{"id":1421,"date":"2011-09-20T06:31:40","date_gmt":"2011-09-20T10:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1421"},"modified":"2011-09-20T06:31:40","modified_gmt":"2011-09-20T10:31:40","slug":"give-an-inch-take-a-mile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1421","title":{"rendered":"Give an inch, take a mile"},"content":{"rendered":"

Class size limitations were relaxed by the Florida legislature and it’s taken a while to see what the real-world results would be. As many predicted, it’s not good. Not good at all. In Broward, some class sizes overflowing despite state caps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Anne Skurnick’s earth science class, sixth-graders conduct laboratory experiments on the floor because there isn’t enough space.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Just one month into the new school year, teachers in the Broward School District say their classrooms are overflowing. The reason: Lawmakers added flexibility to the state’s class-size law and Broward cut about 1,000 teachers to help balance its budget. Teachers say that means they have less one-on-one attention to give students, take longer to grade and return homework, and can’t cover as much material in class.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The most startling class size difference this year is perhaps in Advanced Placement and foreign language. Those courses were limited to 25 students per class last year, but now can have 30, 40 or even more students \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a scenario that upsets parents.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

At Pines Middle in Pembroke Pines, Skurnick’s biggest class is 29 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that’s seven students over the limit. As an earth science teacher, she does one lab experiment a week.<\/p>\n

But she has a regular classroom \u00e2\u20ac\u201d not a lab \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and little room to move around. To make space, she shoves the desks to either side of the room and has students sit on the floor.<\/p>\n

“It looks like sardines,” she said of her classroom.<\/p>\n

At Monarch High in Coconut Creek, Cunningham’s biggest geography class has 37 students. Another has 34. Because his classroom has 30 desks, Cunningham sat the extra students at a table.<\/p>\n

“It’s easy for them to get off task,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Class size limitations were relaxed by the Florida legislature and it’s taken a while to see what the real-world results would be. As many predicted, it’s not good. Not good at all. In Broward, some class sizes overflowing despite state … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-mV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":740,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=740","url_meta":{"origin":1421,"position":0},"title":"Evolution in school board elections: Broward","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It amazes me that one particular school subject -- evolution -- becomes an issue in school board elections. If you sit back and think about it, wouldn't it be silly to see the issue of comma placement as taught in English composition class attract candidate attention? Nonetheless, evolution is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election season '08"","block_context":{"text":"Election season '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=18"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2465,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2465","url_meta":{"origin":1421,"position":1},"title":"Keep an eye on Broward County","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Hemant Mehta posted at his Friendly Atheist blog something that sure is making me raise my eyebrows. The chair of the Broward County School Board, Dr. Rosalind Osgood, said this during a\u00c2\u00a0worship service at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale: God has really blessed me this school year that a lot of\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 27 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 27 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2465#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2272,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2272","url_meta":{"origin":1421,"position":2},"title":"Darwin Day Broward","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Darwin Day Broward is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on February 7 in Broward College's North Campus Library in Coconut Beach. There will be a variety of events including science displays, children's activities, vendors, food, door prizes, and a slate of exceptional speakers, featuring Brandon Haught, author of Going\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/darwin15tri_1-300x230.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1237,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1237","url_meta":{"origin":1421,"position":3},"title":"2nd Annual Carl Sagan Day","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"November 6, 2010, 2nd Annual Carl Sagan Day An all-day celebration featuring guest speakers James \"The Amazing\" Randi, Dr. Dawn (Elliott) Martin, Dr. Jeffrey Bennett, Jeff Wagg, Nicole Gugliucci, Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack, and including teacher workshops, science displays, children's activities, magic shows, planetarium programs, telescope workshops, star-gazing, food, prizes,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1131,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1131","url_meta":{"origin":1421,"position":4},"title":"Carl Sagan Day","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Carl Sagan Day: A Celebration of Astronomy WHEN: Saturday, November 7, 2009 noon - 10:00 pm WHERE: Broward College Central Campus 3501 SW Davie Rd., Davie 33314 SPONSORED BY: The Center for Inquiry Fort Lauderdale, FLASH, the James Randi Educational Foundation, and Broward College WHY: Carl Sagan was a Professor\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1131#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":976,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=976","url_meta":{"origin":1421,"position":5},"title":"And in other news …","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"News dump time. -- Should public school teachers have tenure? This story in the St. Petersburg Times points out how hard it is to fire a horrible teacher. What interests me about this story? Evolution, of course. When teachers earned workplace protections in the early 20th century, tenure was intended\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=976#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1422,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions\/1422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}