Learning

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Stories about students and the initiatives designed to improve performance. Are the many education reforms Florida has adopted having an impact?

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January 25, 2013

How A Yellow Dress Explains Common Core Standards

Florida is one of 45 states and the District of Columbia to adopt new, tougher education standards. The standards, known as Common Core, requires students to prove what they know — but also to show how they know it. Educators across the state are preparing parents and students for the switch and trying to explain […]

January 24, 2013

Five Takeaways On Florida’s Switch To New Academic Standards

Florida schools are in the midst of switching to new, tougher education standards adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia. Known as Common Core State Standards, educators say the new requirements will not only ask students what they know but require them to demonstrate how they know it. Wednesday night, St. Petersburg College […]

January 22, 2013

Florida Graduation Rate Improving, Still Among The Nation’s Lowest

Florida’s graduation rate is increasing but the state still ranks among the nation’s lowest, according to new federal data. Just six states and the District of Columbia had a lower graduation rate than Florida’s 70.8 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics for the 2010-2011 school year. In the 2001-2002 school year, just […]

January 15, 2013

Report Says Florida A National Leader In Charter School Growth — Another Says It’s Not Fast Enough

The number of charter schools operating in the United States has surpassed 6,000 for the first time, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Charters are now serving a record 2.3 million students based on estimates from the current school year. But a pro-choice non-profit says Florida school districts are preventing more charters […]

January 9, 2013

Gates Foundation Researchers Say They Know The Best Way To Evaluate Teachers

The Gates Foundation says teacher performance can be accurately evaluated using data-based statistical formulas, but the best teacher evaluations also include student ratings and classroom observation. That’s the conclusions from a three-year, $45 million study of a number of big school districts across the country including Hillsborough County, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Memphis, New York City […]

January 8, 2013

What Research Says About ‘The Florida Model’ Of Education Policy

UPDATE: Matthew Ladner, director of policy research for the Foundation for Excellence in Education, responds. The takeaway: “There are very clear signs of aggregate level improvement in Florida, and also a large number of studies at the individual level showing positive results from individual policies.” At the Shanker Blog researcher Matthew Di Carlo reviews the […]

Why States Are Designing Two Tests For Common Core Standards

Forty-five states and the District of Columbia are working toward full implementation of Common Core standards. But there’s a split in the way states will measure what students have learned. Two different testing systems are on the table. One test will average a series of test results to determine a student’s score. The other is […]

January 7, 2013

How Teachers Are Creating New Lessons For Common Core State Standards

Editor’s note: Reporter Martha Dalton with NPR affiliate WABE-FM in Atlanta contributed to this report. “The story was about a gingerbread man getting loose in the school.” Kindergarteners in Katherine Kenton’s class at Tallahassee’s Gilchrist Elementary School are learning to read using the new Common Core standards. The students have to show they understand what […]

January 4, 2013

Why Higher Education Is More Difficult For Veterans

When a high school senior is deciding which college to attend, he or she has an army of people ready to help. Parents. Guidance counselors. College admission officers. Friends. Most all of them have been through the process already. But veterans say things are different for them. And despite one of the most attractive benefits […]

Three Questions For An Elementary Principal About Common Core

Florida is in the process of transitioning to common core standards in public schools. The first full year of implementation is scheduled for 2014-15. 45 states and Washington, D.C. have agreed to adopt common core standards. The standards will measure whether students across the country are reaching certain benchmarks in English, Math and Language Arts. […]

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