As Florida lawmakers debate on whether to raise graduation requirements and replace some FCATs with end-of-course exams, some very interesting public opinions are popping up. For instance:
Rocky Hanna, principal of Leon High School in Tallahassee (and speaking, he said, for all that district’s high school principals), said his colleagues have “serious concerns.â€
They are worried the proposed requirements would hurt graduation rates and the ability of some teenagers to join the military after high school — because they wouldn’t have diplomas.
Expecting all students to pass algebra II or chemistry is just too much, Hanna said. “If I have to pass chemistry, I never would have graduated from high school,†he added.
Paul Cottle already tackled that one. “A great teacher is supposed to encourage his students to do better than he did, not use his shortcomings to justify those of his students.” He then makes a good point: “He demonstrated that the legislature must step in to demand excellence because the educational establishment will not do so on its own.”
So far, the bills in both the House and Senate are moving along, passing through committees with little problem.
In other science-related news:
Check out the robotics competition going on this weekend at UCF.
“Middle and High school students from nine Central Florida counties will face off Saturday in the 12th annual Orlando Science Center Science Challenge.” Official link here.
Students’ perceptions about the Earth’s age influence their acceptance of human evolution, according to a University of Minnesota study published in the March issue of the journal Evolution.
Rocky Hanna’s educational shortcomings don’t seem to be limited to chemistry. I wonder if they teach verb-noun agreement in Leon County?
Oops – what’s the name of the law that says criticizing someone’s English requires you to commit a fresh error of your own?
Hanna’s struggle is, of course, with tenses, not verb-noun agreement.