Posted on 07/29/2012 2:05:32 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Looking to boost the quality of science education, Florida has just made it tougher for aspiring teachers to pass required certification exams.
But the move to ensure that would-be science teachers know their subjects well could worsen Florida's shortage of science teachers. That could leave middle and high schools scrambling even more to find instructors for biology, chemistry, Earth-space science, general science and physics classes.
.... The State Board of Education this month bumped up the scores needed to pass the teacher-certification exams in those five science fields. As a result, the passing rates for first-time exam takers are expected to drop sharply.
The passing rate for the biology-teacher certification exam, for example, is predicted to fall from 87 percent to 68 percent, the Florida Department of Education said. The rate for the middle-school general-science exam is projected to fall from 78 percent to 58 percent.
"Of course, we applaud anything that increases rigor," said Sherry Southerland, a science-education professor at Florida State University and co-director of FSU-Teach, a program that aims to train more math and science teachers.
But middle- and high-school science teachers are always on Florida's list of "critical teacher-shortage areas," meaning there aren't enough of them to fill all the open jobs.
Tougher certification exams "will only exacerbate the problem," Southerland said.....
....State test data make it clear Florida teacher-preparation programs train relatively few new science teachers. Last year, 611 people took the biology-certification exam, for example, compared with more than 1,600 who took the exam to teach middle- or high-school social-studies classes.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.orlandosentinel.com ...
Yeah, it takes a while to undo the damage.
Did you see the North Korean athlete that couldn’t wait to give her medal to her “Dear Leader”?
Cult.
It was my mother and father who taught me to read and taught me the basics of arithmetic. The **only** thing the institutional school did was sent home a curriculum for them to follow.
Parents “helping” their kids with homework.
It’s just homeschooling and too many people are too indoctrinated to see it.
Teachers call it “supporting” education. “Helping with homework” **is** the education. And...You are right. Parents are too indoctrinated to see it. I think the teachers are too indoctrinated to see it as well!
The **only** academically success children that I have known are those with parents who are doing tons of afterschooling or they are homeschooling. They are doing, or have done, **everything** our family did as homeschoolers.
What sets my teeth on edge is that we spend **BILLIONS** ( up to $30,000/year/ child) on government schooling and NO ONE has ever done the studies see if it works. Who knows? Maybe it is the afterschooling **IN THE HOME** that is the **real** education.
Yeah! I am shouting. I do that when on this specific topic. Gee! A billion here, a billion there and soon we're talking about real money!
As you both know, I’m a homeschool grad married to a home schooled, on my way to being a homeschool mom. Don’t let the naysayers ever make you doubt yourself. I appreciate my homeschooling more every day. My mother mentioned recently that she believes I’d have been labelled as Aspergers’ if I’d gone to government schools. I loved math and science and I disliked stupid social games. Those traits are an advantage to my adult life. As a kid they’d have gotten me labelled and medicated.
Homeschooling is the best option for 99% of kids, if the parents care to try.
Possibly labeled, but not medicated without parental consent. Yes, the schools can push, but they can't do anything more - as much as some of them would like to think so, teachers, admin, and school psychs are NOT medical doctors and cannot prescribe.
Do you have any studies supporting this? Do you have any studies showing that home school students earn more money, are more mentally/ emotionally stable, or perform better in college?
This is my personal anecdotal observation from having worked with the public for 30 years, spent many years teaching Sunday School, tutoring for our church, and the past 3 years as a cub scout leader. A Stanford University professor did e-mail me and told me that studies have *never* been done that evaluate the amount of learning acquired from "afterschooling". My bet is 99.99% of what a child learns is due to afterschooling and happens IN THE HOME!
Do you have any studies supporting this? Do you have any studies showing that home school students earn more money, are more mentally/ emotionally stable, or perform better in college?
