Will Florida add virtual schooling as a graduation requirement?

It's far from a certainty, but Florida lawmakers are pondering the idea of having every high school student take at least one online course in order to graduate.

State Rep. Will Weatherford, chairman of the House Education Policy Council, told the Gradebook that the idea stems from the fact that Florida college students are taking nearly 30 percent of all their classes virtually.

"The point is to really help our students and prepare them," Weatherford said. "A lot of business -- a lot of life -- is online."

Maybe the best teachers should teach more kids

Here's a teacher-quality-related idea that might crash up against Florida's class-size amendment but could dovetail with its efforts to expand virtual schooling. The national consulting firm Public Impact says in this new report that instead of trying to boost the ranks of top teachers by doing more to recruit, train and retain, maybe districts should expand the reach of the top teachers they already have -- by giving them more students either directly or virtually.

Public Impact calls these teachers 3X teachers -- because research shows that teachers in the top 20 percent get three times the learning gains of teachers in the bottom 20 percent. The report says that efforts to boost their ranks are doomed to fall short, which is why a new approach is needed.

Despite these efforts -- and even if they grow far faster -- our nation still will not have an excellent teacher in every classroom. Why? Simply put, the magnitude of the gap is too enormous. For example, as an article in The Atlantic reported, Georgia has 440 high schools but only 88 certified physics teachers. And, if those 88 follow the typical distribution, only 15 or so are top-notch teachers. None of the strategies we are pursuing as a nation could realistically move Georgia from having 15 excellent physics teachers to having 440. Students in 425 schools in Georgia will have a sub-optimal learning experience in a subject that's vital to the economic prospects of our nation.

*

Florida joins iTunes U

Can't get enough instruction in school? Florida's Department of Education now is providing content for home, too.

And we're not talking about virtual school.

The DOE has joined forces with several school districts to launch Florida iTunes U, with a variety of lessons from classrooms across Florida available for free downloading. Teachers also can use the materials, which will be reviewed against state curriculum standards before being put on the site.

So far the content is limited. Courses include the Seminoles in Florida, pre-algebra and Spanish 3. But even that is beyond what most states have -- only a handful of K-12 education departments, including Tennessee and Utah, are on iTunes, too.

The offerings are expected to grow.

“We’re happy to offer districts and educators this efficient content sharing tool and can’t wait to see the innovative materials and lessons they are able to build to enhance the education of our students,” commissioner Eric J. Smith said in a news release.

*

Is virtual school a social wasteland?

The Wall Street Journal carries a piece today that explores the issue of social isolation in the growing field of virtual schooling.

Students may outperform their peers academically, the experts say.

"The disadvantage is that you may not learn to work with other people quite as well," said Elizabeth Birr Moje, an expert on online education at the University of Michigan.

Many virtual schools, including Florida Virtual, have looked for ways to deal with this issue, the WSJ notes. They offer clubs and camps that meet both online and in person, for instance. Some even schedule school dances.

This year, all Florida school districts began offering virtual programs in kindergarten through high school. Just wondering: What are your local virtual schools doing to make sure students make social, as well as academic, connections?

*

A weekend interview with Hope Schooler, Gulf Trace Elementary principal

Many schools aim to have one computer for every student. Pasco's Gulf Trace Elementary School is making it happen -- at least for two classrooms of fourth and fifth graders. Principal Hope Schooler talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about how she made that happen, and why.

How did this pilot project begin?

My tech specialist Rob Borsky and I were talking last year. We made sure that all of our teams have mobile labs. And we said it would be nice to have a class that really focused on technology, because that was the way of the world. We really need to look at our students as 21st century learners. And what could we do to do that?

So we began doing some brainstorming together and we said, why don't we see if we have the funds within house that we could purchase laptops that could be used in a classroom and really look at how we could set up something where that group of students really focused their learning on using the laptop, using the Internet, using different resources and becoming a little more paperless at the same time, because we are a green school, so that would be another issue we could address.

You said funds you have available in the school. Where did you find that? Because most schools are saying they have no funds.

We were fortunate in that we still some funds left to purchase things because we are a new school. We just started our third year. We had money left that we could use to purchase things that would help students. And we felt with the technology like it is in society today, we really needed to look at how we could help students. And that was one way we could.

How much did that end up costing?

A weekend interview with Belinda Pope, media specialist at Sand Pine Elementary

With the increasing use of technology in education, the importance of a school's media center continues to grow. The Florida Association for Media in Education has recognized the media center at Sand Pine Elementary in Wesley Chapel as one of 26 to meet its highest standards. Media specialist Belinda Pope spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the award and the changing role of what used to be called libraries in the school system.

