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February 2007
Copyright © 2007 • Queue, Inc.
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Florida ranks high in standards, low in achievement:
Chance for Success
The new Chance-for-Success Index, developed for the report by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, provides a state-focused perspective on the importance of education throughout a person’s lifetime. The index is based on 13 indicators that highlight whether young children get off to a good start, succeed in elementary and secondary school, and hit crucial educational and economic benchmarks as adults.
State rank: 31
Aligning Education from Cradle to Career
State rank: 11
Elementary and Secondary Performance
State rank: 31
Standards, Assessments, and Accountability
State rank: 4
To see complete report: http://www.edweek.org/media/ew/qc/2007/17shr.fl.h26.pdf
Florida Department of Education Quality Counts 2007 Florida Fact Sheet
Overview
- The Quality Counts 2007 rankings assess a number of important indicators of students' success, such as accountability, early education and academic standards.
- In previous years, states received letter grades for each indicator.
- This year, the Editorial Projects in Education (group that compiles the report) adopted a new method and set of criteria to develop a report that moves away from an exclusive focus on K-12 education to a broader scope that looks at the performance across various sectors including preschool, postsecondary education and employment.
- New this year is the "Chance-for-Success Index," which is based on 13 indicators that highlight whether young children begin school well prepared, succeed at the elementary and secondary school levels and hit critical education and economic benchmarks as adults.
- States were compared against the national averages for each of these indicators and either received or lost points for exceeding or falling below these national averages.
- Florida ranked near the middle at 31, with a state score of -4 (Virginia was the highest ranking with +22 and New Mexico the lowest ranking with -23).
- States of similar size and racial diversity — California (-6) and Texas (-15) — ranked below Florida with the exception of New York (+8), which ranked above.
- The report highlights some of the successes Florida has experienced in recent years, such as achievement gains on NAEP and growth in the high school graduation rate, and underscores the need for secondary reform recently enacted through the A++ Plan for Education.
- Florida receives high marks for high percentages of parental employment, preschool enrollment, kindergarten enrollment, and steady employment (adults in the labor force).
- Only six states have more parents not fluent in English than Florida (New York, California, Nevada, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico); however, the Sunshine State remains equal to or above the national average in 12 of 15 K-12 student achievement indicators.
- The report's "Evaluation of K-12 Achievement" revealed that Florida has made significant progress in improving student performance and received +6 points for the "change indicators" portion of this ranking — bested only by Pennsylvania, Texas and Arizona.
- Florida received its highest ranking in the "State K-12 Policy Indicators" section — fourth in the nation with 12 of 15 state K-12 policies.
- This month, the State Board of Education will review and approve revised Reading and Language Arts standards that include grade-specific expectations bringing Florida into alignment with the criteria by which this indicator was judged.
Preschool & Kindergarten
- The Quality Counts 2007 report relies on several-year-old data and does not acknowledge that Florida last year implemented a Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) Program, which provides free, quality early learning opportunities open to all of the state's four-year-olds
- For the current year, the State of Florida appropriated $388 million for the VPK program and $97 in FEFP-funded preschool programs for children with disabilities.
- Florida's actual kindergarten participation rate is over 99 percent for five-year-olds (public and private schools), as opposed the rate presented in the Quality Counts report (79.1 percent), which is based on five and six-year-olds.
- In addition, Florida has established early learning curricula standards, which are followed by providers participating in the Voluntary Prekindergarten Program.
Achievement Gap
- In addition to the Florida's average eighth grade "poverty gap" in math exceeding the national average based on NAEP scale score changes, the closing of the achievement gap between students participating in the free and reduced-priced lunch program and those not eligible for the program is also evident in the state's Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) results.
- The gap between these two groups has closed in every grade, except ninth grade reading, in math and reading from 2003 to 2005 (same dates as the NAEP comparison in Quality Counts 2007 report).
High School Graduation
- The report also highlights increases in Florida's high school graduation rate over time (from 2000 to 2003) and high Advanced Placement test scores (passing score of 3, 4 or 5).
- It should be noted that the Quality Counts 2007 uses its own calculation of each state's high school graduation rate and the data used in this report is from 2003.
- Florida's high school graduation rate for the 2005-2006 school year was 71 percent (versus 57.5 percent for 2003 used in the report) and is calculated using a highly accurate method that follows every single student from the time they enter high school until the time they are expected to graduate four years later.
Postsecondary Education
- Only South Dakota had a higher community college "persistence in the first year" rate — only two percentage points above Florida.