Yes, these studies have been done regarding homeschoolers who are now adults. Adults who have been homeschooled are far more likely to vote, have higher levels of post high school education, are far less likely to be divorced, are more likely to be married and have children, are volunteers in the community at significantly higher rates, and they simply couldn't find any homeschoolers who were on welfare...zero!.
http://www.hslda.org/research/ray2003/Socialization.asp
By the way,...I find it appalling that we spend up to $30,000/ year/child for socialist-entitlement schooling and NO ONE knows if it is effective in the least. Without measuring the contribution of afterschooling NO ONE can say, one way or the other, if government school teach anything at all!!!!
but they can’t do anything more
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Government teachers and principals have many ways to punish and uncooperative parent and child.
And after the gov schools decide they can't handle parent/child anymore, then I get them. And my students are either medicated or not, it's the parent's choice. I just teach.
What in the name of the living God are you talking about?
Mercy child of God, we are homeschoolers.
This "study" you posted does not really hold much water.
First off it is eleven years old.
Second it was commissioned by by a home schooling organization and done by the president of another home schooling group. This is the equivalent of the DNC commissioning Debbie Wasserman Schultz to poll its members to see who would make a better candidate, Romney or Obama.
Third while the same size is a good representation it is skewed. They sampled 7000 students 5000 of which had been home schooled for 7 years or more. That means that Sixty six percent of the sample were home schooled.
These two sites say that the percent of students being home schooled is somewhere between 3-4%.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-02-14/home-schools-secular/53095020/1
http://equipeducation.org/Downloads/HomeschoolPopulationReport2010.pdf
The second site says that there are a number of people that they were not able to get information on and estimates that the actual number is higher. even if you say it is double (8%) the sample is still skewed.
Finally I asked for STUDIES plural.
One would think that you would have dozens at your finger tips.
Two comments on studies: Effectiveness of government schooling and homeschooling
1) Where are the studies that **prove** government schools teach anything? Honestly, this is a serious question.
It is my anecdotal observation that academically successful institutionalized children are doing **everything** that successful homeschoolers are doing. And....These successful institutionalized children are spending about the same amount of time doing homework as homeschoolers spend in formal study.
So?....Where are the studies that separate out what is learned due to the afterschooling and homework done by the parents, child, and paid and unpaid tutors as compared to that knowledge acquired in the classroom?
I have posted this question many times on Free Republic and other sites, and personally e-mailed education professors in leading universities. Answer: These studies have **never** been done.
Conclusion: Taxpayers spend up to $30,000/year/child and NO ONE KNOWS if government schools are effective. They may even be retarding educational progress. Unbelievable!
2) As for homeschooling studies, then we should ask government teachers or college level professors of education. It is **THEIR** profession. If they were truly curious people and sincerely interested in the education of children, they would have thoroughly studied the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of homeschooling by now.
If you are a teacher, there should be **dozens** of studies at** your** finger tips. Where are they?
Sir, I realize it is a serious question, and I also realize that the burden of proof is on you, since you made the claim that Home schooling is better, and tried to use shoddy documentation to prove it. The ball is in your court I am just asking questions, that you seem unable to answer.
As for homeschooling studies, then we should ask government teachers or college level professors of education. It is **THEIR** profession.
Sir this makes as much sense as asking a home schooling group to study home schoolers.
Why not ask an independent group such as "The Heritage foundation."
Also I don't think that research is the profession of educators, I believe their profession is education.
The profession of researchers is research, while some may work at or for universities their main work is research.
If you are a teacher, there should be **dozens** of studies at** your** finger tips.
Sir I spent well over 20 years in the military after/ while earning my engineering degree through ROTC. While in the military I was responsible for training young men and women and over seeing training exercises.
Where are they?
That is the question that you need to answer sir.
No teacher, no “educator”, NEA union member, or college professor of education has ever, even once, posted even ONE link to any study that separates what is learned in the classroom from hard work done IN THE HOME by the parents, the child doing homework and projects, and paid and unpaid tutors. A Stanford University professor of education e-mailed me and told me these studies have NEVER been done!
Honestly....up to THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS /year/kid on an unproven and untested program of government schooling? Does this make any sense to you as an engineer?
