Even the most talented mathematics students are being discouraged from advancing in the field thanks to cultural attitudes in the United States, according to a report published today in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society.

The study examined participants in top mathematics competitions for students and found that the majority of the top young mathematicians in the country – especially female students – were born in other countries.

Many girls with extremely high aptitude for math exist, concluded Janet Mertz, a professor of oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the senior author of the study, but they're rarely identified because of the low respect American culture places on math, systemic flaws in the U.S. public school education system, and a lack of role models.

The report suggests that a full 80 percent of female and 60 percent of male faculty members hired in recent years by the top research university mathematics departments in the United States were born in other countries.

To view a news release about the report, click here.

Donna Winchester, higher education reporter

So what will it be, kids? Osprey, great egret, black skimmer, snowy egret or brown pelican?

While we adults decide who will become president, Florida's fourth- through eighth-graders will have the chance to vote on which of our feathered friends will replace the mockingbird as the state bird.

Teachers and parents can visit Vote4bird.org to get information about the candidates for the children to review leading up to the actual balloting, which will take place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 4.

The Florida DOE, which is sponsoring the initiative with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, calls the activity "a great way to introduce students to the importance of their involvement in our democracy." We just like that you can vote for a pelican rather than a politician.

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Trying to figure out which teachers are the best is no doubt tricky. But if FCAT scores are the lone measure, then one of former Gov. Jeb Bush's foundations has the answer.

Eight Tampa Bay area teachers are on the list, and they'll be among 86 statewide recognized by the Foundation for Excellence in Education on Oct. 24. Each will get $1,000, along with paid passage for two on the cruise of the teacher's choice from Royal Caribbean.

At the foundation's request, the Florida Department of Education grouped teachers according to which FCAT subject they taught – math and/or reading - and then analyzed their students' FCAT scores.

Now the caveats.

The analysis did not include teachers in grades K, 1, 2, 11 or 12, because the FCAT is not given in those grades. It did not include teachers in third grade, because fourth grade is the first year in which growth can be measured. And it did not include the FCATs in writing and science, because those tests are not given to consecutive grades.

The students were grouped into five categories – below grade level, high achieving, learning English, developmentally disabled and overall. And the winners are:

• Ginande Jester, Calvin A. Hunsinger School, Pinellas (among the top teachers for below grade level and disabled students, and students overall)
• Claudine Kwiatkowski, Perkins Elementary, Pinellas (for disabled students)
• Lee Gore, Highlands Lake Elementary, Pinellas (below grade level)
• Joyce Svabek, East Lake High, Pinellas (high achievers)
• Colleen Howard-Wahls, Northwest Elementary, Pinellas (disabled)
• Irene Canton, Armwood High, Hillsborough (below grade level)
• Kelly Rayburn, Plant High, Hillsborough (high achievers)
• Karen Ramlackhan, Clark Elementary, Hillsborough (disabled)

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

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That's what a new New York City charter school is offering, along with up to $25,000 a year in bonuses. But there are a few catches.

The school day will be longer. The school year will be longer. And the school will enroll at-risk middle schoolers, with those who have the lowest test scores given first dibs.

The average teacher in Florida made $46,922 last year, so this must be of interest, right? To read more about the school, click here. To read one teacher's take, click here. Here's a taste of what she had to say:

I believe the school's model, if successfully executed, could potentially spark the change needed in many of America's worst-performing schools. Although I currently work with special-needs children in Manhattan preschools, I remain seriously troubled by the low graduation rates, unhealthy working and learning environments, and the general disarray of the high schools at which I recently taught in the South Bronx. While there were, of course, several well-meaning teachers and administrators at these schools, it was clear that the city's model of recruiting inexperienced teachers and administrators to work at hard-to-staff schools in troubled neighborhoods wasn't working.

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

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Should the state re-implement a 10-cent tax on every alcoholic beverage to support education?
Yes, that's a simple way to support public education.
No, no new taxes.

You've seen it before. Schools get back their FCAT results and start having parties and passing out goodies to celebrate success.

It happens in Texas, too. But now that state's education commissioner is warning against such practices, saying the rewards could inadvertently lead to the disclosure of individual students' scores. And that's a no-no.

