Students man a computer help desk at Ocoee High School and assist classmates. The school has to end the program because of a state requirement for end-of-course exams.
A recurring theme in Florida education is that policies intended to address separate issues can and do conflict with each other.
The number of Florida schools required to add an extra hour of reading instruction will increase this fall.
Florida will expand the number of schools required to add an extra hour of reading instruction this fall, Education Week reports.
Two years ago lawmakers required the 100 elementary school with the lowest scores on the state reading test to add an extra hour for reading. Now, the 300 lowest-scoring schools will have to add time.
Nearly half of teachers in Orange County schools missed at least 11 days of school — which NCTQ says is “frequently absent” — while 30 percent of Hillsborough County teachers missed that number of days.
Nationally, teachers were in their classrooms 94 percent of the time. The average teacher missed 11 days of school. Jacksonville and Orlando teachers missed more time, on average, while Tampa teachers missed less time than the study’s average teacher.
But the study found that teachers at high-poverty schools were not more likely to miss time than teachers at lower-poverty schools.
NCTQ collected 2012-2013 teacher absence data from 40 of 51 school districts in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. The study excluded teachers who had long-term absences due to illness or family reasons. Miami-Dade schools did not provide the data as requested by NCTQ, and were not included in the study.
“While these big city school districts are struggling to improve student achievement, they may be overlooking one of the most basic aspects of teacher effectiveness: every teacher being regularly on the job, teaching kids,” NCTQ president Kate Walsh said in a statement.
Thomas McNabb points out the changes made to an Ocoee High School science classroom, part of a $14 million program at seven schools to test the best ways to upgrade school technology.
Ocoee High School just west of Orlando opened less than a decade ago. But technology-wise, the 2,300-student school is already obsolete.
Ocoee is part of $14 million project to outfit seven Orange County schools with fast, wireless Internet and new classroom technology.
The first step was ripping out and replacing miles of fiber optic cable and adding devices teachers could use with their lessons.
Orange County schools’ infrastructure director Thomas McNabb walked through a science classroom, pointing out the changes.
The district added an interactive board at the front of the classroom and and a speaker system to amplify the teacher.
“It may or may not have had wireless, it just depended,” McNabb said. “There were 50 or 70 wireless access points throughout the building. The classroom amplification system was not in play here. All of that was nonexistent at…the end of last school year.”
Orange County schools are preparing for two technology-related deadlines. Florida lawmakers are requiring half of all classroom instruction is delivered digitally by 2015.
But the first deadline comes early next year when Florida students take a new suite of online exams. Millions of U.S. students will join them.
The tests are tied to the new Common Core standards fully adopted by 44 states.
The exhibit hall at FETC, an annual education technology conference in Orlando.
Marketplace, the daily business news show from American Public Media, is launching a new series on education technology.
The U.S. education market is worth $2 trillion, Adriene Hill reports.
The first story takes a look at where venture capitalists are spending their money. Some are investing in projects like Remind101, which lets teachers send out mass reminders for homework, field trips and any other deadlines.
Most schools have found the best way to accomplish those goals is with wireless networks and more laptops or other portable computers. But many Florida schools will need to be rewired, and districts will have to purchase or lease additional computers.
Orange County schools estimate it will cost roughly $280 million to upgrade their schools. Hamilton County schools superintendent Tom Moffses estimates it will cost $3.6 million for the 1,700-student district between Tallahassee and Jacksonville.
Laurie Langford, a second grade teacher at West Defuniak Elementary, helps two students look for evidence in a reading passage about public sector jobs.
This story is the fourth of a six-part series with the Hechinger Report looking at how schools are preparing for the Common Core State Standards in Florida. It was produced in partnership with StateImpact Florida, a reporting project of NPR member stations.
Students in Laurie Langford’s second grade classroom are reading about public sector jobs. As the students work together, Langford repeats a phrase that has become increasingly common in her classroom.
“Go back to your article, OK? Look in the text. Find your evidence,” Langford said.
In 2011, when this elementary school in rural West Defuniak adopted the new Common Core standards, many teachers revamped their lessons to phase out the creative writing that is typically taught in the early years of elementary school. Instead, even in the youngest grades, teachers are focusing on evidence-based writing.
Last year, Langford says she focused more on ‘fun’ writing assignments.
“Last year I did a cute writing on… ‘just as my mom opened the oven for thanksgiving dinner, the turkey popped out and…’ And the kids went on with it,” Langford said. “And it was really cute and really fun, and we threw it in a center this year, but we are not going to spend all week writing about a turkey running away.”
For the past few years, the new nationwide Common Core state standards have been slowly rolling out in Florida’s schools. Next year, all schools will fully implement the standards, which lay out what students are expected to learn in reading and math in kindergarten through twelfth grade. It’s led to big changes for teachers, many of whom are throwing out lesson plans and cherished writing assignments and learning new ways to teach the basics, like multiplication.
The percentage of Florida third graders passing state reading and math exams was unchanged this year.
The percentage of Florida third graders passing the state’s FCAT math and reading exams did not improve this year — remaining largely flat for the past three years — according to initial test results released Friday.
Fifty-seven percent of third graders scored at least a 3, the state’s passing score, on the reading test. On the math exam, 58 percent of third graders scored a least a 3. The reading and math tests are on a scale of one to five points.
The percentage of third graders at risk for being held back rose slightly, to 19 percent.
Florida law requires third graders scoring a 1 on the reading test be held back. Those students can still advance to fourth grade based on other test results or a portfolio of their work.
Florida State University is facing criticism over the influence of donor money in the classroom.
There are questions about whether a nonprofit founded by a prominent conservative activist has too much influence at a public college.
Florida State University rewrote its agreement with the Charles Koch Foundation after some on campus complained that the relationship undermined the school’s academic integrity. But critics say it still gives donors with their own agendas too much influence in the classroom.
NPR’s Greg Allen reports:
Editor’s note: The original version of this post inaccurately described the Charles Koch Foundation. The post has been updated.
Hackers stole unencrypted Social Security numbers and credit card info for current and former American Institutes of Research employees.
Hackers stole employee data earlier this month from the American Institutes for Research, the company chosen to produce Florida’s next standardized test.
No student information was stolen, according to Education Week. But, the hackers got Social Security numbers and credit card information for about 6,500 current and former employees.
“The breach only affected our business systems,” said Larry McQuillan, the organization’s director of public affairs. “By design, student data resides on an external information system independent from the domain that was affected.”
The Washington-based AIR has hundreds of contracts with federal, state, and local agencies, including the United States departments of agriculture, commerce, defense, education, health and human services, and more, according to the group’s website. The organization has been a major provider of both online and pencil-and-paper assessments to districts and states, including Delaware, Minnesota, and Oregon.
AIR also has contracts with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, one of two major multi-state consortia developing online assessments aligned to the new Common Core State Standards, and the organization provides educational program evaluation and value-added teacher evaluation services to a number of states and districts. It’s worth noting that AIR is currently embroiled in a dispute over a lucrative contract being awarded by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. (The executive vice president of AIR, Gina Burkhardt, is also a member of the board of Editorial Projects in Education, the publisher of Education Week.)
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