Florida

Putting Education Reform To The Test

Core Questions: How Does Common Core Address Poverty?

Experts say they've seen a positive effect in school using Common Core standards. But critics believe the standards are a distraction from the real issues with schools.

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Experts say they've seen a positive effect in school using Common Core standards. But critics believe the standards are a distraction from the real issues with schools.

Chris Guerrieri is a Jacksonville art teacher who also blogs about education.

Last month he sent us an email about Florida’s Common Core standards.

“My question was: How does Common Core affect poverty?” he asked.

More than half of all Florida students qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.

It’s a short-hand way to gauge poverty. Florida’s rate is about one-sixth higher than the national average.

We took Guerrieri’s question to Paul Thomas. He’s a professor at South Carolina’s Furman University and has written a book about the effects of poverty on education.

Thomas said Common Core is a distraction from real problems with schools.

“If you’re an African-American male student,” he said, “you are disproportionately likely to be excluded from advanced classes and you’re also likely to sit in classrooms with teachers that have no experience and possibly no certification. There’s absolutely nothing in Common Core that addresses any of those inequities.”

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Why A Florida Private School Helps Its Staff Stay High Tech

Nancy Gavrish has taught for 36 years, most of them teaching art to students at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne.

But, lessons that worked for Gavrish at the beginning of her career weren’t as effective later.

“I realized for years that I was not able to keep students’ attention like I used to,” she said, “that demonstrations just weren’t doing it anymore.”

The staff at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy. From left: Nancy Gavrish, Cathy Koos, Brad Meyer and Teresa Schultz.

StateImpact Florida / Flickr

The staff at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy. From left: Nancy Gavrish, Cathy Koos, Brad Meyer and Teresa Schultz.

So Gavrish turned to technology to lure students in. First she dabbled with YouTube — with limited results — before turning to online museum collections, virtual tours and an electronic whiteboard. Eventually, she had her students create art based on a historical figure and use iMovie to compile video portfolios.

Gavrish said students now dive into their assignments, but admits she had a tough time making the initial plunge into technology.

“I was scared at first,” she said, “because I realized that even my own children and the children I was teaching knew more than I did. They were OK with just sitting down and going for it, where I was very hesitant.

“I realized that if I wanted to continue to really connect with those children, I had to do it.”

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Computer Programming Could Count As A Foreign Language

Learning to write computer code could replace foreign language courses.

xkcd / xkcd.com

Learning to write computer code could replace foreign language courses.

Florida students could choose computer programming courses instead of a foreign language as part of a bill to help Florida schools add more technology and digital instruction.

The bill would require state colleges to accept two years of computer programming if the courses applied to a student’s major. State universities would have the option of accepting those courses instead of a foreign language.

Senate education chairman John Legg, who is sponsoring the bill, said it would prepare students to fill high-tech jobs. Advocates argue Florida won’t produce enough computer programmers over the next decade to fill available jobs.

Computer coding is getting a strong push in education. A national non-profit is urging students to write computer code for an hour daily. A South Florida woman has also started a program to teach kids the high-tech skill.

Florida students aren’t required to take foreign language in order to earn a standard high school diploma. A “scholar” diploma requires two years of foreign language. Florida universities often require students have studied a foreign language.

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How Florida Teachers Learned Technology Connects With Students

Last week Orlando hosted one of the oldest and largest education technology conferences in the country.

Technology is an important issue in Florida schools because lawmakers have required half of all classroom instruction is delivered digitally when classes begin in 2015. Lawmakers are working on a bill which would pay for new bandwidth and devices, but also require schools to write technology plans with measurable goals.

We spoke to a few teachers presenting at and attending FETC to ask them when they first made the connection about using technology in the classroom.

Here’s what they told us — with some sights and sounds from FETC.

How Florida Lawmakers Want To Help Schools Get Ready For Digital Lessons

Sarasota County schools partnered with the Gulf Coast Community Foundation to upgrade middle school math and science classrooms.

John O'Connor / Flickr

Sarasota County schools partnered with the Gulf Coast Community Foundation to upgrade middle school math and science classrooms.

Florida schools could get more money to upgrade classrooms, purchase new computers, tablets and other technology and train teachers and staff how to use them.

But they’ll have to meet new goals set by the Florida Department of Education, submit annual technology plans and document how they’re spending the money.

That’s according to a bill supported by House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate Education committee chairman John Legg. The two Tampa Bay-area Republicans plan to introduce the bill today.

Legg said the bill is the start of a long-term shift to permanently fund school technology needs. Lawmakers have required half of all classroom instruction is delivered digitally by the time school starts in 2015.

“That is a big objective for us and the schools are doing better than probably what most people realize in trying to meet that objective,” Legg said. “Some districts are further along than others.”

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Three Questions: Jeb Bush On The State Of Common Core And Testing In Florida

Former Gov. Jeb Bush visited a Hialeah charter school for National School Choice Week.

