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.
Asatta Mesa, 12, says teachers have taught her to read the FCAT questions before she reads the passage, so she can know where to look for the answers.
For today’s installment in our series, The Secret Lives of Students, we hear about tricks students have learned to pass the FCAT.
Editor’s note: This post was written by middle school student Asatta Mesa who is participating in the summer school program, Breakthrough Miami.Â
By Asatta Mesa, 12
As a student in Florida, I’ve been taking the FCAT since the third grade.
I am now entering the eighth grade, meaning that I have spent five years and a countless number of months preparing and taking a test that will not help me gain any knowledge or help me for the future.
FCAT takes so much time away from the education of students.
You learn tricks just to pass a test and then never apply those tricks to living in society. Continue Reading →
Dieudonne Saint-Georges, 13, does not participate in her schools magnet program. She says she feels like she's been labeled as an "average or below average learner."
For today’s installment in our series, The Secret Lives of Students, we hear how magnet schools can make some students feel left out.Â
Editor’s note: This post was written by middle school student Dieudonne Saint-Georges who is participating in the summer school program, Breakthrough Miami.Â
By Dieudonne Saint-Georges, 13
It’s natural for humans to group themselves according to interest and views. It has come to the point that humans crave companionship and acceptance. However, separation tends to cause problems.
Throughout history the fact that humans naturally group themselves have been known to cause wars.
One group tends to believe they are superior to the other, or others and that causes conflict. Sure cliques that form in schools are created unpretentiously, but sometimes that causes separation in schools.
John F. Kennedy Middle School is separated into its well-known magnet program called BEAT and its regular school. It seems as though people have become accustomed to seeing the school as two now.
For the second installment in our series, The Secret Lives of Students, we hear from Miami students about how school cliques affect their performance in class.
Editors note: this post was written by students Genice Nadal, Ana Chao and Teresa Fernandez.
Sarah Gonzalez / StateImpact Florida
Genice Nadal, 10, in class at The Carrolton School in Coconut Grove.
By Genice Nadal, 10
Cliques can affect your educational performance because when you are left out of one you feel unimportant and that’s not a feeling you’ll love.
Some cliques include the popular, nerd, and normal cliques, or if there is an empty table that is where the loners are.
I am part of a clique also but the clique I hang out with feels more sister-like. We are just one big sisterhood but it’s just more than I can describe.
The student authors who reported and wrote about conflicting home and school rules.
Editor’s note: We’re launching a new series for the next month, asking students to tell us what life is like in Florida schools.
The students are part of Breakthrough Miami, which runs programs in the summer and during the school year for students in elementary, middle and high schools.
We asked students to tell us what was on their minds. The answer? Rules, cliques, school lunches and other aspects of school life. They’ll also tell us what they think of online classes and whether teachers are teaching to the test.
This post was reported and written by elementary students Joshua Partridge (10), Saed Cameron (11), Emma Blanco (10), Joshua Johnson (11), Ashanti Kinchen (10) and Teley Laporte (11) – Students participating in the summer school program, Breakthrough Miami.Â
It’s a common problem that students everywhere face: Your parent or guardian tells you to defend yourself if confronted at school, while your principal tells you that hitting back equals suspension.
Florida pays International Pearson Inc. $249 million dollars to administer the FCAT. Pearson also pays to lobby Florida lawmakers.
Florida pays International Pearson Inc. millions of dollars to administer the FCAT during its current five year contract – $249 million dollars to be exact.
But Pearson also spends money – up to $800,000 – to lobby state legislators, as central Florida’s WFTV reports.
Public records show Pearson spent at least $580,000 on lobbyists since 2007. This is two years before Pearson’s current contract.
WFTV confirmed Pearson does not donate to individual legislators, but has donated to political action committees that have pushed lawmakers to increase testing and raise the standards. Continue Reading →
Lawmakers and lobbyists look down from the second floor on the state Capitol building as students protest higher education cuts and tuition increases.
Students occupied the Capitol chanting, “They say cut back, we say fight back.” State representative Dwight Bullard (D-Miami), center, jumped in chanting to let the students know they have a friend in the legislature.
“I support more funding for education, so the same issues they’re fighting for, its easy for me to stand with them,” Bullard said.
“I love seeing youth energy getting involved in government because often times its too many blue jackets and khaki pants walking around this place.”
Florida students meet outside of the Capitol in Tallahassee to distribute signs before they Occupy the Capitol to protest tuition increases and cuts to higher education funding and scholarship programs.
Ralph Wilson, a PHD students in mathematics at Florida State University, gets his tuition paid through a research assistantship. “I have it great compared to a lot of the undergraduates or high school students who are about to start their educations here in Florida because the tuition is seeming like its going to continue increasing every year,” Wilson said. “These are my colleagues, these are my friends. And if something is going to threaten their livelihood, I absolutely take offense.”
Florida State University junior Cherry Smith, freshman Elizabeth McCawley and Lissa Reed, and senior Gladys Nobriga. Nobriga acknowledges Florida has some of the cheapest tuition rates in the country. “They’re saying they want to raise it closer to national averages, but that’s always rising also,” Nobriga said. “Its not fair that we don’t get the same education rate that they may have gotten.”
Broward College, Palm Beach State College and Valencia College – the second largest community college in the state – voted not to raise tuition. Continue Reading →
Florida colleges are the top 100 producers of associates degree graduates.
Sixteen Florida colleges are among the top 100 producers of associate degrees in the country, according to a Community College Week report.
University of Phoenix Online Campus was the top producer with 33,449 associates degrees awarded last school year. The online campus also came in first for graduating minority students.
Online school aside, Miami-Dade College in Florida leads the nation.
The now four-year institution awarded 9,090 associates degrees last year, putting the school in second place. Miami-Dade College also ranked second in the country for associates degrees to minority students.
More highlights:
13 other Florida colleges were also named top producers of total associate degrees for all minority groups.
14 Florida colleges were named top producers of total associate degrees for African American students. Continue Reading →
The board set up 857 empty school desks on the National Mall in Washington D.C., representing the 857 students that drop out of school every hour, according to the College Board.
Its an effort to urge presidential candidates to make education reform a priority on the campaign trail.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan posted a picture of the display on Facebook.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan posted a picture on Facebook of himself on the National Mall during the College Board's display.
The College Board asked passersby to sign its petition.
It said: “If you want my support, I need to hear more from you about how you plan to fix the problems with education. And not just the same old platitudes. I want to know that you have real, tangible solutions, and that once in office, you’re ready to take serious action. I’ll be watching your acceptance speech at your party’s convention.” Continue Reading →
Sheri Leitch with her son Austin Beaucage, 16, hold up a pictures of their son and brother Shayne Ijames, 13 who committed suicide on May 2, 2012.
When a sixth grader at Southport Middle School hung himself at his Port St. Lucie home, his school made the announcement to some students the next morning.
A crisis intervention team went to every class 13-year-old Shayne Ijames attended to tell sixth graders their classmate had committed suicide.
His mom, Sheri Leitch, is outraged.
“They should have waited a couple of days and really thought about how they were going to sit the children down and talk to them about it,” Leitch said.
“At least say he passed away. But to tell them that I think was awful. This was life-altering for all of these children.”
Janice Karst with Port St. Lucie schools says the district handles crisis situations differently depending on the ages of students, they type of incident and the time of day. Continue Reading →
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