Sarasota County middle school students work on math problems in a "classroom of tomorrow."
Florida schools are gearing up for new education standards and accompanying online testing. Schools must also prepare to deliver half of all classroom instruction digitally by 2015.
So what will this mean for students, teachers and schools? It’s the subject of this week’s Florida Matters on WUSF radio.
Senate Education Committee chairman John Legg, Hillsborough County schools technology specialist Sharon Zulli and Gulf Coast Community Foundation consultant Chris Pfahler discuss how schools are using technology now, what the coming changes mean and what needs to be done — and spent — to get students, teachers and schools ready.
Legg also discusses why Florida lawmakers don’t like what they are hearing about PARCC, a next-generation test intended to replace the FCAT.
Click the link to listen to this week’s show, hosted by WUSF’s Carson Cooper.
A teacher's civics lessons inspired a student to create a consumer education club.
Editor’s note: Names of teachers and students have been changed.
Henry Rodriguez had a lot of ideas as a young, energetic teacher. He wanted to make his civics class relevant and to help his students be more aware of what was going on in the world. One of his ideas involved requiring his kids to watch a brief news program every morning for the whole year.
At first, students had to write simple summaries of what happened, but then the exercise got more advanced as the year progressed. Rodriguez helped them start to build a narrative about the news, no longer just summarizing, but connecting the dots and predicting the effects of events. They wrote about how things were related, and more.
But activities like that don’t automatically turn students into engaged learners, no matter how well-designed, and some students continued to remain relatively unaware and uninvolved. Rodriguez described one student, Carmen, as oblivious to the world around her.
“She was just going through the motions of life,” he says.
American Conservative Union chairman Al Cardenas is one of five former Republican Party of Florida chairmen urging support for Common Core State Standards.
Five former Republican Party of Florida leaders have sent out an email asking state GOP members to support new education standards adopted by Florida and 44 other states.
The letter is signed by state Sen. John Thrasher and four other former state party chairmen. When Florida has raised its standards in the past, Thrasher wrote in the email, it has resulted in better scores on international tests and gains from black and Hispanic students.”
The new standards, known as Common Core, will continue that progress, Thrasher wrote in the email.
“Every leading indicator – test scores, graduation rates, national rankings, participation and achievement in Advanced Placement – continues to rise thanks to higher standards,” the email states. “But, we have to continue the fight. Common Core does that.”
Florida’s potential departure means other states might follow — and whether enough states will remain to allow PARCC to finish its work. PARCC is funded with a $186 million federal grant, which requires at least 15 states remain PARCC members.
“I don’t think any single state is going to make or break the PARCC project,” said Mitchell Chester, Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education and chairman of PARCC. “It doesn’t surprise me that there are states that are questioning their commitment.”
Florida Parents Against Common Core protested a national meeting discussing the standards in Orlando last month.
When Gov. Rick Scott and Education Commissioner Tony Bennett met with school superintendents in April, Florida’s new education standards led the questions.
“Let’s start with Common Core,” said Martin County superintendent Laurie Gaylord. “We recently held a Common Core workshop for our school board and our community and we got picketed…So I guess I’m reaching out so that we can have the same message for all of us throughout the state — if there’s a marketing-type plan to be able to help us.”
Common Core is supposed to prepare students better for college or a career. Teachers will cover fewer topics, but spend more time on each one. And students will spend less time memorizing facts and more time learning to analyze and explain things.
Florida is one of 45 states that has adopted new math, English and literacy standards known as Common Core.
A poll last year by the nonprofit group Achieve found just one in five people had heard at least “some” things about Common Core.
Common Core supporters are trying to educate parents about what’s new in the standards and why they will improve schools.
Opponents are trying to halt the new standards before they are used in every state classroom when the school year begins in 2014. They say the standards are no improvement and worry the multi-state project will mean the loss of local control. Others worry Common Core will increase testing and cost more.
Both sides are in a public relations race to reach those who don’t know about the standards first.
You pay teachers for the classroom work. The advice is included for free.
Editor’s note: Names of teachers and students have been changed.
While most of these stories about the values teachers add come from the teacher’s point of view, I thought it would be interesting to hear one from a student.
Benny Rawlings went to a middle school in Miami.
“It was not a great school,” he said. “There were hallways you couldn’t walk down. You either had to find somewhere to hide or find strength in numbers.”
This environment was part of the reason that Benny joined a gang.
But that didn’t mean he gave up on school. While he played dumb sometimes in classes, he also would occasionally tell his other classmates to pay attention — particularly in his social studies class.
He thinks this is what drew the attention of his teacher, Mr. Edmonds.
Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz have asked education commissioner Tony Bennett to withdraw from PARCC.
Both leaders of Florida’s legislative chambers are asking Education Commissioner Tony Bennett to withdraw from a coalition of states developing a new standardized test.
“Consequently, it is our view that Florida should withdraw immediately from PARCC,” they wrote, “in favor of a Florida Plan for valid, reliable and timely testing of student performance, including assessments for the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.
Florida could stick with the Partnership for Assessment of College and Careers — or PARCC — one of two multi-state consortia designing tests for Common Core. Florida could also design its own test or go with a test designed by a testing company, such as the ACT Aspire.
The State Board of Education approved a "safety net" proposal for school grades.
Florida school grades will drop by no more than a single letter grade this year after the State Board of Education approved temporary changes to the school grading system.
But the issue revealed a divide among board members about the value of the state’s school grading system.
Board member Sally Bradshaw said the changes would only protect the self-esteem of adults leading school districts while ignoring students receiving a substandard education. Other board members said the school grading system needed an overhaul.
“We’ve overcomplicated the system,” said board member Kathleen Shanahan. “I don’t think it’s a statistically relevant model.”
The board adopted two changes proposed by Education Commissioner Tony Bennett: No school grade can drop by more than a single letter; and students who attend special education centers and have not attended a traditional school will no longer count toward the grade of their “home” school.
Education Commissioner Tony Bennett says he could recommend a new test in July or August.
In the next few weeks, the man in charge of kindergarten through twelfth grade education in Florida has to answer a multiple choice question: Which standardized test should the state pick to replace the FCAT?
“We have to get the assessment right,” Bennett recently said. “Whether that’s PARCC, or whether that is a different assessment system that other states are, frankly, looking at as well. If you were to ask me item number one next 30 to 60 days? That’s item number one; we have to make that decision.”
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