Sammy Mack / StateImpact Florida

Former Gov. Jeb Bush visited a Hialeah charter school for National School Choice Week.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush visited classrooms, observed students using their iPads, and took questions from a debate class at a high school in Hialeah, Fla. this week.

The tour of the Latin Builders Association Construction & Business Management Academy high school—which is the first charter opened with a business association—was part of National School Choice Week.

Bush wrapped up the tour in the debate class by answering questions from journalists so the students could see how a press conference works.

He talked testing and Common Core State Standards with StateImpact Florida’s Sammy Mack:

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With Test Decision Soon, ACT Launches New Florida Website

A screenshot from the ACTAspireFlorida.org website. The state is expected to choose a new exam in March.

Screenshot

A screenshot from the ACTAspireFlorida.org website. The state is expected to choose a new exam in March.

Testing firm ACT has launched a website to advertise and educate the public about its new exam as the Florida Department of Education decides which test will mostly replace the FCAT.

The ACT Aspire is one of five exams which submitted bids to become Florida’s test for use with new Common Core math and language arts standards. The American Institutes for Research, CTB/McGraw Hill, McCann Associates and Pearson also submitted bids.

Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said she will recommend a new exam in March. That could be one of the five bidders, or she could recommended another choice.

ACT spokesman Dianne Bean said the site, ACTAspireFlorida.org, could help answer questions about the new exam.

“A lot of people don’t know much about assessments,” she said, other than just “hearing things.”

“We’re a reputable company that’s been around a long time.”

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What The President Said About Education In The State Of The Union

President Barack Obama delivers his 2010 State of the Union speech.

blatantworld.com / Flickr

President Barack Obama delivers his 2010 State of the Union speech.

President Barack Obama again asked Congress to expand access to early childhood education programs and defended a major federal grant program, but didn’t propose any new initiatives.

Education Week has the recap here:

President Barack Obama placed education at the center of a broad strategy to bolster economic mobility and combat poverty—calling on Congress in his State of the Union speech to approve previously unveiled initiatives to expand preschool to more 4-year-olds, beef up job-training programs, and make post-secondary education more effective and accessible.

“Last year, I asked this Congress to help states make high-quality pre-K available to every 4-year-old,” said Obama, whose education agenda in his second term has shifted away from K-12 toward prekindergarten and college affordability. “As a parent as well as a president, I repeat that request tonight. But in the meantime, 30 states have raised pre-K funding on their own. They know we can’t wait.”

Obama used his speech to mount an indirect defense of the common-core standards and a more spirited, direct defense of the program that spurred states to adopt them: Race to the Top. This, too, from an administration that has been blamed for threatening the future of the Common Core State Standards by supporting them—and from a president who hasn’t talked much at all about Race to the Top in recent major speeches. He credits his Race to the Top competitive-grant program with helping raise standards—and performance (which many may argue it’s too soon to tell).

Several analyses of the address pointed out that funding universal pre-k is going to be a hurdle. Claudio Sanchez of NPR put it this way: Continue Reading

Scott, Lawmakers Making School Technology A Budget Priority

Both Gov. Rick Scott and lawmakers want to spend more money on school technology. The question is the best way to do so.

utnapistim / Flickr

Both Gov. Rick Scott and lawmakers want to spend more money on school technology. The question is the best way to do so.

The chairman of the Senate’s Education Committee said Gov. Rick Scott and lawmakers want to spend at least $40 million, and likely more, to upgrade school Internet capacity and add new computers, tablets and other digital tools.

Sen. John Legg, R-Port Richey, said education technology is a priority for Scott and both Republican and Democratic legislative leaders.

Legg said $40 million in Scott’s proposed budget — to be released in full tomorrow — is a starting point.

“I think that was a placeholder,” Legg said, “an indication of a willingness to fund, this year, technology. I think we need to do better. I think we need to do a little bit more.”

Lawmakers have required half of classroom instruction is delivered digitally when classes begin in fall 2015. That deadline has been overshadowed by the state’s switch to new math and language arts standards and a new test next school year.

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This Year’s Florida Education Technology Conference Is Also Online

The exhibit hall at FETC, an annual education technology conference in Orlando.

John O'Connor / StateImpact Florida

The 2013 exhibit hall at FETC, an annual education technology conference in Orlando.

FETC, one of the nation’s oldest and largest education technology conferences, kicks off today in Orlando.

But for the first time teachers, principals and educators won’t have to travel to Orange County in order to participate.

About 50 FETC events, including keynote speeches and many of the seminars where teachers share tips and tricks, will be broadcast online. Conference organizers say the online experience will be as good as attending in person.

“You will possibly have a better experience right there on your computer,” said Sean Brown, vice president of Sonic Foundry, the company broadcasting FETC online. “We are going to give any teacher who tunes in as a virtual attendee a seat in the room.”

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