Republican Bright Futures plan relies heavily on SAT scores

On Friday, Republicans in both houses of the Florida Legislature filed plans to modify the eligibility for Bright Futures scholarships by establishing a five-level system that relies heavily on SAT and ACT scores to decide the size of the Bright Futures award.  The bills also propose to reverse last year’s budget-driven decision to leave the amounts of individual awards constant and not cover tuition increases.  This latter provision could allow the explosive budget-busting growth in the Bright Futures program to resume.

The bills, filed by Senator Baker (SB 2642) and Representative Tobia (HB 1415), would establish five levels of Bright Futures scholarships.  A Level 1 award would provide tuition and fees for a community college.  Levels 2, 3, 4 and 5 would provide 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of the tuition and fees at a state university, respectively.  The awards for Levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 would require minimum SAT scores of 970, 1100, 1200, 1300 and 1400, respectively.  Completion of an IB or AICE diploma would automatically make a student eligible for a Level 4 award, regardless of the student’s SAT score.  No similar exemption from the SAT requirement is proposed for students with substantial numbers of Advanced Placement credits.  Recognition by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation or the National Hispanic Recognition Program would also automatically qualify a student for a Level 4 scholarship. 

While the 2009 Legislature excluded differential tuition (the 15% annual tuition increases that can be implemented at the discretion of each university) from Bright Futures awards, the Baker-Tobia bills would require the Bright Futures program to take differential tuition into account when calculating awards.  The exclusion of differential tuition was implemented last year to stop the explosive growth of the Bright Futures budget.  The Baker-Tobia differential tuition language would allow the explosive growth rate to resume, even though the definition of the new levels would probably reset the program at a lower initial funding point. 

The use of SAT and ACT scores in setting Bright Futures eligibility is problematic because of the racial and socioeconomic biases inherent in these exams.  The lack of an SAT/ACT exemption for students not attending an IB or AICE school – even if they accumulate large numbers of Advanced Placement credits – may prove to be an issue as well. 

The white paper assembled by 90 science faculty from colleges and universities throughout Florida proposed that high school students be incentivized to become STEM-ready via the implementation of a four-science course requirement for Bright Futures eligibility.  This was cited in the “Ideas in Action” essay “Preparing Florida’s Students to Close the Talent Gap for an Innovation Economy,” which was recently released by Florida TaxWatch.  The Baker-Tobia proposal does not have any component that encourages high school students to prepare for undergraduate programs in science and engineering.  The language in the “Ideas in Action” essay is:

Require four science courses, including at least one each in biology, chemistry, Earth/space science and physics, for Bright Futures eligibility. Our best and brightest students – our Bright Futures recipients – should all be prepared for leadership roles in our technological society. In addition, they should all have the basic tools required to pursue undergraduate programs in science and engineering so that they have the fewest possible obstacles to choosing a career in one of these areas. It should be noted that this proposal is budget-friendly – it will likely limit the growth of the Bright Futures program. A four science course requirement for Bright Futures eligibility is not onerous – our neighboring states of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi require four science courses for all of their high school graduates.

Florida Senate President Atwater: Require greater math and science skills from Florida’s students

From an op-ed by Senate President Jeff Atwater in the Tallahassee Democrat:

It can be a Florida child, working at one of our research institutions, who discovers the cure for Alzheimer’s or cancer. However, in order for this to happen, we must restore Florida’s competitive abilities by requiring students to know and apply greater mathematics and science skills.

Faculty union says 15% cut across the board for Florida higher education funding is possible

The faculty union at Florida State University (UFF-FSU) has distributed an e-mail to the university’s faculty saying that it expects “another round of draconian cuts.”  The union says that the “worst case scenario” is ”a 15% cut across the board for higher education” in the state.  The union also said that the consequences of such a cut at FSU (where it would amount to about $35 million), on top of the $82 million in cuts the university has already suffered over the last several years, would be “dire.”

Next Senate PreK-12 Committee meeting: a science festival, but no assessment/graduation bill

The next meeting of the Florida Senate PreK-12 Committee on Tuesday (March 2) will be a festival of science topics.  But the big discussion of assessment/graduation reform will not be addressed, according to the meeting notice posted yesterday.

After a discussion of the reappointments of Roberto Martinez and John Padget to the State Board of Education, the committee will move onto a presentation on “Agriscience Education.”  For a brief moment last year, a sentence was inserted into assessment/graduation legislation being considered then that “Agriscience Foundations 1″ should be considered a “high-level science course” for the purposes of satisfying the proposed graduation requirements.  Is another such attempt in the works?

Next on the agenda is a “Presentation on Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering (STEM) by the Kennedy Space Center.”

The final item is a “Presentation on Instructional Materials,” which may have something to do with the raid on FSU’s Florida Center for Research for STEM Education (FCR-STEM) being attempted by the University of Florida via legislation filed by Senator Thad Altman (SB 2304)  and Representative Debbie Mayfield (HB 1223) this week.  The Orlando Sentinel’s blogs School Zone and Central Florida Political Pulse had discussions of this earlier in the week. 

