Standing at the water’s edge on Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay campus, Nicholas Ogle shows a crowd of teenagers what looks like a giant, rotten green bean.
Credit Daniel Rivera, Student / Nicholas Ogle
Nicholas Ogle will replant the mangrove propagules collected by MAST students.
“We don’t want any mushiness anywhere, especially at the top,” he says, then chucks the specimen to the side.
Ogle, an environmental coordinator with FIU, is showing this marine-science class from the new MAST magnet school at FIU how to pick out a healthy mangrove seedling. The students will then be sent to duck in and out of the mangrove roots at the coastline, collecting seedlings — “propagules,” the scientist calls them — to eventually be replanted in a mangrove restoration project.
Mangroves are often cited as a first line of defense against the impact of sea-level rise. And in many ways, so is this interaction between the students and Ogle.Â
Florida doesn’t require students to learn about the effects of climate change — such as sea-level rise — until high school.But in South Florida, kids observe rising oceans all around them. They see them on television, online and in-person.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the sea level in Miami has risen more than nine inches in the past 100 years — and scientists expect a big increase in the next century.
So South Florida schools and outside organizations are forming partnerships to build an educational bridge connecting what students learn in school to what they see in their changing environments.
National trends: The Opportunity Index measures factors that contribute to quality of life, like graduation rates and access to early learning.
Florida doesn’t offer as much opportunity to its young people as other states do.
That’s according to new research from Opportunity Nation. The bipartisan organization compiles an index of community characteristics to measure how people’s zip codes affect their quality of life.
The index includes things like access to early learning, violent crime rates and graduation rates.
“As a nation we’re fixated on unemployment, and of course it’s important. But the real core issues of opportunity have been going on for much more than simply this recession,” said Mark Edwards, executive director of Opportunity Nation.
“One of the measures of opportunity is the percentage of young adults in your community that graduate from high school—we know when that number is low, communities don’t do well,” he said.
Edwards was in Florida for a Grad Nation summit on the national dropout crisis. Ultimately, Edwards told the crowd of educators, he wants to see people vote on issues of opportunity—not unemployment.
This chart compares Florida 4th and 8th grade scores on the NAEP against the national average.
Earlier today we reported that Florida student scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — also known as “The Nation’s Report Card” — improved slightly from 2011 scores.
We’ve charted NAEP reports since 1990 to show you how Florida’s scores have changed over time, and how those scores compare to the national average.
We’ve broken out math and reading scores for all students, students who qualify for the school lunch program — a common proxy for poverty — and students with disabilities.
Florida students improved their scores on all four sections of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, but eighth graders still trail the national average.
Florida student scores improved on a key national standardized test, including some of the largest eighth grade reading and math gains in the country.
But Florida eighth graders still trail the national average in math, according to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as The Nation’s Report Card.
Florida eighth graders scored an average of 281, on a 500-point scale, in math and 266 in reading. The national average was 284 in math and 266 in reading.
In 2011, Florida eighth graders scored an average of 278 in math and 262 in reading.
Florida fourth graders scored an average of 242 in math and 227 on the reading exam. In 2011, Florida fourth graders scored 240 in math and 225 in reading.
Florida’s fourth grade gains were not considered statistically significant
The national fourth grade average was 241 in math and 221 in reading.
The math and reading exams are given to a sample of fourth and eighth grade students across the country and is considered the gold standard exam for comparing student performance across state lines. NAEP releases results every two years.
Lane Wright, a former spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott, is now handling press questions for StudentsFirst Florida.
Lane Wright, a former spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott, is now working for the Florida arm of national education advocacy group StudentsFirst.
Wright is one of a handful of personnel moves the group announced Wednesday, including hiring a state outreach director and field coordinators for Tampa and Orlando, and Miami. StudentsFirst was founded by former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee.
“Florida is so important, diverse and politically complex when it comes to education,” Nikki Lowrey, state director for StudentsFirst, said in a statement. “We have built a team that will help get our message out and help people understand how elevating teachers, empowering parents, and spending our tax dollars wisely will improve our children’s education.”
