Sarah Gonzalez was the Miami-based reporter for StateImpact Florida until March 2013. Previously, she worked at NPR in D.C. where she was a national desk reporter, web and show producer as an NPR Kroc Fellow. The San Diego native has worked as a reporter and producer for KPBS in San Diego and KALW in San Francisco, covering under-reported issues like youth violence, food insecurity and immigration. Her work has been awarded an SPJ Sigma Delta Chi and regional Edward R. Murrows. She graduated from Mills College in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and journalism.
The projected path of Tropical Storm Isaac, according to the 11 a.m. advisory from the National Weather Service.
School in the Florida Keys will be closed on Monday due to the predicted weather conditions associated with Tropical Storm Isaac.
All Monroe County schools, offices and facilities will be closed, and school campuses have already been identified as shelter locations.
The Monroe County Emergency Management has identified Key West High School, Switlik School and Coral Shores High School as shelters.
Update on 8/25/12 at 3:42pm ET:
A fourth Keys storm shelter opened Saturday at Sugarloaf School.
The complete list of shelters is:
Key West High School, 2100 Flagler Ave
Sugarloaf School, Mile Marker 19 on Sugarloaf Key
Stanley Switlik, Mile Marker 48 in Marathon
Coral Shores High School, Mile Marker 90 in Islamorada
Those who go to any of the shelters must bring their own supplies, including bedding, food and medicine.
Florida International University and the University of Miami are closing at 7 p.m. Saturday through Monday.
Miami Dade College classes are closing Sunday through Monday.
Florida National University will be closed on Monday.
Update on 8/26/2012 at 4:24 pm ET
Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University and Edison State College will be closed on Monday.
Pasco, Hernando, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Lee and Collier County schools will also be closed on Monday.
Our original post published Friday:
The district says it will continue to monitor the storm and update its website.
Tropical Storm Isaac is expected to turn into a hurricane and could affect other parts of the state. But so far, school districts between Miami and Tallahassee have not decided whether schools would be open Monday.
First year teacher John Price was hired two weeks before the start of the school year. He's has just over a week to plan his curriculum for the year for his debate and English classes.
First year teachers in Florida are wrapping up their first week in a classroom.
StateImpact Florida caught up with one to find out what the process is like to get new teachers in the door, and prepared for the opening day.
John Price is a first year teacher in Broward County — the nation’s sixth largest school district.
He’s the new English and debate teacher at JP Taravella High School.
But he only landed the job two weeks before the start of the school year, after the County held a last minute teacher job fair. Continue Reading →
A new report projects just 18 percent of the 2012 high school graduates in Florida who took the ACT test would do well in first year college courses.
Florida students aren’t as prepared for college as students in other states.
That’s according to this year’s Condition of College and Career Readiness report released Wednesday.
It looks at ACT test scores to project how well high school grads would do in first year college courses.
About 70 percent of Florida’s graduating class took the ACT test — 118,420 students total — but only 18 percent of those test-takers are considered college-ready.
The national average of college-ready students is 25 percent.
Florida’s average score was among the lowest of all states — only Arizona, Mississippi and Tennessee did worse.
Here are the percentages of college-ready students by subject area test.
Jose Luis Marantes, co-founder of Students Working For Equal Rights, said it is risky for undocumented students to share their information with the federal government, but he said it took “power and energy” to win this right. “Watch what happens if when you try to take those rights away,” he said.
Miami Dade College president Eduardo Padron speaking with DREAMer Carlos Roa, an undocumented immigrant and engineering student at Miami Dade College.
DREAM Act supporter Estevan Roncancio at a news conference at Miami Dade College. Starting today, undocumented students who came to the country under age 17 can start applying for temporary status in the country under Deferred Action.
Immigrant activists says their next step is fighting for status for their parents and passing the DREAM Act.
More than 140,000 Florida undocumented students can now apply for a temporary work visa and a stay from deportation.
