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.
Robyn Beck / AFP
Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked about Common Core and other education issues at a summit hosted by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
The biggest news in education this week is the Foundation for Excellence in Education’s two-day summit in Washington. D.C. we gathered what people were saying on Twitter about the event and about education, after the jump.
John O'Connor / StateImpact Florida
This chart compares Florida graduation rates for student groups to California, Georgia and Iowa.
This chart uses new federal graduation rate data to compare Florida to other states.
We chose California, another large state with a diverse population, neighboring Georgia and Iowa, the state with the highest overall graduation rate. The federal data breaks down rates among subgroups, both by race and by issues such as disabilities, English knowledge and wealth.
The gap between Florida’s graduation rate for Hispanic students and a higher performing state such as Iowa is less than the gap between Florida’s and Iowa’s white and black students. And the graph makes it clear that other states are doing a better job helping students with disabilities graduate.
Andrew Harrer / Getty Images
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. His Foundation for Excellence in Education kicked off its national summit today.
The Foundation for Excellence in Education’s annual conference starting this morning in Washington, D.C.
The agenda hits most of the main policies former Gov. Jeb Bush has supported: How to make teachers more effective; school district accountability; charter school accountability; the parent trigger and funding; and what to expect from new Common Core assessments.
The conference also features a number of keynote speakers, including Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
The full schedule is here. You can watch the keynote speeches online here.
C-SPAN is also streaming some of the conference online.
K12
The Georgia Department of Education is threatening to close the Georgia Cyber Academy, run by K12, over concerns about special education services.
The Georgia Department of Education is threatening to close an online charter school run by K12, the nation’s largest online education company, over issues with special education students.
The agency issued a report last week that the K12-run Georgia Cyber Academy has repeatedly failed to comply with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and has violated student civil rights by failing to provide services required by the law.
The school has 1,100 special education students, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.The 12,000-student school is the largest public school in the state.
The agency will begin the process of closing the school in April unless the concerns are addressed.
The Florida Department of Education is investigating whether K12 online programs used teachers who were not properly certified and then asked other teachers to help cover it up. In addition, company documents show student-to-teacher ratios of 275-to-1 in some K12 classes, while some Florida school districts have raised concerns about a network of K12-run online charter schools which have applied across the state.
Screenshot / Common Core State Standards
The American Legislative Exchange Council will not oppose Common Core standards, a win for those supporting their implementation.
Supporters of new Common Core national education standards have won a battle within the American Legislative Exchange Council about whether to support or oppose Common Core.
Over the weekend ALEC rejected a proposal to oppose Common Core, according to The Ed Fly blog. The vote is important because ALEC is influential among conservative policy makers — often drafting template legislation for lawmakers to introduce across the country.
Instead the ALEC board of directors voted to remain neutral on Common Core, leaving the decision to states.
The ALEC battle was important enough for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to weigh in last year in an effort to head off the group officially opposing Common Core. ALEC staying out of the fight will likely mean fewer states getting cold feet and withdrawing from the consortium before the standards are fully implemented (Fall of 2014 in Florida).
Common Core is a growing touchstone among some conservative and liberal education advocates.
Mark Wilson / Getty Images News
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at the Republican National Convention.
Indiana voters threw out the a Superintendent of Public Instruction with close ties to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
In Idaho voters overturned three laws based on policies Bush has supported in Florida.
But Bush doesn’t take those results personally — it’s about Indiana and Idaho and not Bush’s policies.
Bush says overall the results were mixed on Election Night, citing charter school wins in Washington and Georgia.
“Well it’s not my education agenda it’s the education agenda of the Indiana governor, the Indiana state school office, the Indiana legislature, the Indiana business community that Tony Bennett didn’t get elected,” he told StateImpact Florida’s Sarah Gonzalez.
Visionello / Flickr
A charter school group wants an independent panel to decide on school applications.
Florida charter school operators want an independent body with the ability to approve or reject charter schools applications.
The redefinED blog reports creating an independent panel to review charter school applications is a top legislative priority of the Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools. Charter school leaders gathered in Orlando for an annual conference this week.
The reason is simple: Charter schools compete for students — and funding — with public school districts, but the boards in those school districts get the first say about whether to allow a charter school to open.
“This is a forced marriage that needs counseling,’’ joked Ralph Arza, a former Florida legislator who now serves as the governmental affairs director for the Florida Consortium on Public Charter Schools.
School board members and advocacy groups, such as Fund Education Now, argue local school boards only have a limited ability to reject charter schools.
Enokson / Flickr
The switch to Common Core means more teachers will become reading instructors.
The switch to Common Core State Standards will put more emphasis on reading across disciplines, experts say.
Education Week has some solid examples of how that will work, and how the new standards stress comprehension. They also will put more emphasis on writing:
Reading instruction is no longer the sole province of the language arts teacher. The standards call for teachers of science, social studies, and other subjects to teach literacy skills unique to their disciplines, such as analyzing primary- and secondary-source documents in history, and making sense of diagrams, charts, and technical terminology in science. A 4th grade teacher in Shell Rock, Iowa, for instance, had his students write science books for 2nd graders in a bid to fuse content understanding with domain-specific literacy skills.
Reading and writing are closely connected, and writing instruction is explicit. Teaching writing has often fallen by the wayside as teachers focus on reading, but the common core demands its return. And not just any kind of writing—writing studded with citations of details and evidence from students’ reading material. Even the youngest pupils are learning to do it: First graders in Vermont are listening to a Dr. Seuss tale, over and over, searching for clues that back up the central thesis of the story.
Henry Frost poses with law enforcement officers while protesting at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. The Hillsborough County school district agreed to allow Frost to attend his neighborhood middle school Tuesday.
After waiting 57 days since the school year began, Henry Frost will be able to cross the street and walk less than the length of two football fields to attend his neighborhood middle school.
Frost has been taking courses at home while engaged in a dispute with Hillsborough County schools over where he should attend. Frost took his cause to Facebook and other social media and has drawn world-wide attention.
Frost is autistic and has several physical impairments, including hearing loss.
After more than 14 hours of meetings to negotiate an education plan and services for Frost, Hillsborough school officials agreed Tuesday to let Frost attend the school of his choice.
“I will go to Wilson. Yes! Thank you and I will write more tomorrow,” Frost wrote on his Facebook page I Stand WITH Henry.
Andrew H. Walker / Getty Images Entertainment
Historian David McCullough says fewer Americans would be illiterate about history if more teachers studied the subject rather than education.
60 Minutes profiled historian David McCullough on Sunday night.
McCullough believes the U.S. is illiterate when it comes to history and says part of the blame is due to how the U.S. trains teachers.
Teachers should have to study a subject and not education, McCullough says.
Teachers must be passionate and knowledgeable about a subject to be effective.
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives.
Learn More »