Florida Education News
March 2008
Copyright © 2008 Queue,
Inc.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Advanced Placement Results Ð Florida
Poll: Florida Educators Worry They HavenÕt
Saved Enough to Retire
Florida's Top Two Youth Volunteers Selected in 13th
Annual National Awards Program
More than 15 percent of the public high
school class of 2007 achieved at least one AP¨ Exam grade of 3 or higherÑthe
score that is predictive of college success. This achievement represents a
significant and consistent improvement since the class of 2002 when less than
12 percent of public school graduates attained this goal..
In its fourth annual "AP Report to the
Nation," the College Board (the not-for-profit membership association that
owns and administers the AP Program), focuses on educators' quantifiable
successes in helping a wider segment of the nation's students gain access to
and achieve success in college-level work. Of the estimated 2.8 million
students who graduated from U.S. public schools in 2007, almost 426,000 (15.2
percent) earned an AP Exam grade of at least a 3 on one or more AP Exams during
their high school tenure, the report documents. This is up from 14.7 percent in
2006 and 11.7 percent in 2002.
Earning a 3 or higher on an AP Exam is one
of "the very best predictors of college performance," with AP
students earning higher college grades and graduating from college at higher
rates than otherwise similar peers in control groups, according to recent
reports from researchers.
New York, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, Massachusetts and
Connecticut all saw more than 20 percent of their students graduate from high
school having earned an AP Exam grade of 3 or higher. AP achievements for each
state's class of 2002, class of 2006 and class of 2007 are detailed in the
report.
State-based Initiatives
The report highlights states' efforts to
implement programs that support academic achievement for all students. States
that have experienced success are highlighted; these include Florida, which has expanded AP
participation and performance among African-American and Hispanic/Latino
students with initiatives set forth in the College Board Florida Partnership
for Minority and Underrepresented Student Achievement; Illinois, which, through
its College and Career Success for All Students Program, offers competitive
grants to school districts emphasizing training for AP teachers, counselors and
principals; and Mississippi, which, in addition to seeing an increase in the
percentage of African-American students scoring a 3 or higher since the class
of 2002, also provides scholarships for teachers to attend colleges and
universities during the summer to receive AP teacher training.
State Reports:
http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/ap/nation
Full report:
http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/ap-report-to-the-nation-2008.pdf
Florida Report:
http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Florida-AP-Report-2008.pdf
But New Retirement Plan
Could Add 30% to FloridaÕs 350,000 EducatorsÕ Retirement Investment Accounts
FloridaÕs
four leading education associations today announced a historic, new ÒModel
PlanÓ for individual retirement accounts that could help educators close the
gap in saving enough money to retire. That perceived gap was documented in a
new poll showing that nine of 10 educators polled say they are concerned about
meeting their financial needs after retirement.
The
Model Plan, negotiated by the Florida Education Association, the Florida
Association of School Administrators, the Florida School Boards Association and
the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, could put billions
of dollars into teachersÕ pockets over the next 20 years, if adopted by the
stateÕs 67 school districts, financial experts say. Districts must change the
way they oversee tax-sheltered accounts Ñ also known as 403b plans Ñ offered to
their employees due to new IRS regulations that take effect next Jan. 1,
creating an urgent need for the Model Plan.
Historically,
school system employees across the U.S. have paid higher-than-average fees than
any other sector of the marketplace to the companies that manage their
tax-deferred investments. This plan could reverse that.
Educators have a range of choices within the Model
Plan, with fees varying with the level of service they choose. ThatÕs important
because three out of four educators polled said they would pay higher fees for
more hands-on service.
Among
the other poll findings:
á
6
in 10 say they do not have any idea whether the fees they are being
assessed are fair and reasonable.
á
8
in 10 say they are not entirely satisfied with the financial results from
their current tax-deferred investment plan.
á
8
in 10 say it would be very important for a plan like the Model Plan, which
is endorsed by the stateÕs four largest education associations to be available
to them in their respective districts.
The
poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. of Washington,
D.C. The pollsters interviewed 625 Florida Education Association Members on
Dec. 20-30, 2007. The margin of error is plus or minus 4%.
