{"id":4,"date":"2006-08-19T09:40:46","date_gmt":"2006-08-19T16:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=4"},"modified":"2008-08-05T10:20:20","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T14:20:20","slug":"this-year-it-counts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=4","title":{"rendered":"This year, it counts"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year, it counts.<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida students have taken state science exams for the past few years, but those were trial runs.<\/p>\n

This March, the science portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests will be factored into the grade schools receive from the state. Those A-F grades mean cash bonuses for high performing schools and warnings for the low-performing ones….<\/p>\n

“We have an enormous task,” said Nancy Durham, principal of Edgewood Academy, an elementary school in Fort Myers. “Up until this time science has not been stressed. You have to really build your science program from kindergarten until fifth grade.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

It’s the first time in at least a decade that the district has had a systemwide science program, said Rick Tully, the K-12 science coordinator. In the past, schools had to teach state-mandated topics but teachers and principals could decide when they wanted to cover the lessons \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a problem in a district that sees lots of students changing schools during the year.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“The kids need the science,” said Bill Hamstra, a fifth-grade teacher at Edgewood. “They don’t have a good background in science and an understanding of how things work.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year, it counts. Florida students have taken state science exams for the past few years, but those were trial runs. This March, the science portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests will be factored into the grade schools receive … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1250,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1250","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":0},"title":"The Nation’s Report Card on Science in Florida","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Center for Education Statistics today issued it \"Report Card\" on science education in the U.S., and broke their results down by participating states. The report indicates that Florida is not special at all when it comes to science. We're buried deep in the middle of the pack. Here's\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=137","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":1},"title":"Science on the FCAT; More Fs?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Changes to this year's FCATs, including the importance of the science tests, are prompting dire school grade predictions. There could be a record number of failing schools in Duval County and around Florida this year unless local school districts find a way to improve student achievement in two categories being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":237,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=237","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":2},"title":"FCAT science scores cause more failing schools","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an opinion piece that really brings home just how bad Florida students did on science FCATS. The number of failing schools in the state quadrupled, from 21 in 2006 to 81 when those abysmal scores came out Friday. [...] Broward County, which had no F schools last year, suddenly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":605,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=605","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":3},"title":"2008 science FCAT scores","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s science FCAT scores were released today. For those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, the FCAT is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test given annually to all Florida public school children in grades 3 through 11. The FCAT is supposed to measure what students have learned about reading, writing, mathematics and science. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FCAT"","block_context":{"text":"FCAT","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1201,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1201","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":4},"title":"2010 Science FCAT and beyond","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The annual Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results are finally released. These are exams that students across the state in specific grade levels must take in core subjects. These scores can influence students\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 promotion to the next grade, and dictate what the student can or cannot take the next school year,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1201#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3506,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3506","url_meta":{"origin":4,"position":5},"title":"Florida Evolution vs. Creationism Timeline","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The need to defend science education in Florida is truly never ending. I chronicled the many skirmishes, battles and wars fought over the teaching of evolution in my book Going Ape: Florida's Battles over Evolution in the Classroom. The Florida anti-evolution efforts I wrote about started in the 1920s and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4"}],"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=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}