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.
Austin Beaucage, 16, at his home in Key Largo, Fla. He doesn't want to go back to school after the summer break because he says there is too much school bullying.
Freshman Austin Beaucage has been picked on his whole life.
He’s small for his age and socially awkward.
But the bullying was never like last month at Coral Shores High School in Key Largo, Fla.
“Some senior locked me in a closet in my 6th period and he wouldn’t let me out,” he said.
“And I was banging on the door and then the other kids in the class were laughing.”
Austin, 16, speaks with his head down. His lips hardly move.
He says he was locked in the closet for most of the period.
According to his school district policy, this is not considered school bullying.
Shamika Jeff, posing with her younger brother, graduated from Miami Central High School on June 5, 2012. The 18-year-old says she did not go to the entire last week of school.
Florida students have already taken all the big tests. They’ve finished their homework. But some students are still in school.
So what do teachers and students do during the final days of class?
Educators throughout Florida say teaching should be going on every day students are in school.
But students say that isn’t usually what happens.
“In class I just hang out with friends and just remember all the memories that we had,” says Sophonie Pierre, a 7th grader at Plantation Middle School in Broward County.
“Our teachers they just let us enjoy it and talk.”
A former employee with Pearson, the company that created and scores the FCAT, says the people who score the essays also lower their grading standards to produce the test results states predict their students will get, though Pearson denies the practice.
We spoke to Todd Farley, author of the book Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry.
More than 36,000 Florida third graders failed the new, tougher version of the FCAT reading exam - called the FCAT 2.0. The Florida Department of Education estimates less than 10,000 third graders will have to repeat the third grade.
More third graders failed the state’s FCAT reading exam than last year — as state education officials warned.
A total of 36,577 third graders — or about 18% of all third grade test takers in the state — failed the FCAT 2.0 reading exam, which is a new, tougher version of the FCAT.
The year before, 32,429 third graders — or 16% of all third grade test takers in the state — failed the easier FCAT reading exam.
Failing the FCAT reading exam as a third grader means students may have to repeat the third grade.
But Education Commission Gerard Robinson says not all of the students who failed the exam will be held back.
Historically, Robinson says the number of students who are retained will drop “from double digit to single digit,” Robinson said.
Florida International University senior Courtney Johnson works 20 hours a week as a secretary on campus. This summer she's taken out $2,700 in loans to pay for summer tuition. She only took out $600 in loans for the full 2011-2012 fall and spring semesters.
College students who need to go to summer school have few choices for grants and scholarships.
And their options just shrank.
The federal government is no longer giving out a need-based Pell Grant to help students pay for summer tuition.
And the replacement is more loans.
Senior Courtney Johnson has taken summer courses at Florida International University for the past two years.
She received the federal summer Pell Grant each time.
It’s covered most of her summer tuition.
But this summer she’s taking out $2,700 in student loans. That just happens to be about the amount of a full summer Pell Grant.
“And then I still have to buy my own textbooks and I still had to pay $350 out of my own pocket because they didn’t offer enough loans,” she said.
A lot of students max out their student loan options during the fall and spring semesters. Continue Reading →
Students at Power U Center in Miami advocate for keeping students in class and out of in-school suspension.
There is a place on school campuses for students who break the rules.
In some Florida schools, it’s called SCSI.
Marcus Pryor, a junior at Miami Northwestern Senior High, thinks it stands for School Criminal Scene Investigation.
SCSI actually stands for School Center for Special Instruction. And in Miami, it’s where students go when they get an in-school suspension.
It’s an alternative to out-of-school suspension Florida schools can use for offenses considered minor, like consistent tardiness, wearing baggy clothing or cutting class.
The idea is that students will learn more during an in-school suspension. But being on school campus does not mean students are actually in class or receiving instruction.
Pryor got an in-school suspension for consistent tardiness when he was in middle school. He said the other kids in the classroom were a group of friends who had all cut class.
“They all have their friends in there with them and that’s the time they really want to make fun and criticize,” Pryor said.
Lawrence Feldman, Vice Chair of the Miami Dade School Board, was among the crowd at the screening of the film Bully.
Florida politicians and school officials watched the documentary film Bully over the weekend.
The Vice Chair of the Miami Dade School Board, Lawrence Feldman, was at the screening, hosted by the United Teachers of Dade.
And watching the film caused him to send a text message while he was in the theater.
“Its to my chief of staff,” Feldman read to StateImpact Florida from his cell phone.
“It says, ‘I would like a board item that mandates the entire school system see them movie Bully at a faculty meeting or next professional development day or sooner.’” Continue Reading →
At Booker T. Washington High School, students likes Danna Contreras, took turns taking the online FCAT reading test because there aren't enough computers for sophomores to take the test at the same time.
Danna Contreras doesn’t like the new FCAT.
The sophomore at Booker T. Washington High School in Miami emigrated from Colombia three years ago.
She wears thick, pink-rimmed glasses and she squints a lot. She says the new computerized version is harder to take.
“I think I am better with paper, not on the computer because sometimes my eyes hurt,” she said.
That’s not the only reason she’s worried about her reading score.
“I have difficulty speaking English and the vocabulary is really hard,” she said.
Students are taking a new, harder version of the FCAT this year, called FCAT 2.0.
The test is supposed to be harder to pass and the stakes are higher than ever.
One reason participation in college-level classes is low at rural high schools is because there isn't a lot of interest. Daniel Glawson, a senior at Sneads High in Jackson, Fla., wants to be a downhill pipeline welder for oil rigs. He welded this picture frame out of horse shoes in agriculture class. Glawson says he rather work with his hands than go to college.
In Florida’s rural counties, high school leaders say they can’t offer as many college-level courses as large urban high schools.
But rural students are more likely to earn college credit for the college courses they do take, than urban students.
Click on the map to see which school districts have the most students taking advanced courses.
Florida high schools are being judged by the number of students enrolled in college-level classes. It’s tied to bonus money from the state.
But in Florida’s rural counties, small schools say they can’t compete with the opportunities at large urban schools.
Ashley Carr, a senior at Sneads High School in rural Jackson, Fla., is worried about how her course schedule will look to college admissions counselors.
“My senior year looks really ridiculous because I have 3 PE classes,” she said.
“But it’s not that I’m lazy, there’s just not anywhere else to put me.”
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