For more information on the
Model Plan, visit www.themodelplan.com.
Palm Beach and Miami
Gardens students earn $1,000 awards, engraved medallions and trip to nationÕs
capital
Honors also bestowed on
other top youth volunteers in Florida
Mylo
Cheng, 17, of Palm Beach and Bria Brown, 13, of Miami Gardens today were named
Florida's top two youth volunteers for 2008 by The Prudential Spirit of
Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding
acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 13th year, is conducted by
Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary
School Principals (NASSP).
Mylo
was nominated by Palm Beach County 4-H in West Palm Beach, and Bria was
nominated by North Dade Middle School in Miami Gardens. As State Honorees, each
will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip
in early May to Washington, D.C., where they will join the top two honorees Ð
one middle level and one high school youth Ð from each of the other states and
the District of Columbia for several days of national recognition events. Ten
of them will be named AmericaÕs top youth volunteers for 2008 at that time.
Mylo, a senior at Suncoast
Community High School in Riviera Beach, developed a health education program
that has been implemented by 4-H groups across Florida to teach young people
the importance of eating nutritiously, exercising regularly, and spending less
time in front of TV and computer screens. After attending a state conference on
childhood obesity, Mylo began researching the subject and concluded that his
generation desperately needed to improve its lifestyle. ÒIt was shocking to me
that 25 million children in America are obese,Ó he said. ÒHow can youth become
successful, motivated adults if they donÕt know how to control their own
bodies?Ó
With
a $1,000 grant from the Florida Department of Health, Mylo began working on a
50-page Òhealthy lifestylesÓ manual containing health facts, lifestyle
suggestions, progress charts, information resources and five lesson plans. As
Florida 4-H State Council president, Mylo distributed his manual to hundreds of
youth attending statewide 4-H events, all of whom were then trained to teach
the lesson plans in their districts. Mylo also has rallied fellow 4-Hers to
support federal legislation to improve physical education in schools, and he is
now working to introduce his YEAH program (for ÒYouth Empowered Ambassadors for
HealthÓ) in local schools.
Bria, an eighth-grader at North
Dade Middle School and a five-year cancer survivor, gives other young cancer
patients hope and encouragement by delivering teddy bears to them in the
hospital and at their homes. Bria was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer
when she was 6. After her disease went into remission, she wanted to honor the
memory of 17 fellow cancer patients she had met in the hospital who did not
survive. She began volunteering for the American Cancer Society as honorary
chair of the local Relay for Life fund-raiser, and as an advocate for cancer
research. But she wanted to do more.
Recalling
that many people had given her teddy bears while she was in the hospital, Bria
began giving her bears to other children stricken with cancer. Then she
recruited friends, classmates and her Girl Scout troop to help her conduct a
teddy-bear drive in her community. Before she delivers her bears, she finds out
a little about the recipients, and then personalizes her teddy bears for them.
ÒThe best part is that I get to spend time with each child after I deliver the
bear,Ó said Bria. ÒThis project is important because I have the ability to
bring joy and hope to kids with cancer. My involvement will continue until
there is a cure or until I leave this Earth.Ó
In
addition, the program judges recognized eight other Florida students as
Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each
will receive an engraved bronze medallion:
David
Akinin, 17, of Miami, a senior at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School,
co-founded a nonprofit organization that has collected more than 2,500 shoes to
protect impoverished Africans against parasites and diseases acquired by
walking barefoot. David has recruited other young people in more than 20 U.S.
cities and seven other countries to help collect shoes, which are shipped to
the Ivory Coast, Nigeria and other African countries.
Robert
Bianco, 18, of Palm Coast, a senior at St. Joseph Academy in St. Augustine, has
volunteered for the past four summers as a counselor at three summer camps for
children, teenagers and young adults with severe disabilities. During each
five-day camp session, Robert was responsible for taking care of all the needs
of an assigned camper for 24 hours a day, while trying to ensure that the
experience was one of the best weeks of the camperÕs life.