The problem, it turns out, is that most kids in Texas pass the TAKS exam. So when the schools do nice things for them, the children who are excluded are by process of elimination identified as students who failed.

"Principals aren't intentionally trying to violate the privacy rights of children, they have just not thought through what they're doing," Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe told the Dallas Morning News.

Motivation for some, it appears, is not motivation for all. Wonder how often that happens here in Florida. Eric J. Smith, are you looking at this issue, too?

Times photo

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THEY CAN'T AFFORD IT: The economic crisis is pinching Florida college students, many of whom are cutting back credit hours, seeking more financial aid and even applying for food stamps.

HANDLE IT: Pinellas schools are resegregating - quickly - even as the achievement gap grows. The broader community needs to deal with this issue before it becomes a bigger problem, the Times editorializes.

SRO FIRED: The resource officer at Pasco's River Ridge Middle is dismissed after telling a 13-year-old girl he was falling in love with her.

TEACH THEM TO SWIM: Rather than canceling swim lessons for kindergartners, Hernando should make the classes mandatory, the Times editorializes.

WHAT'S YOUR MAJOR? Some freshmen at Florida Gulf Coast University struggle to decide, the Naples Daily News reports.

SAVE IT IF YOU HAVE IT: Vero Beach High opens its own bank, in association with RBC Bank, to teach students the value of saving a buck or two, the Vero Beach Press-Journal reports.

CHECK THOSE ID'S: A state audit dings Manatee schools for not doing enough to screen campus visitors, the Herald-Tribune reports.

HERE COMES THE VOTE: Miami-Dade is scheduled to consider a contract for newly appointed superintendent Alberto Carvalho. It might not approve the deal, the Miami Herald reports.

GRADING THE TUTORS: Florida is preparing to issue letter grades for the tutoring firms hired under NCLB supplemental education services contracts, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

HELP US: Orange superintendent Ron Blocker calls upon the community to give the district budget balancing ideas, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

TALKS SUSPENDED: Leon postpones contract negotiations until after the state's November revenue estimating conference, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

FAILING AT MATH: A new study indicates that U.S. schools do not properly develop students' math skills, particularly those of children at the highest capability levels, the NY Times reports.

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Hugh LaFollette, left, Cole Chair in Ethics at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, has been selected as editor-in-chief of a new publication that, when completed, will be at least a nine-volume print and electronic ethics resource.

Entries in the International Encyclopedia of Ethics will discuss topics, movements, arguments and figures in normative ethics, Metaethics and practical ethics.

Authors from five continents and more than a dozen countries already have agreed to contribute. More than 150 authors have agreed to participate, although the list could grow to more than 700 authors representing more than 20 countries according to a news release issued by USF St. Petersburg.

LaFollette came to USF in 2004 from East Tennessee State University. He completed a Ph.D. in philosophy at Vanderbilt University in 1977.

Donna Winchester, higher education reporter

When high school seniors apply to college, they naturally want to have the highest grade-point average they can muster. That often means taking AP, honors and other courses that give extra points for each letter grade.

The Texas Higher Education commissioner says that high schools calculate GPAs in so many different ways, it has become confusing to colleges and universities. So he wants all Texas high schools to standardize their grading systems.

His proposal, the Dallas Morning News reports, includes eliminating extra credit for students who take pre-IB and pre-AP courses. He also wants to give credit, but no grade point, for vocational courses, as "they're mostly irrelevant to what universities do."

Students and school leaders across Texas are not amused.

"That really goes against rewarding students for challenging themselves, because if they're not going to see any advantage in the GPA calculation, many are going to opt for the less rigorous classes," Plano ISD superintendent Doug Otto told the Morning News.

So is this a good idea for Florida to follow, or a bad one for us to avoid? Let's hear it.

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Drill, baby, drill? How about learn, baby, learn?

It's hard to imagine a bigger global issue than energy consumption. To raise awareness, Progress Energy has chipped in $25,000 to the Science Center of Pinellas County to establish a room where elementary school students will learn about energy production, efficiency and alternatives.

