Florida school districts trained teachers about what to expect when the state makes the full switch to new education standards next year.
1. Common Core Will Turn The Keys Over To The Students
This is probably the most important change we noticed.
Common Core emphasizes that students know the underlying concepts, and not just the formula for how to reach an answer.
Hillsborough County teaching coach Cynthia Crim put it this way for several hundred teachers at a Frost Elementary School math training: Don’t tell students area equals length times width, and then have them calculate it ten times. Ask questions that lead them to discover the formula on their own or working with classmates.
“We’re going to have students explore different patterns; And we’re going to be asking questions that really require students to think and discover patterns within numbers,” Crim said. “You are going to have to be really strategic in what problem you’re showing to your students for them to see patterns.”
Much of the focus has been on emails between Bennett and staff which revealed Bennett’s concern that a prominent charter school had failed to earn an A grade.
But StateImpact Indiana’s Kyle Stokes found the changes Bennett sought had a much broader effect:
But it’s unclear whether what the finding could mean for Bennett’s legacy in Indiana or for the future of the state’s system for issuing performance ratings to schools — a system now undergoing its second re-write in as many years.
Common Core State Standards are scheduled to be used in every Florida classroom beginning next fall. The standards outline what children should know at the end of each grade in math and English language arts.
But as the deadline approaches, critics on the political right and left are opposing the standards. Conservatives worry the standards will centralize education, reduce local control and will cost more, among other concerns.
“Only the state elected officials that took the Race To The Top Grant and have imposed the CCSS on Florida’s children can give you the answers you deserve and need to understand the CCSS,” the group wrote. “If they cannot answer these questions, or will not, you should reject the Common Core Standards and demand that the state reverse course in this regard immediately.”
Florida officials made just two major changes to the state formula which determines A-to-F school grades during the first six years of its use — adding a component to measure student test improvement from year-to-year and expanding the number of students included in the formula.
But since 2010 the state has made 16 changes to the formula, including adding new test results, increasing target test scores, factoring in high school graduation rates and accelerated coursework and adding scores for students with disabilities or those learning English.
Florida Department of Education
This timeline from the Florida Department of Education shows changes to the school grading formula since 1999.
School superintendents worry the formula has been loaded up like a Christmas tree and even supporters on the State Board of Education said they doubt the school grades.
Experts who study school grading systems say the question of whether the formula is too complicated is less important than whether school grades are an accurate measurement of education priorities.
Experts say the switch to Common Core standards won't require a total overhaul of school grading systems. However, educators may struggle to set new expectations.
The board was being asked to voted on two temporary changes which would soften the impact of several years of changes to the state formula which assign schools and districts an A-to-F rating. One change would prevent schools from dropping more than one letter grade this year, while another would change how
But the board was deeply divided. Some argued the reprieve was wise as schools adjusted to the new requirements. Other argued the state was sugarcoating bad news.
Most of the board questioned the complexity of the formula.
“I don’t think it’s a statistically relevant model,” board member Kathleen Shanahan told her colleagues.
They said Florida’s move to new education standards fully adopted by 45 states, known as Common Core, would force a rewrite of the formula.
But what will the switch to Common Core mean for Florida’s school grading system? Experts say the problems for the grading system are more political than statistical. That’s because the standards and accompanying testing will be more difficult, so fewer students — and schools — will meet expectations.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, March 15, 2013.
Two 2016 presidential horse race stories posit that former Gov. Jeb Bush’s stock is down following the recent resignation of Education Commissioner Tony Bennett and Florida and Indiana lawmakers questioning the veracity of the A-to-F school grading systems Bush pioneered.
Bush hasn’t said whether or not he intends to run in 2016.
Bush built his gubernatorial legacy on a suite of education policies — largely built around Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results — to assess student progress and school performance. But both stories argue two issues could turn that perceived strength into a weakness in a Republican presidential primary.
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