Both are part of a new federal initiative which makes its easier for young immigrants to remain in the United States legally. President Barack Obama ordered the change a year and a half after the failure of the DREAM Act in Congress. That bill would have eased citizenship requirements for young undocumented immigrants.
The program is known as deferred action.
You may request to be considered for deferred action if you: Continue Reading →
Brady Spencer sits with her son Brendon. Brendon has Asperger's, ADHD, and mood disorders. A few years ago she decided to take him out of his Mantua, Ohio public school, where he would often be sent to the hallway or a spare office during class.
Readers chimed in saying they’ve seen different data. And we’ve figured out why.
The Florida Department of Education keeps two sets of student seclusion and restraint data.
Every incident is supposed to be recorded in both reports. But the FLDOE says school districts may not know that.
One set of FLDOE data shows more than four times as many students were isolated in seclusion rooms than a second set of data we used, the School Environmental Safety Incident Report (SESIR).
Neither of those figures probably reflects the total instances of seclusion and restraint, though state officials say school districts should be recording incidents of seclusion and restraint in both reports.
Vanessa Richter, 17, works on her online summer course as her friends eat lunch at a food court.
Last year, Luis Gonzalez failed freshman English, Algebra and Physical Science. When he starts school later this month, he’ll still be considered a freshman.
His school has a different name for it.
“They call it a ‘fresh-more,’” he said. “By years I’m a sophomore. But I’m going to have freshman classes.”
Gonzalez thought he could make up the classes during summer school.
But summer school wasn’t an option for the Pasco County student.
Because of budget cuts, Florida’s largest school districts say they cannot offer summer school to everyone who needs it.
Only some students get to attend – and juniors and seniors are the priority in counties such as Pasco, Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Orange and Duval.
“Now it’s going to be kind of embarrassing going to school because my homeroom is going to be with all freshmen,” Gonzalez said. “I’m not going to have any classes with friends, but I guess it’ll teach me a lesson.”
It may teach the 16-year-old to do better in school next year.
But having few summer school options also makes it harder for Gonzalez to catch up to his peers. The risk is that he keeps falling behind.
Brady Spencer sits with her son Brendon. Brendon has Asperger's, ADHD, and mood disorders. A few years ago she decided to take him out of his Mantua, Ohio public school, where he would often be sent to the hallway or a spare office during class. He now goes to a charter school for special needs kids.
Editor’s note: We’ve followed up this post answering some questions about the data raised by readers. Florida keeps two sets of seclusion data. State officials say school districts should record incidents of seclusion in both sets of data, but admit that it does not happen. As a result, Florida Department of Education spokeswoman Cheryl Etters said, neither set of data may include all incidents of seclusion.
Ohio schools are locking children away in cell-like rooms, closets or old offices, sometimes without their parents knowledge.
The practice, known as seclusion, is often used to discipline or isolate misbehaving students. Often those students have disabilities.
Juan Galvez is going into 4th grade. His parents are from Bolivia and Guatemala, and they only speak Spanish.
When it comes to homework, Juan is usually on his own.
“My mom helps me a little because she knows the math,” said Juan. “But with reading, I’m good. I do it by myself.”
Students learning English in Ft. Lauderdale, such as Galvez, are getting free help with reading this summer.
A six-week camp has been growing steadily since it was founded four years ago. Now, because of changes in Florida testing requirements, these kids are being challenged to learn reading and writing faster.
Breakthrough Miami students and their teacher interns with StateImpact Florida reporter Sarah Gonzalez (left) at the WLRN-Miami Herald studios.
For today’s installment in our series, The Secret Lives of Students, we hear from a rising 9th grade student about to enroll in a mandatory virtual class.
Editor’s note: This post was written by high school student Jennifer Lopez.
By Jennifer Lopez, 14
A year-old law in Florida has made virtual courses mandatory for ninth grade students.
These virtual courses are to be taken in the school that the students attend.
Most students that are going in to ninth grade are still children in mind. For this reason, I think students should be in a class room with teacher to have face to face interaction, to help them in the specific area that they have chosen is hard for them. Continue Reading →
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