Monthly Archives: February 2016

Yesterday, the College Board released a report that congratulated Florida for the reach and equity of its Advanced Placement program.  Fanfare ensued (see article from redefinedonline.org). But in my view, the state has little to celebrate when it comes to … Continue reading →

Update (Thursday afternoon):  The House passed HB 189 by a 100-11 vote. Florida’s House and Senate seem poised to approve a proposal in which teachers in STEM subjects who hold masters’ degrees in their subjects and who have been rated … Continue reading →

Florida State Board of Education Vice Chair John Padget is the mastermind behind Monroe Compute$, which is jacking up achievement in computer literacy and programming education at the K-12 and community college levels in Monroe County (the Florida Keys).  How? … Continue reading →

The two chambers of the Florida Legislature are taking fundamentally different directions on computer programming education in the state’s public K-12 schools.  The Senate bill (SB 468) famously proposes to deemphasize foreign language education to make room for computer programming … Continue reading →

One of the traditions in Florida STEM education circles is to say, “Well, at least we’re better than Mississippi”. We recently obtained high school physics enrollment data for public high schools in Mississippi.  While Mississippi has one of the nation’s … Continue reading →

A few statistics to follow up on Saturday’s Tallahassee Democrat op-ed on the broader discussion we should have about educational priorities in Florida’s K-12 schools. Enrollment in Advanced Placement courses in Florida district high schools, Fall 2015: Psychology:  32,972 Computer Science:  2,095 … Continue reading →

My op-ed on this – in which I point out that while there are 2,100 students taking AP Computer Science A this year in Florida’s district high schools there are 33,000 taking AP Psychology – is in Saturday’s Tallahassee Democrat.

At the halfway mark, it appears that this year’s Florida Legislature will not do anything to improve math and science education in the state. There were at least a few small opportunities for progress, but hopes for even those small … Continue reading →

The Education Subcommittee of the Senate’s Appropriations Committee reported favorably on a proposal to provide a some student loan forgiveness for teachers in STEM subjects, but not before further watering down the already-modest original proposal. As originally written, SB 290 … Continue reading →