Monthly Archives: February 2010

Republican Bright Futures plan relies heavily on SAT scores

Posted on February 27, 2010 by Paul Cottle

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 … Continue reading →

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

Posted on February 27, 2010 by Paul Cottle

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, … Continue reading →

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

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Paul Cottle

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 … Continue reading →

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

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Paul Cottle

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 … Continue reading →

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

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Paul Cottle

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 … Continue reading →

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

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Paul Cottle

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 … Continue reading →

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Next Senate PreK-12 Committee meeting: March 2

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Paul Cottle

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 … Continue reading →

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

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Paul Cottle

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 … Continue reading →

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

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Paul Cottle

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 … Continue reading →

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

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Paul Cottle

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 … Continue reading →

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