But there is still no visible sign of progress on a Senate version of the assessment/graduation legislation filed in the House earlier this month.

If you want to go to medical school, you should major in physics (or biomedical engineering)

The American Institute of Physics has issued a report showing that the average score of physics majors on the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) is second only to that of biomedical engineers.

The 2009 MCAT results, ranked by the sum of the scores on the physical sciences, biological sciences and verbal reasoning test sections, shows physics majors (with 11.1 on physical sciences, 10.3 on biological sciences and 9.6 on verbal reasoning for a total of 31.0) behind only biomedical engineering (10.9, 10.7, 9.6 for a total of 31.2).  A perfect score for each section is 15.

Electrical engineering and economics majors did nearly as well as physics majors.

The average scores for biology majors were far behind (8.7, 9.5, 8.7, for a total of 26.9).

Oh – did I mention that…

If you want to go to law school, you should major in physics

The American Institute of Physics has issued a report showing that physics majors have the highest average score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), the entrance examination for American law schools.

Among individuals who applied to law school in 2007-2008, physics majors had an average LSAT score of 161.5 (perfect is 180).  The nearest competition was mathematics at 159.7.  Economics majors averaged 157.4, and electrical and mechanical engineering majors averaged 156.  The majors usually associated with law school attendance, political science and criminal justice, averaged 153.0 and 145.5, respectively.  The average score on the LSAT in the 2007-2008 academic year was 152.6.

Next Senate PreK-12 Committee meeting: March 2

With the assessment/graduation bill from the House PreK-12 Policy Committee safely in the can (with it’s plan for end-of-course tests in all high school science subjects and a biology + chemistry/physics graduation requirement), we continue to wait for the Senate PreK-12 Committee to file its own bill. 

With John Thrasher being one of the members of the Senate committee, it’s possible that this weekend’s election of Thrasher as the new Republican Party State Chair delayed progress on the Senate assessment/graduation bill. 

The next meeting of the Senate PreK-12 Committee – and the next opportunity for a discussion on this issue - is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2.

Florida Advanced Placement pass rates subject by subject: English and calculus going pretty well; natural and social sciences not so well

The Orlando Sentinel’s education blog School Zone has published 2009 Florida pass rates (scoring 3 or above) on Advanced Placement exams for fourteen subjects.

When I look at the bar graph, I see reasonable pass rates in the English courses (English Language, English Literature) and the calculus courses (AB and BC).  On these exams, the Florida pass rate is within shouting distance of the national pass rate.

In the natural sciences, there are substantial gaps between the Florida pass rates and national pass rates.  In Biology, an Advanced Placement course that my own kids’ high school is pushing for freshmen (no, I’m not making this up), the Florida pass rate is 32%, compared to a national pass rate of 49%.  There are similar gaps in Environmental Science, Chemistry and Physics B (the algebra-based physics course) between the Florida and national pass rates.

AP aficionados will have noticed that I didn’t mention Physics C, the calculus-based physics course.  The Orlando Sentinel’s AP expert, Leslie Postal, passed these Florida numbers along:  Only 789 Florida students took the Physics C Mechanics test in 2009.  Of those, 443 passed.  Only 305 took the Physics C Electricity and Magnetism test, and 167 passed.  So the state’s colleges and universities need one less lecture course section in calculus-based electricity and magnetism this year than they would have without the Physics C test.

Social studies/sciences also appear to be weak.  There are yawning gaps between the Florida and national pass rates in US History, US Government and Politics, World History (another course pushed for freshmen at my kids’ high school) and Macroeconomics.

In short, the Florida AP English Language program is going OK, as is the calculus program; natural sciences and social studies/sciences, not so much.  The reader may have noticed that the subject areas in which Florida is having success are the same as those tested annually by the FCAT.  The natural sciences are seldom tested by the FCAT, and social studies/sciences not at all.

I will leave the interpretation of the causal relationships of this situation to the reader.

Florida TaxWatch issues “Ideas in Action” paper on high school science

Florida TaxWatch has published my paper on high school science policy as part of its “Ideas in Action” series.  The paper uses the business community’s call for the education of more scientists and engineers in the Florida Council of 100 report “Closing the Talent Gap” and links the universities’ success in this effort to improved science education in the state’s high schools.

The paper describes the recommendations made in the Gang of 90 white paper last summer, but goes on to discuss the importance of focusing on the recruiting and educating of teachers in chemistry, Earth/space science and physics because of perceived teacher shortages in those subjects and the salary disincentives to teaching present in those fields.

House assessment/graduation bill sails through PreK-12 Policy Committee vote

The House bill on assessment and graduation that includes “low-stakes” tests on chemistry, Earth/space science and physics as well as a requirement to pass a chemistry or physics course for graduation sailed through the House PreK-12 Policy Committee this morning after a vigorous debate on the merits of high-stakes tests (a designation the bill makes for Algebra 1, Geometry and Biology).  The final vote, 13-1, included yeas from all the Republican members and all the Democratic members but one. 

There is still no word on a corresponding bill in the Senate. 

For more details, see the blog posts from School Zone and Gradebook.