It’s 7:30 a.m. and the fifth through eight graders at Academy Prep in midtown St. Petersburg are lined up outside to recite the school pledge. It’s a cool February morning and they’re a little fidgety until Head of School Gina Burkett raises two fingers above her head and all goes quiet. The pledge starts with […]
Last week StateImpact Florida told you how a middle school in Miami has added speech and debate courses this year to improve reading, writing and speaking. The school’s principal, Bridget McKinney majored in debate and thought the requirements for Florida’s new Common Core-based standards sounded a lot like her college classes. She needed a writing […]
Bridget McKinney, principal at Miami’s Allapattah Middle School, says her students struggle to pass the state’s reading and writing tests. So when McKinney first read the Common Core math and language arts standards used in Florida schools this year, what jumped out was the emphasis on answering questions and making arguments using examples and evidence […]
This story is part of a series from The Hechinger Report and StateImpact Florida looking at how Florida schools are getting ready for Common Core standards. Read — and listen to — the first story here. Monroe Middle School teacher Dawn Norris hears a difference in her language arts classes since she starting using Common […]
The popularity of K-8 schools is growing in one of Florida’s largest districts. Orange County Public Schools will add up to five kindergarten through 8th grade schools to the three already in place. These are traditional public schools, not charters or magnets. Kids will be zoned for them just like any other. “A growing body […]
Today marks 20 days into the school year in Broward County. For some students today will be the last day on their campus and with the teachers they started the year with. Three Broward charter schools have voted to close their doors: Touchdowns4life Charter, a middle school in Tamarac, Fla. Eagle Charter Academy, a 6-12 […]
Last year Mount Pleasant Standard Base Middle School’s grade dropped to an F from an A. Principal Yolanda Capers says the grade stung because she saw her students improving. “It’s devastating because…our students were still learning,” she says. “58 percent of our students made learning gains in reading. That’s a lot of learning gains. However […]
When a sixth grader at Southport Middle School hung himself at his Port St. Lucie home, his school made the announcement to some students the next morning. A crisis intervention team went to every class 13-year-old Shayne Ijames attended to tell sixth graders their classmate had committed suicide. His mom, Sheri Leitch, is outraged. “They […]
Freshman Austin Beaucage has been picked on his whole life. He’s small for his age and socially awkward. But the bullying was never like last month at Coral Shores High School in Key Largo, Fla. “Some senior locked me in a closet in my 6th period and he wouldn’t let me out,” he said. “And […]
There is a place on school campuses for students who break the rules. In some Florida schools, it’s called SCSI. Marcus Pryor, a junior at Miami Northwestern Senior High, thinks it stands for School Criminal Scene Investigation. SCSI actually stands for School Center for Special Instruction. And in Miami, it’s where students go when they […]
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