Florida rule heralds more summer school

The Miami Herald from Tuesday, July 8th, has an intriguing story about a new law in Florida: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/596955.html.

The law, enacted two years back, requires middle school students in the Sunshine State to pass their core subjects before moving on to ninth grade, high school. That means that thousands and thousands of Florida middle schoolers who were previously "passed through" to high school will now be required to take summer school classes or in some other way raise their grades to an acceptable level.

It's clear that the trend towards tougher state standards is not going to rest at the high-school level. More and more, we're seeing states formalize their learning expectations in middle schools, too. That's a major reason why we've been developing targeted programs for that age group: http://www.walch.com/search.php?query=florida&per_page=

Professional development and Sunshine State standards

The Florida Council of Teachers of English's (http://www.fcte.org/) 2007 Institute for Professional Development took place on October 18th – 20th in Altamonte Springs, Florida. This year’s theme was “Teaching: The Heart of Learning.” While I’ve attended conferences as a teacher and as a workshop presenter, this event was a first for me. My role at the event was as an exhibitor. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect.

Ahead of time, I had spoken to the Program Chair, Jane Feber, an award-winning educator from Jacksonville. She told me that the conference’s goal is for teachers “to leave with a plethora of new ideas and new friends and return to their classrooms energized.” I was to expect to meet teachers, literacy coaches, department chairs, principals, curriculum directors, college professors, student teachers, and educational professionals interested in literacy.

Meet them, I did! The Grand Opening of Exhibits began Thursday night with a reception, allowing attendees to mill around the space to meet one another while chatting with folks like me. I had brought stacks of titles from Walch’s Daily Warm-Ups series, the new series of 16 Extraordinary Americans, our Media Literacy series, the Critical Literacy series, Daily Writing Fundamentals, and a few other titles. It’s always so fun to see educators react to these titles that we work so hard to produce. I was pretty proud to see one woman thumbing through one of the Daily Warm-Ups (http://www.walch.com/catalog.php?catid=22) when a complete stranger walked up to her and said, “OH, I loooooove those! I use them every day!” What a warm welcome for Walch titles!

For the next couple of days, I learned more about how Florida differentiates among teaching reading, teaching writing, and teaching English. I was well versed in the reading and writing benchmarks according to the Sunshine State Standards. What I didn’t know was there are distinct characteristics among who teaches each discipline. Reading teachers specifically address word analysis, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Writing teachers address prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and technology. English teachers, generally, focus on literature. Of course, all of these distinct roles integrate content and skills to some extent.

That said, this information made my conversations with each educator pretty specific. With writing teachers, I discussed Daily Writing Fundamentals (http://www.walch.com/product/2005). We’d talk about how students benefit from looking at samples of one another’s work and drilling down on specific tasks (just what this series happens to do).

With the Florida Supplemental Reading Adoption taking place this year and assessment results always under scrutiny (specifically the FCAT), those were two hot topics—particularly for reading teachers. Word had gotten out that Walch’s Florida Academic Support Program for English Language Arts (what we call the “ASP,” http://www.walch.com/product/2165) had just been unanimously recommended to the Florida Department of Education (http://www.fldoe.org/) for Supplemental Intervention Reading Program adoption. So, I was eager to showcase the materials and recommend how the ASP can help. Teachers and literacy coaches seemed particularly pleased with how the ASP not only can be used according to a scope and sequence but also how its targeted approach functions as a toolkit.

All in all, it was a terrific trip. I had the pleasure of talking to energetic educators about some of the classroom issues facing Floridians today and how product developers like me could lend a hand. But I have to admit that the highlight of the conference was meeting two literacy coaches who had been told to “look me up” by a friend I had in Manatee County schools. So, while the goal for the teachers was “to leave with a plethora of new ideas and new friends”— I managed to reach that goal too! (Susan Graham)

New education standards and funding questions in Florida

Our hats are off to the organizers of this week's annual meeting of the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics (FCTM, http://www.fctm.net/). They’ve used a "math rocks" theme to put together a well organized and well attended conference. You can pick up a great t-shirt with a chalkboard on the front for under $10, the food is super and the discussion is lively.

At the Walch Publishing booth, and elsewhere on the convention floor, we’ve been hearing two topics on everybody’s lips. First is the anticipated state budget cuts that are expected to have a negative affect on educational funds. This, in a state where the per-pupil spending level is already one of the lowest in the country. The Miami Herald covered the story of the budget cuts, and the School Board chairman of Broward County has weighed in with a reasoned reaction. (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/legislature/property_tax/story/267528.html
and
http://www.browardschools.com/pdf/consortiumwilliams.pdf

The second issue is testing. The current Sunshine State Standards are changing, but the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) isn’t scheduled to be revised for there years. Understandably, there's some confusion: will districts wait to implement the new standards, because the existing FCATs reflects the old ones?

While these appropriately weighty matters are being discussed, we took the opportunity to introduce show attendees to our "coming out" party for the Academic Support Program for Middle School Mathematics, developed with the School District for Palm Beach County. The reactions were resoundingly positive and it looks like we have a winner on our hands. We look forward to working closely in the future with Palm Beach and other districts to keep these products fresh and relevant, and, most importantly, effective. (Al Noyes)