Polk County Sen. JD Alexander has made it pretty clear in the last week that it isn’t an issue of if USF Polytechnic will become the state’s 12th university, but when.
Like television’s Judge Lynn, Alexander has repeatedly said he’s ready to make that divorce happen.
But what’s unclear is if the new university could earn the accrediting crucial to attracting faculty and students eager to earn a valuable degree. So far, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is not clearing anything up.
Alexander told the Lakeland Ledger yesterday that he spoke to Belle Wheelan, SACS president, who assured him the university could earn a “dependent campus accreditation” by July.
Advanced calculus teacher, Orlando Sarduy writes out the mathematical equation that will help grade teachers and determine how much they get paid. The formula considers 10 factors that influence how well a student does in school, but student poverty is not one of those factors.
The UCP Bailes campus is an Orlando charter school with a mix of students with disabilities and without. Schools such as UCP could be hit by new state school grade rules..
One of the strings that comes with Florida’s exemptions from some No Child Left Behind requirements is that the state needs to include more students in its school grade formula.
This includes students with disabilities and those learning English.
Lawmakers are working on a bill and the state Board of Education will meet next week to discuss changes required for Florida’s waiver.
But state school superintendents fired off a letter to Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson yesterday, concerned that the new system would mean hundreds of state schools would suddenly earn failing grades.
A Jacksonville father of a student with disabilities has written a letter to the editor in the Jacksonville Times-Union. Here’s his concerns, referencing Helen Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, after the jump:
Florida is getting stricter about the way it grades schools, and the proposed rules could mean a spike in the number of elementary, middle and high schools earning ‘F’ grades.
That’s because budget cuts mean the state is spending roughly the same amount on higher education now as it did in 2002 — and that’s before the proposed cuts in the budget year beginning July 1. The Senate has proposed $400 million in cuts while the House draft spending plan would cut $200 million.
The story is similar at Florida’s 28 state colleges, where total spending per student has declined by 7 percent between 2006 and 2010.
“The effects of disinvestment in higher education extend to the quality of life and economic vitality of Florida in the future,” the report’s authors write. “By scrimping on higher education, Florida moves further away from the most important requirement for job creation — providing a well-educated workforce for current businesses and for those we seek to attract to move to Florida.”
Viola Davis, left, is a teacher and Maggie Gyllenhaal is a parent in a fictionalized movie about school restructuring.
The parent trigger will be the next education issue to receive the Hollywood treatment later this year.
The New York Times reports producers are planning a September release for “Won’t Back Down,” a fictional dramatization of a campaign to restructure a low-performing Pennsylvania school. The movie follows on the success of charter school documentary “Waiting for Superman.”
The movie stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as a frustrated parent and Viola Davis as a teacher who joins Gyllenhaal’s effort.
The movie will be produced by Walden Media, backed by conservative-leaning billionaire Phillip Anschutz. A September release is scheduled.
Florida is one of many states weighing whether to adopt a parent trigger, which allows the majority of parents in a low-performing school to choose how to restructure a school — even against the objection of teachers, administrators or school boards.
Ron Matus has left the Tampa Bay Times to work for Step Up For Students.
One of Florida’s top education reporters has taken a job with the non-profit group that oversees a scholarship program for low-income students.
Tampa Bay Times reporter Ron Matus is now the assistant director of policy and public affairs at Step Up For Students, according to The Gradebook.
Step Up for Students is the Tampa-based group that administers the state’s tax credit scholarships. Businesses earn tax credits for funding scholarships for low-income students at private schools.
But the current law doesn’t only keep immigrant families from accessing the cheaper rates. It can also affect Florida-born students with Florida-born parents who are incarcerated, deceased or absent.
“It does not just impact Hispanics or Latinos or Florida’s immigrant community which includes Haitians and Jamaicans, it also includes your typical American,” said Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which works on civil rights issues of convicted felons who have served their sentences.
“Seven out of 10 households are just one paycheck away from being homeless, and so you can have a situation where the child is separated from the parent, the parent is incarcerated, the parent dies, and what is that young person supposed to do? Making them pay higher tuition because their parents aren’t around is not fair.” Continue Reading →
Advanced calculus teacher, Orlando Sarduy writes out the mathematical equation that will help grade teachers and determine how much they get paid. The formula considers 10 factors that influence how well a student does in school, but student poverty is not one of those factors.
Florida teachers will soon be judged on how much they improve student scores on a standardized test. Part of their pay is going to be based on a new formula created by the state.
But the formula doesn’t take into account what researchers say is one of the strongest indicators of student success: poverty.
The equation predicts what students should score on the state’s standardized exam, the FCAT, and then grades teachers if their students score above or below that predicted test score.
By 2014, all Florida schools will have to use the formula to evaluate teacher performance.
Miami-Dade County Superintendent Alberto Carvalho says leaving out poverty is a problem. He says poverty isn’t an excuse for low student performance, but it also can’t be ignored.
“To completely eliminate it off the table of discussion I think is quite frankly, reckless, disingenuous and insulting to poor people,” Carvalho said.
Reader Scubus has a detailed response to yesterday’s story about Florida’s teacher evaluation formula:
You know how hurricane models vary in their predictions, and are not often in agreement or 100% accurate? That is a similar mathematical model. They are only as good as the underlying assumptions.
In addition, study after study shows that children in poverty do not learn at the same rate as more affluent students (which has NOTHING to do with intelligence, just opportunity) no matter how much state officials want that to be true. In addition, the model makes no allowances for attendance (I have a number of students every year who miss one quarter or more of my classes.)
Finally, a single standardized test alone tells us very, very little about an individual student. Students may have a great day or a poor day…
I do not, nor do many teachers, disagree with the goal – just the model. If there were an accurate means to grade a teacher most would be onboard. This isn’t it, and such a system has never existed. And globally, school systems that are models of success know this and do not use testing in this manner for a reason.
What are your thoughts?
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