The Common Core State Standards will rewrite what students need to know by the time they graduate high school. The standards will mean a new test for Florida students and new curriculum in schools.
In Florida, a high school diploma is not the same thing as a certificate of college readiness.
In 2011 alone, more than 30,000 students learned this the hard way. After graduating from high school or receiving a G.E.D., they went on to community or state colleges in Florida and promptly failed at least one subject on the college placement test.
That didn’t mean they couldn’t go to college, but it did mean they had to take at least one remedial class to improve their basic skills. Those students had to pay college tuition to re-learn material they should have mastered in high school.
The problem is that there is a disconnect between what’s taught at the K-12 level and the skills that students need to succeed in college. That’s been understood for a while. The research arm of the Florida legislature said as much in a report on remedial education back in 2006.
Only recently, however, have state policy makers begun making changes that aim to address the situation. The goal is to strengthen the K-12 system so that fewer students need remediation once they get to college.
Florida's colleges are using computer-based courses to allow students to complete their remedial courses at their own pace. Students can quickly complete the lessons -- or modules -- they understand.
Jamille Cunningham’s primary learning tool in her remedial reading course at St. Petersburg College is a computer program.
When Cunningham, 20, started the course, the program diagnosed her as weak in all but a handful of reading skills. It then directed her to a series of learning modules focused on skills she needed to improve, including reading comprehension and organizing ideas. The program also allowed her to bypass exercises in skills she had proficiency in. Her instructor goes over exercises in class and also follows her progress in the computer modules online.
A high school drop-out who passed her G.E.D. test on the third try, Cunningham has worked hard to complete the learning exercises, games and tests at her own pace. She can move through the material faster than if she were in a traditional remedial class where all students must sit through the same lessons. On her computer screen, she proudly points out the check marks beside more than half of the listed modules, indicating she has now mastered those skills.
“I’m really excited. I like this class,” Cunningham said. “It helps me write papers and to actually think about what I’m saying.”
A spokesman for Rep. Jimmie Smith, R-Lecanto, told the Orlando Sentinel that Smith will withdraw the bill that was filed this month.
It would have required college graduates to stay and work in Florida six months for every semester the scholarship was used.
Those who didn’t stay in state or who didn’t finish school would have to pay the money back.
If the bill had passed the Florida Legislature, the new requirements would have gone into effect in a couple of years, when unemployment in the state is forecast to remain above the national average.
Part of the firm’s research included cost and revenue projections. Not surprising, the firm found that a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) is the cheapest way to go.
Parthenon figures it would cost the state about $100,000 to create one MOOC and cost the student a mere $90 per course. That’s a savings of hundreds of dollars for the student and a relatively cheap start-up for the state.
Sagette Van Embden / Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Chad Carroll, 36, needed to take remedial math classes when he enrolled in Miami Dade College. He isn’t alone. For Florida college students age 35 and older, 90 percent must take remedial math courses before they can begin college-level studies. “I didn’t accept it at first, but you have to embrace it,” Carroll said of remedial education.
Pepper Harth has always loved music. After high school, she studied voice and acting in New York. Her life took several turns. She married, had three children, divorced and sold real estate in New Jersey. She moved with her children to Seminole, Fla., in 2007. Work was not as plentiful in Florida as she had expected. She got by singing at nightclubs and weddings.
Last year, at 49, the single mom decided she wanted to do something more with her musical talents. Harth applied for federal financial aid and enrolled in the music degree program at St. Petersburg College in Seminole. Now 50, she aspires to use her future degree to practice music therapy in the health care industry.
Harth’s plans were set back, however, when she took the placement test that all Florida students must take before entering community college. She failed the math section. She wasn’t surprised: Math was never an easy subject for Harth in school, and that was more than 30 years ago.
Failing the math section didn’t mean she couldn’t go back to school. But it did mean that she had to take two remedial math courses before she could move on to college-level algebra. Actually, that turned into three semesters of remedial classes — she had to repeat one course.
Because the remedial courses don’t count for credit toward her music degree, Harth’s educational journey will take longer than she expected. It’s increasing her student loan debt — three-hour courses cost in-state residents between $300 and $350 at St. Petersburg College. And it’s costing Florida taxpayers who subsidize higher ed, as well as federal taxpayers who support her Pell Grant.
There are a lot of people in Florida going through what Pepper Harth is going through. Remedial classes in math, reading and writing are seeing a surge of students at Florida’s 28 community and state colleges — schools where all students are welcome as long as they have a high school diploma or G.E.D. From 2004 to 2011, Florida’s remedial education costs for both students and schools ballooned from $118 million to $168 million.
That means taking the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test — or its upcoming successor — in order to make apples-to-apples comparisons between school performance.
But do public school advocates need to be careful what they ask for?
Could requiring private school students to meet the same requirements as public school students undercut the legal basis for the 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision which ruled a broad private school voucher program unconstitutional?
Gov. Rick Scott hopes an increase in STEM degree programs will lure more high paying jobs to the state.
The Governor’s Office is touting the rise in STEM-related job openings in Florida over the last year.
Gov. Rick Scott is using the numbers to continue his push for more STEM degrees (science, technology, engineering, math).
His office announced this week that job openings in science and tech fields have increased by nearly 14 percent since last year.
Data from The Conference Board’s Help Wanted OnLine series show STEM-related job postings in Florida in November increased by more than 8,000 from the previous year.
The college remedial system is not preparing students for college level work and is a major impediment to earning a degree, according to a new report.
A new report says college remedial education programs are not working, often have no bearing on a student’s field of study and should be scrapped.
Instead, researchers from Complete College America argue, most students should have to take a set of core classes to prepare them for college. These courses should match up with the knowledge needed in the students chosen field of study — particularly math.
“The research is clear: Remedial education as it is commonly designed and delivered is not the aid to student success that we all hoped,” the report says. “It is time for policymakers and institutional leaders to take their cue from new research and emerging evidence-based practices that are leading the way toward a fundamentally new model of instruction and support for students who enter college not optimally prepared for college-level work.”
StateImpact Florida and the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting have been looking at remedial education at Florida colleges in a series of stories this month.
Rep. Jimmie Smith wants Bright Futures recipients to stay in Florida after graduation.
A Florida lawmaker has filed a bill that would force most Bright Futures recipients to stay in Florida after graduation or pay back the scholarship money.
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