- Florida falls $584 below the national average when it comes to postsecondary financial aid; however, only 16 states have a lower total cost for college (including room, board and tuition) than Florida.
Scores on State-generated Tests Often Contradict Results on a National Test
…While international assessments confirm that American students lag behind those in several other countries in science and math, many school districts and states keep telling parents that their children, like those in Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor’s hometown of fable, are all above average.
More testing under the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act was supposed to help measure whether elementary school children are learning what they need to know. But scores on state-generated tests often contradict results on a national test. North Carolina is one of several states with glaring differences between how well it says its students are doing and the harsher verdict of independent comparisons.
The North Carolina Board of Education finally is getting the message. It has switched to a tougher math exam, and recently raised the passing scores in math for grades 3 to 8. So far it’s one of only a handful of states raising their standards.
Welcome to the era of high-stakes testing, where persistently low scores mean principals can get fired and states can take over failing schools. No Child Left Behind requires U.S. schools to make steady progress, so that by 2014 every student is proficient in math and reading. But to ensure cooperation, Congress left it up to each state to measure how well its pupils were doing.
Although the goal was transparency, results have been less than clear. While states report growing percentages of students are proficient, the verdict is considerably worse on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), an exam dubbed “the nation’s report card” that is given to a sampling of students in all 50 states.
The discrepancies in some states are alarming. In Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia, far more students rated proficient on the homegrown tests in 2005 than on the NAEP exam – about 50 percentage points higher.
Local control of public schools is a hallowed tradition in American education, and there has long been antipathy to the idea of a national test. NAEP has been around since 1969, but it tests only a cross section of students in each state. Participation is mandatory, and its existence serves as a deterrent to states’ dumbing down tests to look good and avoid costly penalties...
Some state educators say comparisons are unfair because NAEP is too rigorous and was designed to chart long-term trends, not to measure what states feel students should know.
To read the complete article, please go to: http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=172668
The preceding article was excerpted from State of the States 2007, Stateline.org’s annual report on significant state policy developments and trends. To see a digital copy of this 48-page publication go here: http://archive.stateline.org/flash-data/Stateline's_State_of_the_States_2007.pdf
Miami-Dade County Schools Picks Microsoft to Connect Students, Teachers and Administrators to Educational Resources and Tools
Fourth-largest U.S. school district deploys Microsoft’s online portal, bringing together 1.5 million constituents in collaborative learning; evidence of growing trend in ed tech approach.
When Miami-Dade County Public Schools needed to communicate with its 1.5 million students, parents, teachers and administrators, the district found it lacked a consistent way to deliver information. Whether they needed educational resources being distributed or critical instructions in case of emergencies, users were forced to hunt for necessary information. The use of different software applications throughout hundreds of schools kept this large, urban and culturally diverse school district from effectively using the communications and educational resources it had at its disposal.
Today the school district is introducing the deployment of a new solution using the Microsoft® Learning Gateway, an integrated portal-based platform that delivers an unprecedented level of collaboration, management of online content and increased productivity by eliminating the need for paper while changing the way people work, learn and succeed across the school district.
“It’s the difference between walking into a grocery store and having to search the aisles for what you need and being able to drive up to a store and everything is already in a cart ready to check out,” said Deborah Karcher, executive officer, information technology services, Miami-Dade County Public Schools. “We were supporting a lot of different technology platforms and nonconnected Web sites to access and deliver information. This reduced our communications effectiveness and did not maximize the resources we had. By optimizing our infrastructure with Microsoft, we were able to design a portal strategy across the district that can incorporate all our application and data sources through Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and a suite of Web services that allows security-enhanced access to all district resources based on a user’s role in the system.”
The district can now push the right data to the right stakeholder audience rather than forcing users to navigate a maze of resources to find the information they need:
- The school district now communicates time-sensitive information such as emergency notices, school events and school closures to all district users with just one communiqué, which is critical in this hurricane-prone region.
- The new infrastructure changes the way that teachers and parents can access and make use of student performance data. Teachers now can readily access historical data about individual student performance for assessments, progress reports and remediation plans and more quickly capture a snapshot of a student’s overall progress.
- Administrators can communicate consistent information to staff members across all schools regarding meetings, training and professional development opportunities.
- Instructional technology from the district’s digital content provider Riverdeep, which converted its Learning Village solution specifically to work within the district’s new portal solution, now allows teachers, students and parents to access learning resources anytime and anywhere they are needed.
- Parents can set their user settings to receive the information they want in the language they need without having to navigate through numerous district services.
