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October
2006
Copyright © 2006 • Queue, Inc.
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15 State & National Groups Launch Coalition to Recruit 1,000 New Teachers of Color for Florida's Schools
A major statewide coalition, lead by the Urban League of Greater Miami, will work to recruit more than 1,000 talented new teachers of color for Florida’s schools over the next two years.
Teach & Inspire Florida is designed to augment the effective teacher recruitment efforts of the Florida Department of Education and individual school districts statewide.
Florida faces a severe teacher shortage crisis, with a need for tens of thousands of new teachers every year. Additionally, the percentage of teachers of color in Florida is not representative of the percentage of students of color. Fifty two percent of the state’s students are Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian or multiracial but only 25 percent of teachers are individuals of color.
"For our state to succeed and compete, we must have a truly diverse and talented teacher workforce," Fair said. "Community groups need to work together to take on the awesome responsibility of tackling the teacher shortage crisis. This crisis threatens the quality of education for all of Florida’s students."
Over the next several months, the coalition will develop a Web site, work to generate corporate sponsors to underwrite certification fees for qualified teacher candidates, design a promotional campaign and hold additional recruitment events. Teach & Inspire Florida will be the first community-based teacher recruitment effort of its kind.
The coalition, sponsored by the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE), has attracted a broad base of organizational support.
Coalition supporting partners include the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA), the Florida Association of School Administrators (FASA), the Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (FSHCC), ASPIRA of Florida, the Urban League of Palm Beach County, the Jacksonville Urban League, the Florida Consortium of Charter Schools, Junior Achievement of Central Florida, the Mexican American Council, the Florida Education Foundation, and Rep. Rafael Arza, Chairman of the Florida House of Representatives PK-12 education committee.
"Florida faces a severe teacher shortage crisis. This coalition provides an alternative and innovative method for recruiting the best possible teachers for our classrooms," said Jim Warford, Executive Director of the Florida Association of School Administrators (FASA), and Ruth A. Hall, FASA president.
"I fully support the Urban League of Greater Miami’s Teach & Inspire Florida coalition to achieve a bigger, better, and more diverse pool of talented teachers for our state's students," said Rep. Rafael Arza. "I believe the Legislature can be a full partner in this endeavor. We can expand our newly-created First Generation in College program and enhance our teacher loan forgiveness and minority scholarship programs. This would be a huge step toward quickly opening the door to teaching careers for potential talented minority teachers."
Three national advocacy groups—the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and the Center for Education Reform—have also backed the Teach & Inspire initiative.
"Teacher quality is the most significant determinant of student achievement, and the Teach & Inspire campaign has placed a strong emphasis on recruiting teachers who possess the high levels of subject matter expertise and teaching knowledge necessary to increase student achievement in the classroom," said Kate Walsh, NCTQ president.
"This coalition focuses its efforts where they should be—on children and on increasing the number of highly qualified teachers in compliance with No Child Left Behind regulations," said Center for Education Reform President Jeanne Allen. "Particularly noteworthy is ABCTE's Passport to Teaching program, which encourages successful professionals from other fields to take up the calling they may be considering to become teachers."
ABCTE is a national non-profit organization dedicated to recruiting, certifying and supporting excellent teachers essential for achieving student success. ABCTE offers the state-approved Passport to Teaching program, an affordable and flexible route to teacher certification specifically designed to recruit talented career changers into the teaching profession. More than 500 Floridians are currently pursuing the program.
"ABCTE is proud to sponsor this important initiative," said Tony Colón, chairman of the ABCTE board of directors. "Now more than ever before, students need excellent role models and teachers who will inspire them to succeed and achieve. Across the county, America faces an achievement gap. Without excellent teachers who have a firm grasp of cultural competence in the classroom, we will never be able to ensure that all children—regardless of race or socioeconomic status—get the education they deserve."
"The reason ABCTE was created was to help solve the teacher recruitment gaps that persist in America," said ABCTE President & CEO David W. Saba. "ABCTE continues to invest significant resources in communities that are hardest hit by the teacher shortage. With advertising, events, and a comprehensive partnership and corporate scholarship program, we are confident that Teach & Inspire Florida will truly make a difference."
Eight St. Lucie County School Additions Built in 160 Days
Modtech Holdings, Inc. recently completed a $15 million school project for the School Board of St. Lucie County, Florida.