As for homeschooling:
It is a grassroots movement that has now grown to be 4% of the school-aged population. It is composed of moms and pops meeting in their local church basements, and you seriously expect scientifically rigorous studies to be organized and funded from this group of people? Really?
The truth is that if “professional” teachers, the NEA, and professors of education ( all of whom have bottomless pits of taxpayer dollars) were curious people they would have, long ago, fully studied homeschooling, adults who have been homeschooled, and homeschooling methods. They don't because on literally pennies a day ordinary moms and pops are putting to shame what is euphemistically called “education” in the socialist-entitlement government indoctrination camps.
Finally...It is my guess that if every government school were permanently closed tomorrow, the same kids getting and education today would get one tomorrow. The same kids not getting and education would not get one tomorrow. Why? Because the real educators are and the real education happens IN THE HOME and has been since the dawn of humanity.
Course_Framework is simple lightweight software designed to be an easy place to hang instructional content. Content can be images, video, text and tests. The software enables the teacher to quickly and easily assemble a web page with a video lecture of any length accompanied by a test which may be rich with images in both the questions and the answers. Test questions can be either multiple choice or essay type answers. Multiple selections are supported and the multiple choice parts of tests are scored automatically. Scoring essay questions is well beyond the scope of this program.
Student test results are shown both graphically, to enable the teacher to see the results for all the students at once, and as individual tests by pressing the button by the graph with the student's name on it. The student's actual test persists in the software until explicitly destroyed. A selection of filters are provided to enable the teacher to easily navigate the sea of data.
Courses are divided into multiple sections. There is no practical limit to the number of sections. Each section starts with a video which you create or provide. This video must be available on a web server. The easiest way to do this is to upload the video to YouTube.com. If you don't have a video for the material, images or text can be provided instead.
Each section has an associated test. A test may have as many questions on it as you care to type (or your students will tolerate). Questions can be multiple choice with up to 8 answers (there have to be limits somewhere) and multiple correct answers are supported. Correct answers are selected while making up the question and are stored with the question itself. Images and HTML (except for forms and inputs) can be part or all of the question's text and answers. Essay answers are supported but not scored. Questions can be formulated as fast as you can type and find the appropriate images.
Precisely.
Yet without a 'teaching certificate', in this state and probably most others, a scientist cannot be compensated for teaching so much as a middle school Earth Science class.
**IF** government teachers, principals, superintendents, and college professors were **really** genuinely interested in educating children ( as they continually claim to be) and finding the best and most effective ways to teach the children they say they love soooooo much, they would be all over homeschooling “like flies on s***t!”
They aren't!
In fact, they aren't even interested in finding out if their own government schools are the reason kids learn or if it is due to the “afterschooling” and “preschooling” done by the parents, the child by doing homework and projects, or paid or unpaid tutoring.
Here is an anecdotal example:
Three of my children were homeschooled. All were accepted into college by the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All finished all college general courses and Calculus III by the age of 15 and two finished B.S. degrees in mathematics by the age 18. One earned a masters in math by the age of 20. All are, now, highly successful and responsible citizens, spouses, parents.
These children were featured in our local paper several times. The two who earned degrees in math were the subject of a full page article in the university paper. While the math professors were keenly interested in their success and the process to achieve this level of success, NEVER ( not once) has any teacher, principal, superintendent, teacher here on Free Republic, or professor of education ever contacted me, my children, or our family to learn about our methods.
NOT very curious people, are “educators”, at least as it applies to the very well publicized success of my homeschooling children. And....Since no one is able provide links to studies done by “professional” educators of homeschoolers in general it appears they aren't curious about other homeschoolers either and their so called concern about educating children or even loving them is a lie.
I ran into a similar problem when I checked into a teaching job after the oil boom of the late 70s crashed.
Despite being a geologist who has not only taught when I was an undergrad and a grad student, and having years in my field in industry, without the 22 semester hours required to get a teaching certificate (actually more in my case because I took Archaeology courses as an undergrad instead of 101 Sociology and Psychology), they could not hire me to teach Middle School Earth Science.
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