Teaching

Background

Merit pay; eliminating tenure; new teacher evaluations — how are school, district and state policies affecting how educators and their students perform?

Latest Posts

Follow this topic

February 17, 2015

How Common Core Brought Attention To The Math Education Debate

One of the by-products of states around the country adopting Common Core is that the standards have brought attention to long-running education debates that aren’t about money or testing. This week our story looked at how Miami-Dade schools are changing math lessons to teach Florida’s Common Core-based math standards. The standards outline what students should […]

January 19, 2015

Essay: How To Teach Brown V. Board To A Class Of All Black Students

Editor’s note: As schools around the country celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday holiday, we’re reposting this essay from former South Florida teacher Jeremy Glazer about race in education. Here’s a question: How do you teach a class of all black students in an all black school that Brown v. Board of Education ended […]

December 3, 2014

More Florida Teachers Rated “Highly Effective”

More than 97 percent of Florida teachers earned one of the top two evaluation scores — “highly effective” or “effective” — according to preliminary statewide data released Wednesday. The percentage of teachers earning the top rating increased for the second year in a row. More than 42 percent of teachers were rated “highly effective.” That’s […]

November 17, 2014

Florida Teachers Consider ‘Civil Disobedience’ To Say No To Testing

In September, Alachua County kindergarten teacher Susan Bowles refused to give a state reading test. She told the parents of her students it was an act of civil disobedience. The Florida Department of Education later suspended the exam for this year. Florida requires that most students are tested every year. Those results help determine which […]

November 12, 2014

“Ballin’ On A Budget:” How A Miami Teacher Keeps His Library Stocked

Miami Northwestern High School teacher Daniel Dickey says there’s no silver bullet or secret book which will spark a student’s interest in reading. Instead, he says he asks questions and listens. “I sit down with that student and really figure out what is it that drives you?” Dickey says. “Why do you come to school? […]

November 10, 2014

To Make High Schoolers Want To Read, Miami Teacher Makes It A Competition

John O’Connor / StateImpact Florida Miami Northwestern Senior High writing teacher Daniel Dickey says you have to be a good reader to be a good writer. He’s challenged his student to read one million words this year. Miami Northwestern High School English teacher Daniel Dickey has found a way to make his tenth graders brag […]

October 13, 2014

How A Miami Middle School Added Speech And Debate Classes On A Budget

Last week StateImpact Florida told you how a middle school in Miami has added speech and debate courses this year to improve reading, writing and speaking. The school’s principal, Bridget McKinney majored in debate and thought the requirements for Florida’s new Common Core-based standards sounded a lot like her college classes. She needed a writing […]

August 25, 2014

Essay: What A Teacher Score Doesn’t Tell Us

I finally know my worth as a teacher—and now that the “value-added model” scores mandated by our state legislature are public, everyone else knows, too. I’m a 37.5. But, I have no idea what that number means. Along with my 37.5, I was told I’m “highly effective” and given a $230 bonus. In case you’re […]

July 29, 2014

How The Algebra Project Helps Math Make Sense

“This idea is to learn a language you have to talk it…you have to engage in it.” That’s how Algebra Project founder Bob Moses described the principle underlying the program. Math is a language. And like any language, teachers need to help students translate the language into terms they understand. But like the students learning […]

July 28, 2014

A Q & A With Activist And Algebra Project Founder Bob Moses

Fifty years ago Bob Moses organized volunteers to register voters in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer. And for decades, Moses has been fighting for civil rights as an educator. He’s won a MacArthur Genius Grant to develop a new way to teach algebra in largely low-income and minority schools. The Algebra Project shows students how […]

About StateImpact

StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives.
Learn More »

Economy

Oklahoma