Specification work began in February 2006, the first order was received in early March, and in early April the first units rolled off the production line. By the end of July, Modtech's 120,000 square-foot facility in Plant City, Florida, had constructed eight complete school additions, including a total of 174 classrooms, in different configurations including cafeterias, laboratories, and teacher planning areas.
Key to the success of the project was the use of side-stackable classrooms, a new design concept being offered by Modtech. Also contributing to the relatively short time-to-completion were the ongoing communications and contact between the Modtech operations team and the entire St. Lucie County facilities staff. Project Manager Mike Durette was particularly helpful in assuring that all requirements of the schools' principals and School Board were satisfactorily met.
Broadband Added to Almost 200 Schools in Hillsborough County
Alvarion Ltd, is providing broadband to more than 200 locations, including all 197 schools, plus various administrative and other district offices in Hillsborough County, Tampa, Florida. Hillsborough County school district (HCSD) is one of the top ten largest public school districts in the U.S. Following their contract award by the HCSD to provide broadband Internet services, company partner Sago Networks designed the county-wide broadband wireless network using Alvarion’s BreezeACCESS® VL operating in 5.3 and 5.8 GHz. The network, which is currently live for over 90% of the schools, is scheduled to be completed by end of the year.
Using the same core technology as WiMAX, the VL offers advanced non-line-of-sight (NLOS) capabilities over an extended coverage area, while featuring rapid deployment and robust quality-of-service (QoS) algorithms to support data, voice and video services simultaneously. Sago Networks uses the VL to provide 10 Mbps to each of the 23 high schools and 6 Mbps to all other schools. Having previously used leased line services, the schools will initially use the network for data services, and later incorporate video and voice services.
“Being able to provide a higher capacity network at significantly less costs than wired systems is a terrific selling point for us,” commented Lee Kermode, general manager of Sago Networks. “Our relationship with Alvarion predates our joint involvement in the Hillsborough project, and given the robustness, capacity and performance of the VL, we look forward to strengthening our partnership going forward.”
BreezeACCESS VL’s advanced features such as NLOS operation, extended reach of more than 30 kilometers, high capacity, encryption, and quality of service (QoS) enable carriers, mobile operators, ISPs, enterprises and other service providers to offer triple play services to both business and residential subscribers. Operating in the 5 GHz bands, VL supports extreme flexibility in frequency planning with its 20 MHz channel spacing, automatic clear channel selection (ACCS) and built-in spectrum analyzer which monitors and avoids noise on any given channel.
Sarasota County School District Selects PLATO(R) Instructional Solutions for Performance-Based Diploma Program
PLATO Learning was awarded a $424,810 agreement with the Sarasota County Schools to provide standards-aligned instruction and assessments for their district-wide Performance-Based Diploma Program.
The Performance-Based Diploma Program is designed to provide academic options for students who have not seen success in the traditional lecture-driven classroom. All five high schools within Sarasota County Schools will offer the program, with 80-120 students participating at each site.
"Our students are technology natives and are comfortable working on computers. Some students thrive in this alternative learning environment, where they can work at their own pace and are motivated and engaged by the technology. PLATO Learning helps us accommodate these students' learning styles with instruction for a technology-based classroom environment. They also helped ensure the rigor of the curriculum by aligning their content to the Sarasota County curriculum standards and benchmarks," said Peggy Wiggins, director of academic intervention programs, Sarasota County School Board.
The Performance-Based Diploma Program includes instruction in core content areas, career and technology education, mental health support, and mentoring support. PLATO Learning will provide all resources for the instructional component, including PLATO(R) Middle and High School instructional software, offline materials, and PLATO(R) FCAT Exam Interventions. Certified teachers will facilitate the classes offered through the program.
"PLATO Learning was selected for this contract because it presented the most complete instructional solution," said Wiggins. "In comparison to other learning systems, PLATO Learning was able to provide the combination of rigorous curriculum, assessment, and instructional support the Sarasota County School Board required. In addition, Booker High School piloted PLATO Instructional Solutions during second semester last year and saw significant success. We are confident we can replicate that success at all our schools by moving to a district-wide implementation."
Magnet schools no panacea for bringing struggling schools up to par.
Magnet schools have a role to play in closing the achievement gap between lower-income students and those from more affluent households in our community.
They can do that, in theory, by attracting out-of-area white students to high minority-population schools and using federal grant money to buy equipment and technology to enrich the educational experience of all the schools' students.