“We realized that to communicate effectively with parents and the community, we would need tools that permit our stakeholders to move decisively in support of their children — our students,” said Rudolph F. “Rudy” Crew, Ed.D., superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. “These tools must work together in such a way as to convert a parent’s need to know into the ability to act, and we now find ourselves moving decisively in that direction.”
Schools Look to Build Up, Not Out
Orange County school officials think they can stretch their $3.9 billion school-building budget by shrinking dozens of future schools.
But that plan could mean fewer parking spaces, no stadiums at new high schools, smaller campuses and taller buildings.
Pat Herron, the facilities director for new schools, outlined the ideas Thursday to a citizens panel that advises the school district on construction. The presentation came as part of ongoing attempts to cut rising costs in the building program…
To read the complete article, please go to: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-mnewschools19x07jan19,0,6872377.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-orange
New Rule for Florida Middle Schoolers: Pass Every Essential Class or Repeat 8th Grade
Eager to make sure middle-schoolers are prepared for high school, state officials have made it tougher for students to advance to ninth grade. Starting with this year's sixth-graders, any youngsters who fail even one "core" course must retake the class or they will not be promoted to high school.
Core courses include math, science, English and social studies. Previously, Broward County students could fail one or two of those core subjects each year and still advance to the next grade.
"We're taking it very seriously," said Joel Smith, who coordinates middle school policy for the Broward School District. "If we don't address it when the group is smaller, we could get inundated with a bottleneck of eighth-graders."
The fear is that the new state rule could lock eighth-graders in middle school for an extra year, when some would turn 15.
"You could have 14- and 15-year-olds interacting with 11- and 12-year-olds," said Diane Hall, principal at Walter C. Young Middle in Pembroke Pines. "That's not a good situation…
To read the complete article, please go to: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-smiddlejan22%2C0%2C916843.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Audio enhancement system helps students hear teachers
Parents and students will notice more teachers sporting the hottest accessory in schools this year: a new wearable microphone that makes teaching --and learning-- much easier.
The mics are part of the new audio enhancement system, a fun tech tool that the St. Johns County School District hopes to have in every classroom by the opening of the next school year.
Crookshank Elementary School second-grade teacher Linda Allen loves her system
"It's great," she said. "You can use it in so many different ways."
Allen's microphone transmits to a small box in the corner of the room, which amplifies her talking-volume voice through four speakers installed in the ceiling. This particular day, she wandered the room as the students looked at the newspaper. Her head could be down and her tone quiet, but all the students heard the same.
"It helps the voice," she said. "You're not as tired by the end of the day."
She doesn't have it on all the time, but uses the microphone instead of a yell when the kids start getting rowdy and loud.
"Oh boy, their ears pick up when I turn it on," said Allen. "They know when that mike goes on, it's time to listen."
No more clapping for attention. The students know what the mike means. As soon as the children hear it click on, they all turn to the teacher.
"When she has it on, that means everybody quiet," said 7-year-old Derick Bristol.
The system also gives children a chance to be heard. With an additional hand-held microphone, students can take the controls when reading aloud or speaking in front of the class.
"It's a big help to their speaking skills as well as their listening skills," said Allen…
To read the complete article, please go to: http://staugustine.com/stories/012307/news_new0123.shtml
Magnet Schools Introduce Kids to World of Possibilities
Nearly 10,000 people showed up at the Magnets & More School Choice Expo to help students find specialized schools to learn everything from how to fly a plane, design a video game or make an omelette.
The fair, at The Jacksonville Expo Center at the Fairgrounds, helps students meet with 80 different magnet schools to find the right programs to apply to. Magnet schools are specialized schools that offer college preparatory courses, a different way of learning or a focus on a particular interest such as arts, science or technology.
The goal of magnet schools is to personalize learning for each student, said Sally Hague, school choice director for Duval County School Board.
"It's not that some schools are better than others - these are all good schools - but some are a better fit," she said.
Hague said there are about 8,050 magnet school openings available in Duval County and with thousands of applicants, many students will be put on waiting lists. She said placement is based on a lottery system and there is no discrimination among applicants.
Some of the magnet schools on display included programs in construction, cooking, communications, aviation, performing arts, nursing, computer science and military training.