Third-graders from Rawlings Elementary in Pinellas Park will be on hand for tomorrow's 10 a.m. grand opening.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Ah, Bright Futures. It's that wonderful scholarship that makes attending college in Florida so affordable that parents love it to the degree that it has become perhaps politically untouchable. Florida's third rail, if you will.

But there's that nasty little side effect, that the program artificially depresses tuition well below its actual cost. The upshot, of course, is that the universities don't have what they consider enough money to provide a quality education for all -- especially as state funding falls.

Some Alachua area lawmakers have begun talking about changes. They understand that altering Bright Futures will be a nearly impossible sell, but representing the University of Florida, they're giving it a shot, according to the Gainesville Sun.

"Bright Futures is a wonderful program, but I don't know how much longer we can afford to do that and still have a flagship university," Sen. Steve Oelrich (above left), chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, told the Sun.

He's suggesting that the scholarship be phased out over the next decade.

Rep. Larry Cretul of Ocala (above right), incoming House speaker pro tem, said that at the very least lawmakers might consider increasing eligibility requirements for the scholarship, which some have criticized as too easy to get. "This probably would be a good opportunity to look at how we can tweak it," he told the Sun.

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Now that hurricane season is nearly over, Floridians may have a new treat in store from Mother Nature: 3-inch-long hissing cockroaches.

Two University of Florida entomologists warned last month in an article in Florida Pest Pro magazine that a growing interest among reptile enthusiasts to farm cockroaches as lizard food could result in the introduction of several new varieties to the state.

Phil Koehler and Roberto Pereira, researchers with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Science, are concerned mainly with the Turkestan cockroach, which has migrated to the Southwest United States by hitching a ride on military personnel and equipment returning from the Middle East.

But other types, including the Madagascar hissing roach (shown), the lobster roach and the orange spotted roach, also could be gaining a foothold.

"We have 69 species of cockroaches in the United States, and 29 of them were brought in from other countries," said Koehler, left, in a news release. "And now we have these new species being shipped into the state."

Longtime reptile enthusiast James Tuttle, who runs a roach-supply company that ships insects all over the country, said pet owners are attracted to roaches in part because they’re cheaper than crickets, another popular lizard food. They’re also less noisy and don’t smell as bad, and they reproduce much faster.

"You can spend $50 (on roaches) and in six months, never have to buy food again," Tuttle said.

Donna Winchester, higher education reporter

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ON THE HOT SEAT: A group of Alafia Elementary parents wants to dump principal Ellyn Smith (left), saying she has created a hostile environment for teachers and parents at the A-rated school.

CLASS SIZE QUESTIONS: A committee of educators and parents grapples with the potential consequences of the class size amendment, with plans to make recommendations to Hillsborough superintendent MaryEllen Elia later this fall.

IT'S BOUNDARY TIME AGAIN: Hillsborough hires a consultant to help draw attendance zones for two new schools.

TOP OF THE CLASS: A room of barnacles and jellyfish (Denham Oaks Elementary); Special-needs kids get the opportunity to create (Cotee River Elementary); Bloomingdale High artist aspires to study architecture

RESEGREGATION: Schools around the nation, including in Pinellas County, are abandoning busing programs, effectively resegregating their students, the Wall Street Journal reports.

GO TO SCHOOL: Next week is Florida's official student count, which determines how much money districts receive, the Naples Daily News reports.

ABOUT THAT RAY-HAWK: Other Tampa Bay area school district officials say they wouldn't have suspended Zachary Sharples for his 'do (right), the Herald-Tribune reports.

SUPPORT FOR AMENDMENT 8: Florida's community colleges have given so many successful people their start. The community should back these schools with local financial support, El Nuevo Herald columnist Daniel Shoer Roth writes.

GAY GROUP CAN VISIT: Palm Beach Atlantic University, a private Christian school, reconsiders its ban of a gay student rights group from campus, the Palm Beach Post reports.

FACING CLOSURE: FAMU's developmental research school has yet to make AYP, prompting concerns it might not stay open, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

BEYOND SPANISH AND FRENCH: Duval considers approval of a Russian bilingual charter school, the Florida Times-Union reports.

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