But magnets—which offer specialty programs in areas such as art, science or language—aren't a magic bullet for reducing that stubborn gap.
Of the four magnet schools in the Brevard County district receiving federal funds, only McNair Middle School in Cocoa has so far successfully improved student achievement and drawn significant numbers of non-minority students…
To see the rest of this article, please go to: http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060928/OPINION/609280321/1004
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Democratic candidate for governor Jim Davis detailed a plan Wednesday to de-emphasize the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and change the way it is used to rank schools on a scale of A to F, a system he equates to a "political weapon."
"I don't want to get rid of the FCAT; I just don't think it's being used the right way. It's become the be-all, end-all," said Davis, who has criticized the test for months on the campaign trail.
Davis is attempting to seize on the public's generally negative view of the FCAT and draw a sharp contrast with his Republican opponent, Charlie Crist, who maintains faith in the current approach.
The Tampa congressman outlined the "Achieve Florida" proposal outside Miami Edison High School, which has received an F grade for five consecutive years. The state has required F schools to restructure, in some cases changing staff or curriculum…
To see the rest of this article, please go to: http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/28/State/Davis_presents_his_ed.shtml
Another article on this topic: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15623761.htm
Pinellas County Schools Will Likely Resegregate
Kindergarten classes at 10 Pinellas elementary schools would be predominantly black right now if not for rules requiring desegregation.
The same would be true for the sixth-grade classes at three middle schools and the ninth-grade classes at two high schools.
That scenario reflects the preferences of parents who participated in choice for this school year. Only students at the entry-level grades—kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades—had to go through the application process.
Though a limited sample, their preferences are further evidence that when race ratios are lifted at the end of this academic year, resegregation is likely to begin at many south Pinellas schools.
The School Board's attorney told the board this week that any efforts to extend the ratios or replace them with similar measures would almost certainly be successfully challenged in court.
Lakewood Elementary principal Kathleen Young said she would like her school, located in a predominantly African-American part of St. Petersburg, to maintain racial diversity. But she knows that's unlikely once the ratios are lifted.
"Eventually," Young said, "we could become an all-black school…
To see the rest of this article, please go to:
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/28/Tampabay/School_choice__close_.shtml
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Department of Education Awards More Than $5 Million in Innovation Grants to Florida Schools
Education Commissioner John L. Winn and K-12 Public Schools Chancellor Cheri Pierson Yecke, Ph.D., has announced their intent to award $5.65 million in innovation grants to 50 school districts, the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, Florida Virtual School and PK Young School. The grants were awarded based on partnerships developed between Florida schools that have successfully implemented career academies or other innovative programs and schools in other districts wishing to replicate these programs. Partnerships between 226 schools resulted in 113 grants awarded primarily to middle and high schools. The grant awards were the culmination of the Innovation Fair, part of the 2006 K-12 Conference in Orlando.
"Part of the vision for the A++ Plan for Education is to make secondary schools more engaging, and the partnerships forged at this conference hold great promise for the transfer of success from one school to another," said Commissioner Winn. "We are all teachers, learners and colleagues when it comes to helping our students achieve. This opportunity to share best practices and innovations will continue to put Florida on the map as a national leader in education."
More than 60 schools with successful career academies or innovative programs were featured at yesterday's fair and through conference break-out sessions. School administrators in attendance had the opportunity to gather information on the programs and establish partnerships with the schools highlighted in order to apply for the competitive innovation grants. Each selected partnership received a total grant of $50,000, with the majority — $40,000 — awarded to the school seeking to replicate and implement the successful program. The remaining $10,000 will be provided to the school with the existing program to assist with training and mentoring costs.
"This is all about schools lending other schools a helping hand," said Chancellor Yecke. "We have so many exemplary programs in Florida, and this matchmaking event offered schools an opportunity to learn more about what their colleagues are doing, pair up with another school, and work together to replicate their success."
More than 200 applications were received from schools and school districts in attendance at yesterday's Innovation Fair. Districts were asked to prioritize the applications they submitted. In the first round of judging, each applying district was awarded its top two choices. Priority was then given to failing schools, followed by districts that had never before received SUCCEED, Florida! grants.
The list of grant recipients can be found here: http://www.fldoe.org/news/2006/2006_10_05/InnovationFairMentees.pdf