At Highlands Middle School, students can learn about aviation, take flight simulator courses and eventually pilot a plane. Lanette Meckt, a consultant for the school, said all of the courses at the school use aviation to help make students more interested in the material. Students plan trips across the world for geography class. Math courses use flight distances. Geometry lessons involve building model airplanes. Even history projects focus on aviation heroes…
To read the complete article, please go to: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/012107/met_7476342.shtml
Cypress Elementary School in Osceola County Is First School in Florida to Earn National Honors from the Kennedy Center Alliance
The Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network has selected Cypress Elementary in Osceola County as one of only five schools in the nation to be named as a Creative Ticket National School of Distinction for the 2005-2006 in honor of their outstanding school arts programs. This marks the first time in history any Florida school has received this award, which recognizes schools that have done an outstanding job of making the arts an essential part of the education of their students.
This isn't the first time Cypress Elementary has been recognized at both the state and national for their arts-infused curriculum model. All kindergarten through fifth grade students at the school are engaged in self-motivating, life-long learning experiences through the performing arts program. School-wide, the students receive a sound academic education, but also an education rich in the visual arts, drama, music, theater, dance and chorus. "We have found that by incorporating all children into the arts helps each child seek out their own unique gifts," said Cypress Elementary Principal Stacy Burdette. Assistant Principal Tracy Shenuski adds, "We challenge our students to become believers in their own destiny to greatness."
Teachers at Cypress Elementary not only integrate the arts into their teaching, but also guide additional after-school performing groups, often in partnership with parents. The school boasts ten dynamic performing groups, including a dance troupe of children in wheelchairs. The school has been featured at many high-profile events, and has been involved in projects that serve as models throughout the state.
As a Creative Ticket National School of Distinction, Cypress Elementary has been invited to perform on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center on March 27, 2007. The school is currently in the process of raising the estimated $36,000 needed for 36 students, five teachers and one administrator to travel to Washington D.C. to perform in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Individuals and corporations who would like to make a tax-deductible donation to sponsor these talented students are encouraged to contact Debbie Fahmie, music teacher, at 407-346-2444 or Assistant Principal Tracy Shenuski at 407-344-5000 or shenuskt@osceola.k12.fl.us.
Bay County Schools Choose STI Assessment
Bay County School District in Panama City, Fla. has selected STI Assessment for its online formative assessment tool. Bay County School District will implement STI Assessment throughout the district to enable educators to gather data on student progress toward state and national standards. Administrators and teachers in 39 schools will use the web-based assessment program to track more than 27,000 students.
"Districts across the country are turning to technology for a fast, reliable way to measure student learning and for a tool that can spark a dialogue among administrators, teachers and parents around helping students progress,” explained Lendy Willis, executive director of curriculum and instructional services for Bay County School District. “STI Assessment provides our teachers with a crucial diagnostic tool that allows them to pinpoint student strengths and weaknesses so they can adjust instruction to meet student needs. Assessment reports can easily be viewed by parents on the web to give them the information they need to get involved.”
The district is using the assessment creation and monitoring tool from STI to bolster their formative assessment program. Formative assessment is one among multiple student achievement measurements the district uses to gauge success and meet adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act.
With STI Assessment, Bay County educators will be able to:
- develop formative assessments or benchmark tests using the system’s large bank of
questions that are correlated to national and state curriculum standards.
- conduct tests online or on paper, and receive immediate results regardless of the method.
- administer continuous assessments to see where their students are versus where they need to be in terms of their mastery of the standards.
- clearly identify areas for improvement to modify instruction to meet student needs.
- create a living record of student progress over the span of their academic career.
- quickly and easily create meaningful assessment reports of aggregate and disaggregate data to meet local needs and NCLB reporting requirements. The reports can be accessed online by administrators and teachers as well as by parents if the district decides to grant permission.
Fitch Ratings has assigned an underlying 'A+' rating to the School District of Broward County, Florida's (the district) bonds.
The underlying 'A+' rating is based on strong project essentiality enhanced by the master lease structure, which requires the district to appropriate lease payments on an all-or-none basis. The rating also incorporates the district's moderate debt burden and above-average income levels. The revision to Stable Outlook reflects an easing of the district's financial pressures, as evidenced by an increase in the unreserved general fund balance in fiscal 2006 and minimal use of one-time revenues in the fiscal 2007 budget. Of concern to Fitch are recent enrollment declines and a potential slowdown in taxable assessed value growth (TAV) that could limit gains in the capital outlay millage.
The district is the second largest in the state and the sixth largest in the U.S., though enrollment declined 3.1% from last year to 262,616 students in the 2006-2007 school year. The district cites stricter federal immigration policy and higher home insurance costs as leading causes of the decline. While the decline will lead to a decrease in state operating funds, the district reacted quickly by limiting the hiring of teachers. The enrollment reduction may also ease capital spending pressures related to the state's class size reduction (CSR) mandate. The district is generally compliant with CSR on a school-by-school basis. However, operational funding, teacher shortages, and facility constraints are concerns for complying with the class-by-class mandate effective academic year 2009-2010.