Rhee is a lightning rod in education circles, in part, because of her support for test-based teacher evaluations and criticisms of teacher’s unions.
StudentsFirst has been a leading voice pushing for “parent trigger” legislation, which would allow the majority of parents at a school earning a failing grade to choose how to overhaul the school. Options include firing administrators or staff, closing the school or converting to a charter school.
Students in a remedial math class at Miami-Dade College.
Half of Florida students who take the state’s college placement exam end up failing at least one section. In the past, those students would have brush up in remedial reading, writing or math courses before starting their college degree.
But a new Florida law will allow most recent high school graduates to skip those remedial classes, also called developmental or prep courses. Advocates say ending remedial requirements will help more people finish their studies. But colleges say taking the classes might still be a good idea for some students.
This week, WUSF’s Florida Matters took a look at what the changes mean. The guests were Jim Wysong, dean of science and math at Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus, Randy Hanna, chancellor of the Florida College System, and Bruce Vandal, vice president of research and advocacy group Complete College America.
New York Public Library / images.nypl.org/?id=813546&t=W
Nathan Bedford Forrest was the Confederate general who oversaw the Fort Pillow Massacre.
A petition to change the name of Jacksonville’s Nathan B. Forrest High School—whose namesake was the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan—has reached more than 160,000 names.
Earlier this week, there was murmuring that Forrest’s School Advisory Council would address the name change at its November meeting. It would be the first step towards an official renaming.
The item did not actually make it on the SAC agenda this week. But according to the Florida Times Union, that did not stop opponents of the name change from speaking in favor of Forrest:
Joan Cooper, a Forrest alumna, told the SAC that the Ku Klux Klan started as a gentlemen’s club in Tennessee. Once the organization began to grow into what it is today, Forrest ordered it disbanded and separated himself from it.
“Changing the name of Forrest High is wrong,” said Jacksonville resident Harry Wagner. “Changing the name of the school will not improve teaching or the GPAs.”
Before joining the Klan, Forrest was a Confederate general in the Civil War. He was the officer in charge during the Fort Pillow Massacre: Continue Reading →
Every morning, children at Education Station begin the day with a hug and a book.
Florida’s legislative session is months away, but educators and politicians are already talking about making early childhood education a priority.
“Early childhood is viewed as childcare, and not early childhood education, which it really is,” says Dr. Susan Neimand, director of the School of Education at Miami Dade College, which runs a nationally recognized early learning center called Education Station.
“We know that the brain starts developing from the time the child is in the womb—and the proper attention for that is not given,” says Neimand.
LISTEN: Why Early Learning Matters To Florida Educators
From the infant room to the pre-K class, children at Education Station start their day with a hug and a book. It’s part of an evidence-based approach to cultivate learners. The center is staffed by professionals trained in child development and students from the school of education.
Research has shown that children who get high-quality early learning—where instructors are trained in child development and reading and learning are encouraged through play—are more likely graduate high school and go on to college. They’re less likely to end up in jail. As a result, the federal government estimates that every dollar invested in early learning can save about seven dollars in the future. Continue Reading →
In short, they’re eight broad categories that encompass the breadth of degrees available at Florida colleges and universities and correlate with career fields. A meta-major might include multiple majors, but each of those degrees shares a foundation of common courses.
Meta-majors have been pushed by national education groups seeking to increase the percentage of people earning college degrees or certificates.
“One of the things that the Legislature has long been concerned about — and by the way, so have educators — is students getting into the system and then just wandering,” said Jim Wysong, dean of math and science at Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry campus.
A new law eliminating most required remedial courses means college advisers must meet with new and returning students to determine if they are eligible to skip the classes.
The average adviser at Hillsborough Community College is responsible for 1,500 students.
Advisers and other support staff guide students as they earn their college degree. They help student pick classes and organize their schedule. Others might point students toward scholarships, grants, loans and other financial aid.
But when lawmakers reduced the number of remedial classes — also known as developmental or prep courses — they increased the work for advisers, said Hillsborough Community College registrar Jennifer Williams.
“We did not require new students to meet with advisers before registering,” Williams said. Now new students must meet with an adviser before starting classes.
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