More on school security in Newtown aftermath. Miami Herald. South Florida Sun Sentinel. Orlando Sentinel. Florida Times Union. Florida Today. Pensacola News Journal. In Pinellas, rumors of coming violence prompt Superintendent Mike Grego to email principals, and in Hillsborough, bullets on buses, reports Tampa Bay Times here and here.
School district image. A review by an outside agency suggests the Palm Beach County school district needs to a better job communicating and marketing itself, according to the Palm Beach Post. (As far as I know, no response yet from either the district or the Post to this EAG report last week on questionable district spending.)
Van Zant
More school district image. The Clay County School Board approves the hiring of a second public relations officer – a family friend and supporter of new Superintendent Charlie Van Zant Jr., reports the Florida Times Union.
Superintendent search. In Polk. Lakeland Ledger.
STEM. It’ll take guts and resources for state education leaders to finally make science education a priority, writes FSU physics professor Paul Cottle in this op-ed for the Orlando Sentinel.
Charter teacher pay. Trustees for Lake Wales Charter Schools want better pay and benefits to retain teachers, reports the News Chief.
Can’t fire her. The Sarasota school district loses its third bid to fire a teacher found not guilty of abusing developmentally disabled students, reports the Sarasota Herald Tribune.
Teacher evals. Alachua County teachers raise their concerns at a forum with three lawmakers, reports the Gainesville Sun.
Editor's note: Due to technical difficulties with the blog, many redefinED readers were unable to read this post when it was originally published Friday. Thanks to those of you who notified us. Thanks to all for your patience.
It’s old news that many religious schools teach creationism and intelligent design – and that some of those schools accept students with vouchers and tax credit scholarships. But the recent New York Times piece on tax credit scholarships gave school choice critics fresh excuse to pick up and hurl. Teachers union president Randi Weingarten immediately tweeted, “Public money being funneled to creationist, anti-science religious schools.” A few days later, a left-of-center think tank in North Carolina, out to stop a legislative proposal for tax credit scholarships in that state, described the Times story as concluding that “redirected public money” is being used to “spread fundamentalist religious theology like creationism.”
I’m in the science tribe. The evolution-is-fact tribe. But I don’t share their outrage. During my own evolution on school choice, I’ve had to grapple with the fact that many private schools are at odds with what the vast majority of scientists consider good science.
I’ve come to this conclusion: Even if we disagree about creationism, we shouldn’t be so blinded that we forget all the other lessons these children receive in all the other classes they take, in all the years they attend school. We should not overlook whether these children are learning to read and write and succeed in life. I'm hoping that people who do value scientific literacy would be more likely to look at the issue with a sober analytical eye. I’m hoping they might even be willing to place scientific learning in a broader societal context, where many public school students are suffering in part because they lack the foundational learning skills that also handicap them in the arena of science.
The fact is, not many traditional public school students are doing well right now in science. It pains me to say this, because I had amazing biology, chemistry and physics teachers in my public high school. What I learned from them has benefited me personally and professionally. But the facts are informative. In 2009, 21 percent of high school seniors scored at proficient or above on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in science. Break those numbers down into subgroups, and depressing morphs into apocalyptic. Only 8 percent of low-income and Hispanic students reached that bar. Only 4 percent of black students did.
In Florida, the state I know best, only 27 percent of low-income students scored at grade level or above on the state’s high school science test in 2011. To be fair, that’s up from 19 percent in 2006 – and many talented people worked hard to move the needle even that much. But it’s nowhere near high enough or fast enough. (more…)