What is a Florida Power Library, and why did you want to have one?

Last year was the inaugural year for that process, and it all came about because our district self-evaluation process that we have. Our school did real well on that, so the district personnel kind of challenged us to go for it. Because they knew it was coming up.

So it means you have the most excellent library ever?

Well, it is to see how well we are working with our teachers. The whole motivation behind it is to promote collaboration in our state instead of the old fashioned what you would think of a school librarian, who just sat and checked out books. We are full-time instructional employees K-12, teachers, and we really need to be collaborating with our classroom teachers to increase student achievement. It's been shown that excellently staffed and well stocked and well managed media centers, those students score higher on tests, they perform better on information literacy skills and are more adept at technology.

You asked me last night why it wasn't called a librarian any more. The old term librarian still exists for public libraries, but it's way more than books. I guess that's why. We do way more with technology now. In our school we have mobile labs that we can check out, of laptops, for every student. That's been a big boon to me, because I can check out the mobile lab, put every child on a laptop computer and give them a research lesson that is all hands-on. So they're not just watching me do it.

How did you get to this point? It doesn't sound like something you can achieve over a summer.

Are online texts the wave of the future?

California's education secretary thinks so. 

But he's facing some flak from educators, who have raised all sorts of concerns over why using the technology might not work. Teachers haven't approved the texts or been trained to use them, they say. Plus, what if low-income kids can't access them. And so on.

Still, the state is pressing forward. It announced the availability of 10 new high school math and science textbooks online, for free. And ed secretary Glen Thomas remains hopeful that their day will come, soon.

"This is a groundbreaking initiative," the L.A. Times reports Thomas telling a group. "We think that technology is one of the ways to reform and improve education."

Kindles all around?

(Image from Duke University)

*

Facebook group gets Pensacola teen booted from her school

Ask most middle schoolers, and they'll probably tell you they hate school.

In this day of social networking, they'll probably tell you on MySpace, or Facebook, or Twitter.

But that doesn't have to mean that their school will like it. Pensacola eighth-grader Marie Couto found that out the hard way.

A weekend interview with JoAnne Glenn, principal of Pasco eSchool

This fall all Florida school districts must launch their own K-12 online education programs. Most had not even begun to create their systems before the Legislature passed the mandate in the spring. JoAnne Glenn is principal of Pasco's eSchool, which debuts in August. She spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the effort of going from nothing to a full-fledged school during a single summer.

The first thing I wanted to ask you is about the basics of this school and where you see it going. Most people don't even know it exists.

Basically, we're in the process of hiring teachers. And in our first year our target for students is the students in Pasco County schools who have been quietly taking courses online from the Florida Virtual School ... as a part of their regular school day. We're also lucky enough to be able to serve students who are in home education settings, private schools and charter schools. We feel like that's a large enough population to sustain the demand for our courses yet small enough to let us grow and develop our policies and procedures to allow our program to continue.

What number are you looking at as a target?

Well, in the elementary program K-5 we're looking at probably 50 students this year. And about 30 of those students are reverting to us. They have been participating in a pilot program through our two vendors. ... The remaining group of students would be new students who are leaving the public school system and embracing this option for a full-time education program.

And they do it at home?

Jeb Bush: Transform Florida's schools using technology

He might not be Florida governor any more, but Jeb Bush certainly remains out there pushing his views on education for the state. This time, he's got a piece in the Miami Herald promoting increased use of technology to improve schools here and across the country.

"The Internet has the ability to overcome the primary obstacles to student achievement — access to quality educational content customized to meet the unique needs and interests of an individual student. Moreover, technology may be the only way to provide a high-quality education to each and every one of the nation's 50 million students."

Florida is well ahead of the curve, Bush writes. (Of course, we've heard the gripes of district leaders forced to craft local K-12 virtual programs over the summer.) But still, more work here and elsewhere remains to achieve the best results, he suggests.

"For technology to truly take hold in public school classrooms across the country, state and local leaders must address issues today that could prevent this revolution of our educational system in the future. School funding formulas must be modernized from seat-time to outcome-based models. Antiquated rules, such as certain certification requirements that effectively bar high-quality teachers from educating in virtual classrooms, must be revised. Most important, all students — public, charter, private and home school — must be eligible to access quality virtual content."

There's a little bit for everybody in there, isn't there? Change teacher certification rules. Focus funding on outcomes. Let everyone including private and home schoolers in on the action. All battles fought — and mostly lost — in recent Florida legislative sessions.

Still, everyone seems to like to gnaw on Jeb Bush's education outlook. So here it is. Enjoy. 

- Jeff Solochek