Broward County's economy is diversified, with services, government, and trade sectors accounting for the largest components of the employment base. Both labor force and employment growth continue to be strong, and the county's unemployment rate declined to 3.7% in 2005, representing the third consecutive year of decline. Wealth levels are above average, and per capita retail sales register well above the state and U.S. averages.
The district ended fiscal 2006 with a small increase in its unreserved general fund balance, despite a minimal drawdown in the total general fund balance. This follows essentially break-even operations in fiscal 2005 on an unreserved fund balance basis, which was preceded by several consecutive years of surplus operations. Drawdowns in total fund balance in fiscal 2005 and 2006 were attributable primarily to a change in the state education funding formula that negatively impacted the district. The district used a combination expenditure cuts and an increase in the capital outlay millage transfer to the general fund, along with $10 million in nonrecurring revenues, to close a $43 million budget gap in fiscal 2007.
Overall debt levels are moderate at $1,640 per capita and 1.8% of taxable market value. Amortization of outstanding and proposed debt is slow, with 16.9% maturing in five years and 34.4% in 10 years. The district's policy is to use up to 1.2 mills of the 2.0-mill capital outlay tax for debt service on COPs. Fiscal 2007 debt service will require usage of 67.8% of this internal limit (54.3% of the legal maximum). However, this figure increases significantly to 89.2% (71.3%) next fiscal year, assuming 10.8% growth in TAV. Fitch believes this assumption is somewhat aggressive although it is below actual growth in the last few years. The district's current five-year capital improvement plan (CIP) through fiscal 2010 totals $2.4 billion, net of COPs repayment, and assumes state funding of mandated class size reductions. The CIP is fully funded, with slightly more than one-half of the expected funding sources derived from the 2.0-mill capital outlay levy. An additional 37% of the CIP is funded with the current and future COP proceeds, and the remainder of the plan is supported by state funding and impact fees.
Tennis Star Anna Kournikova Honors North Palm Beach Elementary School Principal with 'got breakfast?'™ Award
Tennis star Anna Kournikova and the "got breakfast?" Foundation has honored North Palm Beach Elementary School Principal Bill Thompson with a special recognition for his commitment to improving student health by encouraging participation in the Federal School Breakfast Program. Principal Thompson has led the effort to utilize the Classroom Breakfast model to serve meals at his school, which studies prove increases a child's ability to learn, improves performance and reduces health issues. Kournikova presented the special "got breakfast?" Award to Principal Thompson during a school-wide assembly. She spoke to students about the importance of good nutrition and physical activity.
The "got breakfast?" Foundation works to help the millions of students who qualify for a free or reduced-price breakfast to access the meals they are not receiving. Out of 55 million children who attend public school in the United States, 30 million participate in the National School Lunch Program, yet only 9.6 million eat breakfast in school. The foundation includes a coalition of public officials, community leaders, private organizations and personalities committed to anti-hunger efforts.
"I am a firm believer that the first step to improving well-being is with good nutrition and when millions of students across the country are not taking part in breakfast they are missing out on the opportunity to perform their best at school," said Anna Kournikova. "Principal Bill Thompson's work championing the Classroom Breakfast model to serve meals to his students is an excellent example of how we can get meals to children who need it the most and help them be their best."
Studies show that Classroom Breakfast dramatically increases test scores and improves the health of children. When breakfast is served in the classroom and offered to all students, regardless of income, breakfast participation numbers have doubled and in some cases tripled. Research proves that principals, teachers, food service directors and custodial staff agree Classroom Breakfast positively affects the ability to learn and a students overall well being. Classroom Breakfast helps address the logistical hurdles that come with serving students breakfast such as time constraints and limited staffing. There are various ways schools implement Classroom Breakfast; some set time aside early in the morning so that when children arrive at school they sit at a desk and are served a convenient grab-and-go meal and some serve breakfast during role call.
"We hope that by highlighting Principal Thompson's work more school districts will learn about Classroom Breakfast and how it can greatly increase breakfast counts," said Gary A. Davis, CEO, East Side Entrees and "got breakfast?" partner. "We are glad that such an internationally recognized personality as Anna Kournikova is working with the "got breakfast?" Foundation to help raise awareness of the benefits of participating in the National School Breakfast Program and how it can help combat childhood hunger."