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.
Amendment 12 will be the last question voters face at the polls. The amendment asks voters if they want to change how the student member of the Florida Board of Governors is chosen.
The last of a long list of ballot questions facing Florida voters would change how the student member of the Florida Board of Governors is chosen.
Amendment 12 would create a new council of student body presidents who would elect the student member of the Florida Board of Governors.
Currently the student member is chosen by the Florida Student Association — a private, non-profit organization of elected student body leaders.
So what’s the difference?
Supporters of Amendment 12 are concerned that the Florida Student Association has charged dues to join. Florida State University was the biggest school which in the past has chosen not to participate with the Florida Student Association because of the dues.
Lawmakers said the dues made it seem like, in the words of Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Student Association was a “pay-to-play” organization. In response, the Florida Student Association has waived its membership dues so the organization is open to students of every school.
But there’s a conspicuous absence from the education agenda he released Thursday: The parent trigger.
Last year the parent trigger was the most devisive education issue of the Legislative session. The bill died on the session’s final day when a sponsor turned against the bill, resulting in a tie vote.
The bill would allow the majority of parents at chronically failing schools to decide how to restructure the schools. That can include closing the school, firing the principal and/or staff or converting to a charter school.
Supporters, such as former Gov. Jeb Bush, say the bill will be back this year. And political groups, such as StudentsFirst, have staff in Florida working on the issue.
Those opposing the parent trigger are getting ready as well.
If a governor is using education to help broaden his appeal, staying away from the parent trigger might be a wise idea. Instead, Scott is focusing on increasing the number of students who can enroll in charter schools.
Gov. Rick Scott unveiled an education plan that he says focuses on preparing high school gradiates for college or careers.
Gov. Rick Scott unveiled his education plan this morning.
Many of the details had already been reported, but the overall plan focuses on making sure high school graduates are ready for college or a career.
Among the highlights:
Preparing teachers and schools for the switch to Common Core standards, considered tougher than those currently in use in Florida. Scott is asking for $2 million to help train teachers.
Allowing school districts more flexibility from state regulations and loosening restrictions on charter school enrollment.
Seeking private donors to pay for debit cards teachers can use to purchase school supplies.
State officials say the race-based goals are required for Florida’s waiver from portions of the federal No Child Left Behind education law. The intent is to close the achievement gap between black and Hispanic students and, on average, higher performing white and Hispanic students.
“Florida PTA and the Board of Education share a common goal – to increase the proficiency of all students and to provide them with a quality education in preparation for college and career,” the group said in a statement. “How we move towards this goal is where we differ.”
AZ: What are the top 10 things you wish people understood about you?
Henry: #1 Please talk to me like everyone else.
#2 Please don’t talk about me in front of me. I can hear you. I can read your lips. I can read your body language. It feels terrible. Sad. But it feels great when you treat me like I am smart.
#3 Please talk directly to me, not to my support person, or my mom, Russ or my sisters.
#4 Please focus on my strengths. I have many. We all do.
#5 Please presume my competence.
#6 Remember, I am a person, just like you.
#7 Don’t make me prove it.
#8 Please never refer to my iPad as a toy. It is not; it is my voice. Imagine if you could not speak with your mouth, how important your iPad voice would be.
Duval County school board members criticized a state plan that sets different achievement goals for different races. But the board approved a local plan in August that also breaks out goals by race.
Duval County school board members are complaining about a state plan which sets differing academic targets by race, despite approving a similar plan in August the Florida Times-Union reports.
Duval County school board member Tommy Hazouri said the local plan targets were informational and not part of the district’s strategic plan.
Other board members said they were complying with federal rules:
W.C. Gentry said the state and federal government require the district to measure the achievement of the racial groups and so he didn’t object to setting goals by subgroup.
“My argument when we were doing this is that we really ought be talking about how were not setting sufficient goals for white kids,” he said. “By setting lower expectations for whites and having greater expectations for blacks are we being fair to white kids?”
White and Asian students are targeted for less percentage-point growth in the district’s document and they often are the two highest achieving subgroups as well. Gentry also said the real focus needs to be poverty.
Burney and Wright said they voted against the plan because of the racial targets, and because they felt those and the overall targets were not aggressive enough. Pratt-Dannals drew a distinction between aspirational targets, and accountable targets that he’ll use to hold principals responsible and even to make personnel decisions. The non-racial or subgroup targets in the August document are those accountable goals, he said.
Is Florida setting the bar lower for black and Hispanic students, or higher?
The State Board of Education is taking criticism for a new five-year plan which local school officials say sets lower goals for blacks, Hispanics and other groups than for white or Asian students.
But the plan also asks for more improvement from those same black and Hispanic students than their higher-performing classmates, something supporters say is being overlooked.
The goal is to close the gap between the percentage of white and Asian students scoring at or above grade level on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and the percentage of black and Hispanic students doing so.
Part of the problem is how the Department of Education presented the numbers.
The percentage of students passing state exams is always the most important number — and the new plan does set higher thresholds for Asian and white students.
But it’s possible to argue the new plan asks more of black, Hispanic and other lower-performing groups.
The entire adult autistic community has been saying in one loud voice that “…with autism” is not acceptable. Myself and Lydia Brown are just two examples of autistic adults who write about why. But one of the reasons is that talking about an essential component of a person as if it is a separate thing is not acceptable. You do not say “person with blackness” or “person with Asianness”. Yet it is okay to use such racist or neuro-ist language against the autistic in your eyes. It is not in ours. Please stop.
North Carolina teacher Cindi Rigsbee participated in Wednesday's #NPRedchat StateImpact Florida hosted with Tell Me More.
This is a guest post from North Carolina teacher Cindi Rigsbee, who participated in the Wednesday Twitter education discussion we hosted with Tell Me More. It was first posted at Rigsbee’s blog.
I took a minute during my lunch break to hang out on Twitter, specifically to glance at the NPR Twitter Education Forum (#npredchat) and see what some national names in education were saying…um…tweeting. As I scanned down the TwitterChat page, I kept seeing the word “reform” over and over. It was at that point that my tweeting fingers started twitching. Here’s my first post:
We shouldn’t be talking about how to REform education; we should be talking about how to TRANSform education. #npredchat
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