Mary
Brummet, 17, of Pensacola, a junior at West Florida High School and a member of
the Chain Reaction teen volunteer center, is an avid volunteer with the Council
on Aging of Northwest Florida. She serves on the councilÕs board of directors,
and has recruited other teen volunteers to help with the councilÕs adult
daycare program for people with AlzheimerÕs disease. Mary also helped create an
annual drive that provides food baskets to homebound elderly people one month
before Thanksgiving.
Emilio
Lopez, 17, of Miami, a senior at Coral Gables Senior High School in Coral
Gables, co-founded ÒDigital Conviction,Ó an organization that installs donated
computers in underdeveloped areas of Mexico. Emilio, who witnessed first-hand
the poverty of Mexico while growing up there, has personally installed 40
computers in six schools in Oaxaca.
Stevie
Peacock, 14, of Venice, an eighth-grader at Pine View School in Osprey, has for
the past three years provided backpacks filled with school supplies to 200
incoming kindergartners at an elementary school in Arcadia that was hit by
Hurricane Charley. Stevie also has provided supply-filled backpacks to 150
children in several Habitat for Humanity neighborhoods in Sarasota, and
collected hundreds of toys for children at All ChildrenÕs Hospital in St.
Petersburg.
Margo
Sultenfuss, 17, of Largo, a senior at Palm Harbor University in Palm Harbor,
has raised more than $140,000 over the past several years to buy food for a
local food bank by organizing an effort to design, print and sell holiday
greeting cards, and by soliciting business sponsorships and foundation grants.
Margo also spearheaded the creation of an endowment for the food bank, funded
by the proceeds of an annual summer concert.
Molly
Wagner, 17, of The Villages, a senior at The Villages High School, has been
volunteering as a student leader at Spirit Life Church in Ocala since she was
in the sixth grade. She has mentored middle and high school students, worked on
an abstinence program, and traveled across the country and to nine European
nations to help host youth conferences, community outreaches, and youth
mentoring activities.
Christina
Zarrilli, 16, of Boca Raton, a junior at Florida Atlantic University High
School, has devoted more than 4,000 volunteer hours to a broad variety of
activities, including disaster relief, search and rescue, senior citizen aid,
veteran and soldier support, and youth mentoring. She also volunteers regularly
at community events, and delivers speeches to promote volunteerism.
Mayra Irizarry
AP
Calculus Teacher,
Cypress
Bay High School, Weston, Fla.
Mayra
Irizarry is an award-winning teacher with more than 30 yearsÕ experience as a
bilingual mathematics teacher focusing on a constructive and collaborative
classroom. She has been recognized as the 2007 and 2006 Sunshine State Scholars
Mathematics Outstanding Teacher, 2005 Broward County Council of Teachers of
Mathematics Teacher of the Year, 2005 Cypress Bay High School Teacher of the
Year, 1997 Pasadena School District Teacher of the Year, a 2005 and 2007 U.S.
Presidential Award nominee, and a 2005 and 2006 DisneyHand Award nominee.
Irizarry has taught AP Calculus AB and BC during the 11 years of her tenure
with Broward County Schools. During that time, she has had a 100 percent
student passing record and has increased AP Calculus enrollment in her high
school more than 30-fold, from eight students to 256 in the 2007-08 school
year.
She has accomplished this by obtaining both parent and student
commitment to the possibility of passing the exam with a high grade. In
addition to her studentsÕ 100 percent passing record on the AP Exam, she has
had more than 85 percent of her students obtain a grade of 5Ñthe highest
possible exam grade. In 2007, College Board President Gaston Caperton noted in
his remarks in the ÒAP Report to the Nation,Ó ÒMrs. IrizarryÕs high school had
the greatest number of Latino AP Calculus students in the U.S. passing the AP
Calculus BC Exam.Ó
As an adjunct professor, Irizarry teaches mathematics courses at
Broward Community College. She co-founded the M&M Math Camp along with another
award-winning Cypress Bay mathematics teacher two years ago, and during the
last two summers has taught mathematics to Broward County elementary and middle
school students in this three-week summer math-instruction camp. Irizarry has a
Bachelor of Science in mathematics, magna cum laude, from the University of
Puerto Rico and she completed the course work for her masterÕs degree in pure
mathematics. Irizarry is a Broward County trainer of teachers, and a College
Board consultant conducting workshops for high school and middle school
teachers around the nation.
