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 ...
To All Freepers,
Verga is a professional teacher with the godless government schools. The above is verga’s tag line.
I am certain, though, as a professional, that this hateful bias against those with religious beliefs and homeschoolers would **never** ( no, never!) bleed into the godless classroom setting. A professional government teacher would never do that. ( no, sarc tag.)
Oh, I see, so the solution is dump more kids into the sex, drug, and violence of today’s high schools - to protect them from the MENACE of their parents educating them.
Is that what she’s saying?
But...He assures us that he is a good teacher who is working to change ( the impossible) from “with in” ( sic).
Ping to 103
In states that have vouchers, tax credits, and charters working within the godless government schools, or running for the school board, did not achieve this goal. It was by working politically on the state level and in the courts that this happened. It is for this reason, that I am highly active in my local Tea Party. I hope you are as well.
Why do you think that the teachers unions fight vouchers, tax credits, and charters and, when passed, try valiantly to keep them very limited? Answer: Because once these limited programs are offered to parents, HUGE waiting lists form, and there is the TV drama of the long lines snaking around the block ( just to get on the waiting lists) and the tears, hugs, smiles, and sad faces on lottery day. Another reason is that those with children in these private alternatives, those who have lost the lottery, and those hoping for a private alternative are forming **powerful** lobbying groups.
I support vouchers, tax credits, and charters for two reasons but I am cautious about them for one.
Reasons I am for vouchers, tax credits, and charters:
1) They can help build the private sector that was either destroyed by the government cartel of price-fixed schools or never really had an opportunity to develop ( as in my county).
2) Once vouchers, tax credits, and charters are fully available, I predict that the government owned and run schools will utterly collapse.
Reasons for being against vouchers, tax credits, and charters:
Vouchers, tax credits, and charters are still socialized-entitlement schooling. When socialist money is involved government strings are attached. There is great danger that the privately owned and run voucher, tax credit, and charter schools will simply bow to government pressure and they will become de facto government schools.
Hopefully, government schooling will continue to be so horrific that it will just collapse on its own without having widespread vouchers, tax credits, and charters. In nearly every state of Union, if believing Christians, Jews, and conservatives removed their children, and elected representatives that would refuse to fund the government schools, the entire government system of godless, socialist, and First Amendment trashing schools could be shut down overnight.
There is evidence that government schools are bleeding students. Enrollment in my areas is declining and it is not related to declining numbers of children in the population.
Homeschooling is not a proper noun and should not be capitalized. If the words, public school or government school, are not capitalized, then homeschooling shouldn't be, either.
Also...It is usual to combine the words, home and school, when referring to homeschooling. One of the major reasons it is done this way is that it makes Internets searches easier. If one uses the words, “home and school”, one will get many hits that have absolutely nothing to do with those who educate their children in the home. The other is that the word, homeschooling, is now a commonly accepted English word ( verb, common noun, and adjective) that English speakers know to mean educating a child in the home rather than in an institution.
To teachers, parents are a necessary evil.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It is very predictable. When there are schooling threads, some government teacher inevitably blames the parents. It is very tiresome.
Yes Bobl 100% USDA approved male. Sounds more like a woman with that attitude. Anyone can claim to be anything. Didn’t see anything on her HIS home page either. That is correct Bob, all you saw on my home page is: verga hasn't created an about page.
The reason for that is I don't give out a lot of personal information, You can look me up on amazon.com and read some of my reviews, or look me up on Yahoo. You will also find several pictures of me on Instructables.com (Although none of them shows my face.) As far as attitude well that is a matter of opinion and we know what those are worth.
As it is, you represent a HUGE NUMBER DWINDLING NUMBER of parents, well into the millions, probably tens of millions. Either all of you are a bunch of LAZY BUMS (according to yours truly), or the system is rigged against you. Fixed it for you. BTW when you say "(according to yours truly)". You are referring to yourself. Now if you intend to say that I made that comment, then you need to show exactly where I said that, oh and don't forget that personal attacks are agaisnt the rules.
And please remeber that wintertime pinged you becasue she/ he can't win an debate alone.
No all you do is sit around a whine.
So you are saying that you are just the regular garden variety of Nazi?
Homeschooling is not a proper noun and should not be capitalized. If the words, public school or government school, are not capitalized, then homeschooling shouldn't be, either. It was done intentionally for emphasis, just as I intentionally separated the two words.
BTW, Nazi is a proper noun and should be capitalized.
Do you really think any one gives a damn?
I hope you didn’t injure your arm patting yourself on the back.
Verga, the polite thing to do, would be to say, “Thank you!”. Your tag line is an important part of the image you present to others. ( Please note my tag line.)
With forethought, I did not capitalize the word, nazi, because the capitalized version specifically refers to those who were members of Hitler’s party or who currently sympathize with this political philosophy . The common noun, nazi, is now in sufficiently common use, especially here on Free Republic, that it does not require capitalization. I will admit, though, that some may disagree with this.
I am certain though, since you are a professional teacher in the government schools, that when a student points out one of your errors, you would **always** sincerely thank the student. ( no sarc)
Verga might give a damn.
It is a tag line and not merely a casual mistake found within a post. It's like having lipstick smeared on your teeth. Normal people of goodwill appreciate having it pointed out to them and genuinely say, “Thanks so much! Where's the restroom?”
For example: Every single cult leader has believed in *homeschooling*, think about it.
When HTML is not available, I have commonly seen asterisks used when a person wants to emphasize a word or a point. Using all capital letters, of course, indicates shouting and a professional teacher would never do that.
Oh!...I forgot. How impolite of me! Thank you, again, for bringing this thread to the top of the latest posts list. When Freepers see this thread, perhaps they will, correctly, decide that it is best to remove their children from the communist dominated, godless, socialist-entitlement K-12 schools.
I spread ideas. Ideas are powerful. That the universe is in existence and that we have a place in it began with an idea in the mind of God.
Homeschooling is now, according to government reports, at 4% . It is likely higher than that because the government can not be trusted to accurately report on homeschooling. Nearly every state in the Union has vouchers, tax credits, and charters and the numbers are growing every year. Many cities and counties are reporting decreasing government school enrollment that can not be accounted for by a decreasing child population.
Verga, I am very hopeful.
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