Stanton College Preparatory School in Duval County ranked 8th in the country for effectively preparing students for college. Suncoast Community School in Palm Beach County ranked 9th.
More high schools in the Miami-Dade school district prepare students for college than any other district in the state.
Jeffrey Johnston killed himself in 2005 after being picked on by classmates. Florida's anti-bullying law is named after him.
Three of every ten bullying incidents reported in Florida last year happened in Palm Beach County schools, according to state data.
That’s been the case since Florida approved a law in 2008 requiring school districts to report bullying and follow-up with parents — or face penalties.
Palm Beach County schools reported one incident of bullying for every 95 students during the 2010-2011 school year – the highest rate among Florida’s large schools districts. That rate is three and a half times higher than Tampa’s Hillsborough County schools, four times higher than Miami-Dade County schools and 10 times higher than neighboring Broward County schools.
Students from around the state protest tuition increases. Students and professors say financial decisions made by boards of trustees trickle down to impact academics.
Editors note: This post was written by WLRN reporter Georgia Howard.
Every state university in Florida has a board of trustees that makes all the big financial and academic policy decisions.
But most of the trustees don’t have any background in education.
That raises a question: Is management experience or a background in higher education more important to overseeing a state university?
The powers and duties of boards of trustees include everything from handling school money to choosing its policies for student admissions.
Two of the 13 members of each university board have close ties to the school — the faculty president and student body president.
The rest are appointed by the Board of Governors or the governor’s office, and few of those appointments have university experience.
Only three of the 121 appointed trustees at Florida’s 12 universities have worked in higher education.
Student leaders and administrators from Palm Beach State College and Miami-Dade College North are joining Florida PIRG to call for a bipartisan bill to keep interest rates low.
“We are urging Senators Nelson and Rubio to act to extend the low interest rate on federal student loans on behalf of all students,” Christine Lindstrom said, Florida PIRG Higher Education Program Director.
The groups are focusing on Latinos, which Lindstrom said have been hit particularly hard by the economic downturn.
“Roughly 63,000 Latino students in Florida will see their loan amount increase by over $900 on average, which would total an additional $62-million in loan debt,” said Lindstrom. Continue Reading →
Instead, 143 bullying incidents were not reported to the state because of a glitch with the school district’s new computer system, said district spokeswoman Jackie Johnson.
With the mistake, Alachua County school district was the largest of Florida’s 10 districts to report no bullying in 2010-2011.
With the mistake corrected, Alachua County schools had the fourth-highest rate of bullying in the state – with one case for every 192 students. That’s more than twice the state average rate.
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 →
Ask students how often they’re bullied at school and you’re likely to get a different answer than if you look at official Florida statistics.
Florida schools reported one bullying case for every 423 students during the 2010-2011 school year — or less than one-quarter of one percent of students — according to Florida Department of Education data.
Florida schools have several criteria that harassment must meet before it qualifies as bullying. For schools to consider harassment bullying there must:
1) Be an imbalance of power in the relationship or a perceived imbalance of power.
Florida continues its summer training to prepare teachers and administrators for Common Core, the next generation of curriculum standards and testing. Here’s what else is happening in Florida education this week:
Monday: The University of South Florida Board of Trustees has called an emergency conference call at 3:30. Last week the Florida Board of Governors granted USF’s requested 11 percent tuition increase.
The Common Core Summer Institutes continue, this time in Ft. Lauderdale. Monday through Thursday teachers and administrators will learn about the Common Core requirements and how they will change curriculum and testing in Florida schools.
Thursday: The Florida Charter School Appeal Commission begins two days of hearings on charter school applications denied by local school boards. All six appeals on the agenda are in Palm Beach County.
Florida has tested students for decades, but since its inception 14 years ago the FCAT has evolved from a simple measure of student learning to an all-encompassing arbiter of student, teacher and school performance. The test factors into third-grade promotion, high school graduation, class placement, teacher pay and evaluations, even whether a school stays open.
Even though one teacher tries to downplay the FCAT to her students by calling it the F-Kitty, the story includes lots of examples of little kids experiencing insomnia and, let’s just say, intestinal distress because of test anxiety.
There’s a growing drumbeat from parents and county school board to de-emphasize the test.
The actual FCAT appears to be on its way out, replaced by new tests based on the national Common Curriculum.
But even though the names may change, the desire to test remains the same.
A sidebar story in the Times profiles Tampa lawyer John G. Brady, who failed an early precursor to the FCAT in the 1970s.
His father fought that test in court and lost, establishing the state’s right to develop high-stakes tests.
But Brady went on to have success at St. Leo University and Stetson College of Law.
The lesson, according to Brady: “I know you can’t always trust standardized tests to give an accurate picture of a student’s abilities.”
Shayne Ijames, 13, committed suicide in Port St. Lucie on May 2, 2012. The family suspects he was bullied after a text message came in on his phone that said, "happy funeral."
Parents said they had pulled their children from school because of a threat or fear of bullying. Adults said the story took them right back to school hallways where they were treated similarly to Austin Beaucage.
Former Student said, in his or her experience, bullying was not taken seriously in Florida’s rural schools:
Growing up as the only Indian kid in a small Florida town (Class of 2000), I’m really sad to see that nothing has changed. Â I will never forget the first (and only) time I went for help to school administrator because two kids were bullying me.
His response “Are you sure it was those two boys? Â I know their parents!”.
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