Florida School Boards Association
The U.S. Department of Education is on the verge of releasing the first draft of new guidance on the peer-review process for standards and tests, a document that could exert a powerful influence on how states set academic expectations. Little known outside the assessment world, the process is wonky and technical. But it is an…
Set a goal. Work hard. Then, take a short break to recharge. That’s the thinking behind the Pomodoro Technique, a time management method used by and deadline-driven professionals, including coders, developers and the organizers of the CodeNow camp we attended in Miami. The Pomodoro Technique was created by programmer and consultant Francesco Cirillo in the…
A few weeks ago, Valerie Fernandez didn’t know anything about computer programming. Now, the 17-year-old Pembroke Pines resident is coding an Internet game all by herself. Fernandez is one of 20 Broward County girls participating in a program called Girls Who Code, an effort to combat the lack of women in science, technology, engineering and…
“This idea is to learn a language you have to talk it…you have to engage in it.” That’s how Algebra Project founder Bob Moses described the principle underlying the program. Math is a language. And like any language, teachers need to help students translate the language into terms they understand. But like the students learning…
MIAMI — With more than 51,000 unaccompanied Central American children already here, and more expected to come, school officials ask the federal government for a helping hand. Border kids costs more to educate, about $1,900 per head. Teachers must be bilingual. The students will need health care and psychological services because many arrive sick and…
Home health aides, medical assistants and other workers with less than a four-year college degree account for nearly half of the health care workforce in Florida and across the country, a new Brookings Institute analysis reports. Credit Wikimedia Commons Between 2009 and 2011, a total of 3.8 million people in 10 different “pre-baccalaureate” fields worked…
The tens of thousands of immigrant children crossing the U.S. border — many from Central America — could mean less federal money for education, Clare McCann at the New America Foundation warns. Federal spending rules could mean every dollar increase for immigration services is a dollar cut from education. Miami-Dade schools expect a surge in…
The old-fashioned way may be the best way when it comes to teaching math. A new study finds struggling students learned more with much-maligned “drill and kill” techniques to teach basic math concepts. Some parents and critics have complained that Common Core standards encourage schools to put less emphasis on drill-based math instruction. To help…
While kids are (possibly) doing summer reading, some activists are working hard to flunk the Common Core. Four years ago, when 44 states had adopted the K-12 curriculum standards, the whole thing seemed quiet and inevitable. Today, resistance is everywhere: from teachers and parents who chafe over testing requirements to Tea Party types who see…
The state teachers union filed a legal challenge to a controversial education bill Wednesday, saying it violates the constitutional requirement that legislative proposals be limited to a single subject. The bill, SB 850, was signed into law last month. Among other things, it expands the state school voucher program and creates new scholarships for children…