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Florida Education News
November 2008
Copyright © 2008 Queue, Inc.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Demography Defeated: Florida's K-12
Reforms and Their Lessons for the Nation
GED
Testing Sees Its Highest Test-Taker Increase in Seven Years, New Report Finds
Technology
Services and Solutions for 160 Duval County Public Schools Reaching 125,000
Students
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Jeb
Bush campaigned for governor on a clear and bracing set of education reforms in
1998. Having won office, he immediately pursued a dual-track strategy of
education reform: standards and accountability for public schools, and choice
options for dissatisfied parents. Florida lawmakers followed these reforms with
additional measures, including instruction-based reforms; the curtailing of
Òsocial promotion,Ó which advances students to higher grades regardless of
academic achievement; merit pay for teachers; and additional choice measures.
This
study examines the 10-year impact of these reforms and finds remarkable
improvement in FloridaÕs test scores. Between 1992 and 1998, FloridaÕs
already-low fourth-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
reading scores were declining. In 1999, when these reforms were enacted, nearly
half of Florida fourth-graders scored Òbelow basicÓ on the NAEP reading test,
meaning that they could not read at a basic level. But by 2007, less than a
decade after the education reforms took effect, 70 percent of FloridaÕs
fourth-graders scored basic or above. FloridaÕs Hispanic students now have the
second-highest statewide reading scores in the nation, and African-Americans
score fourth-highest when compared with their peers.
In
fact, the average Florida Hispanic studentÕs score is higher than the overall
average score for all students in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas,
California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma,
Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Florida Hispanic students
eligible for a free or reduced- price lunch under federal poverty guidelines
also outscore the statewide averages of some of these states, including
Arizona. FloridaÕs African-American students outscored two statewide averages
for all students in 2007 and were within striking distance of several more.
FloridaÕs success proves that demography is not destiny in K-12 education, with
the right set of reform.
Complete
report:
http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/Common/Img/Demography%20Defeated.pdf
The
number of adults who took the GED Tests in 2007 rose to nearly 729,000, and
almost a half million adults passed the test battery during the same period.
According to the 2007 GED¨ Testing Program Statistical Report, this is the highest
annual number of adults who have tested and the highest number who passed the
test battery since 2001. Just over 714,000 adults tested in 2006, for an
increase of almost 15,000.
U.S.
programs that significantly increased the amount of adult testers in 2007 were
Indiana, Mississippi, Connecticut, Nevada and Florida. Each state reported at
least a 10 percent increase. Additionally, 10 states reported an above-average
passing rate of 85 percent or higher in 2007: Iowa, Delaware, Kansas, Vermont,
Wyoming, Alaska, Idaho, Maine, North Carolina and Oregon. Administrators in
these states credit flexible program schedules and test preparation materials
such as free practice tests, one-on-one preparation and the Official GED
Practice Test (OPT) as the essential tools for facilitating higher pass rates.
The
2000 U.S. Census data indicates that more than 30 million adultsÑmore than 16
percentÑof the U.S. population are without a high school credential. A
separate report produced by Education Week estimated that more than 1 million
students would fail to graduate high school in the 2006-07 school year.
The
2007 GED¨ Testing Program Statistical Report is available as a
complimentary PDF download at
http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=GEDTS&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=28583
Duval County Public Schools (DCPS), the 19th-largest school
district in the U.S. based in Jacksonville, Florida, selected Emtec, Inc. to
supply and implement a new technology infrastructure for more than 160 schools
(105 elementary, 26 middle, 19 high, and 11 other centers and charter schools)
and approximately 125,000 students. This contract is a one-year contract with
four subsequent one-year renewals should Duval wish to extend at the end of
each year for a total of five years. The school district is working on an
initiative called ÒDCPS Schools of the FutureÓ, which is intended to maximize
student achievement and student engagement through the use of technology.