Monthly Archives: March 2016

If you want to attract professionals of extraordinary skill to a particularly difficult and taxing task, you have to pay them enough to make it worth their while. Every businessperson knows this. So why has it taken so long for … Continue reading →

Right now, Florida’s most pressing educational issue is not school choice or teacher certification.  It is not the loony Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Program, nor foreign language education nor learning to program computers.  It is not even (and many … Continue reading →

The plot below shows the percentages of teachers rated highly effective in each district.  I cannot find any patterns in the data. The data are from the Florida Department of Education web site which – as always – provides the … Continue reading →

The first time I ever saw a resolution by a state legislature honoring a deceased person was at my mother’s funeral in January.  My mom helped manage many legislative campaigns in Connecticut, and one of the legislators she worked with … Continue reading →

A few slides from the talk I gave at the PhysTEC conference this past weekend:

Several years ago, an individual with a great deal more access to influential policy-makers than I have told me that we would never make progress in improving the preparation of high school students for bachelor’s degree-level STEM careers in Florida’s … Continue reading →

The Florida Senate today approved by a 38-1 vote a proposal to allow master’s degree holders in STEM fields to earn permanent teaching certifications without the coursework that teachers in other subjects (or STEM teachers without masters’ degrees) are required … Continue reading →

During the legislative session that is coming to an end, we’ve heard a great deal about how unfair it would be to require Florida’s school districts to offer computer programming courses like AP Computer Science.  Of the state’s 67 schools … Continue reading →

A few years ago, I had a conversation with a few high-ranking Florida education officials about the state’s poor track record in promoting high school physics.  The subject of physics teacher supply immediately came up, and both officials told me … Continue reading →