Monthly Archives: January 2020

Central Florida entrepreneur who wrote in the Orlando Sentinel about developing local talent for the region’s science and technology economy forgot about the pre-college part. Fortunately, the region’s K-12 and university educators are on it.

Posted on January 17, 2020 by Paul Cottle

In an op-ed in Friday’s Orlando Sentinel, Central Florida attorney and entrepreneur Larry Pino talked about developing local talent to build the local scientific and technological economy – a process he called “economic gardening”. But Pino made a classic error: … Continue reading →

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The Polk County educators I met this summer are gifted and passionate experts. My advice to their community and state policy-makers is to do whatever it takes to keep them happy.

Posted on January 14, 2020 by Paul Cottle

Florida’s teaching corps is much better than the state deserves. Yesterday’s rally for public schools that included teachers from around the state reminded me about how fortunate Florida has been to have many outstanding teachers help Florida’s children learn and … Continue reading →

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Florida trails the nation in the rates at which high school students take calculus, chemistry and physics

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Paul Cottle

The rates at which Florida public high school students took calculus, chemistry and physics classes during the Spring of 2019 were significantly lower than national rates published in the 2018 Digest of Educational Statistics, recently released by the National Center … Continue reading →

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A tribute to Florida’s high school physics teachers: Being skilled science educators isn’t enough. They must be charismatic salespeople, too.

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Paul Cottle

While Florida’s high school physics teachers are smart and tough, they also have to be great salespeople for their subject because in most of the state science and engineering is not in the cultural DNA. They deserve a tremendous tribute … Continue reading →

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A new study of the STEM gender gap by economists argues that harder grading policies in college STEM classes are partly to blame. But the paper is interesting, anyway.

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Paul Cottle

A new study of data on students and classes at the University of Kentucky conducted by researchers from the Naval Postgraduate School, Duke University, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the Federal Trade Commission argues that “harsher grading … Continue reading →

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