Rudolph ÒRudyÓ Crew, superintendent of the Miami-Dade County
Public Schools in Miami, Fla., has been named the 2008 National Superintendent
of the Year..
Crew, 57, is in his fourth year as superintendent of the
Miami-Dade County Public Schools. He has been credited with making significant
changes in the learning environment in the 353,000-student Dade County system,
the nationÕs fourth largest school system.
Crew joined Miami-Dade County Public Schools as superintendent in
July 2004 after working as a consultant for the Stupski Foundation in Mill
Valley, Calif. He served as chancellor of the New York City Public Schools from
1995 to 2000 and earlier as superintendent of the Tacoma, Wash., and
Sacramento, Calif., systems.
He received his bachelorÕs degree from Babson College and his
masterÕs and doctoral degrees from the University of Massachusetts. He
published a book, Only Connect: The Way to Save Our Schools, in August 2007, in
which he outlined his strategies for effective reforms in urban schools.
For the past two years, the Broad Foundation has recognized the
Dade County as one of the nationÕs five most improved urban school districts.
The county, which has one of the countryÕs most diverse student bodies,
operates 367 schools, including 89 magnet programs. The district has some
21,200 teachers, of which 875 hold national board certification, the third
highest total in the nation. The school system has an annual capital and operating
budget of $6 billion.
As the 2008 National Superintendent of the Year honoree, Crew is
entitled to present a $10,000 college scholarship to a student in the high
school from which he graduated.
A national blue ribbon panel of educators, business leaders and
government officials selected Crew from four national finalists. The other
national finalists were: Paul Johnson, superintendent of the of Bismarck, N.D.,
Public Schools; James Phares, superintendent of the Marion County Schools in
Fairmont, W.V.; and Doris Voitier, superintendent of the St. Bernard Parish
Public Schools in Chalmette, La.
Although
the district incurred shortfalls in fiscals 2006 and 2007, financial
performance remains adequate. A small deficit in fiscal year 2006 reduced
reserves slightly to 3.9% of spending, in excess of the district's goal to
maintain an unreserved general fund balance of at least 3% of revenues.
Unaudited fiscal 2007 results indicate a shortfall of $3.3 million, primarily
related to reduced state support following a decrease in student enrollment,
which leaves the unreserved balance at 3% of spending. The district's fiscal
years 2008-2012 capital improvement plan (CIP) totals $464 million net of debt
service, and includes capital costs needed to meet mandatory class size
reductions. The CIP will be funded by a combination of future COP issues as
well as pay-as-you-go funding from a variety of cash sources, including its
two-mill capital outlay millage after debt service is paid, voter approved
half-cent sales tax revenue after the payment of debt service, impact fees,
interest earnings, and allocations from the state..
The
district is coterminous with Manatee County (estimated 2006 population of
313,298), located on the western coast of central Florida. The district has 47
schools and approximately 42,000 students. Enrollment growth averaged 3.2%
annually between 2000 and 2006 but declined slightly in 2007. District
officials expect growth to be limited over the next several years and attribute
the declining growth rates to the decreasing affordability of homes over the
last several years; the median home value in the Sarasota - Bradenton - Venice
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) increased 121% between the fourth quarter
of 2000 and the fourth quarter of 2005 while the median family income increased
just 17% over that timeframe.
While
tourism-related activities and services dominate the economic characteristics
of the economy, some diversification is derived from manufacturing, healthcare
and retail. Tropicana Products, Inc., a unit of PepsiCo, relocated its
headquarter out of the county but continues to maintain a significant presence
employing 1,600 in 2006, Beall's Department Stores recently located their
headquarters in the county and increased employment from 800 to 2,100, and two
hospitals employ a total of 2,600. Annual unemployment rates are well below the
state and national averages, reflecting local employment opportunities as well
as access to the greater Tampa Bay MSA; however the December 2007 rate
increased to 4.4% from 2.7% in December 2006, which officials relate to
reductions in construction employment.