Tagged: education

Just what led to some voting breakdowns in Miami-Dade is still up for debate - not enough resources, too many voters, too long a ballot, too many precincts in one place. About the only thing certain is it will be at least one more day before we know who can claim Florida. One man who is happy with the election results and is Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. Voters overwhelmingly approved the $1.2 billion dollar bond referendum to refurbish aging school buildings and also update and install new technology. 

Forget booths and absentee ballots.

College students would rather vote using their thumbs, according to a study conducted by telecommunications giant AT&T.

AT&T conducted the survey on one of the most politically galvanized campuses in the nation -- Lynn University in Boca Raton.  American politics have played a major role at Lynn since last fall, when the university was chosen to host the last Presidential debate of 2012.

Out of nearly 300 students surveyed, 58 percent say they would use smartphones to cast their ballot if "mobile voting" were available.

Gov. Rick Scott wants the State Board of Education to change its plan to set passing scores based on a student’s race. But he isn’t saying what the board should do to alter the plan.

Every child should be performing on grade level in subjects like math and reading, Scott says. “I mean, I learn differently than other people learn, but I do know that all children can learn,” Scott says, “and we should expect we should have high standards for everybody.”

Gov. Rick Scott is trying to appease educators.

They didn’t like it when he chopped $1.3 billion in education funding from the state budget.

They liked it even less when he called for an expansion of charter schools and other alternatives to traditional public schools.

So, while most people are focused on the November ballot, USF Political Scientist Seth McKee says Scott appears to be ramping up his 2014 reelection campaign by extending an olive branch to teachers.

Last week’s Twit­ter Edu­ca­tion Forum, hosted last week in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Tell Me More was a huge success. Not only did it pro­vide a plat­form for a dynamic and diverse con­ver­sa­tion about edu­ca­tion reform in the US (and one that we plan to con­tinue), but it also reached a whop­ping 17 mil­lion peo­ple–and count­ing. (That’s right. They’re stilll Tweet­ing. They just can’t stop!)

Seventeen-year-old Jimmy Braat has three passions in life: playing music, photography, and being a caregiver to his grandma.

"It's all I'm good at!" he laughs. He started taking care of his great grandmother at age 9.

"My mom was always at work so it was kind of my role I guess," Jimmy says," She passed away at 92 when I was 13. So now, I take care of my grandmother."

Jimmy is three years behind in school and now participates in an online school program called hospital homebound.

On this week's show: we focus on education and compare the policies of the presidential candidates.  

President Obama and Mitt Romney agree on issues such as paying teachers based on student performance.  The main difference between the two is on the question of vouchers.  

Mitt Romney is getting his nose rubbed today in one of the most durable memes of the 2012 campaign, his hapless dog Seamus strapped to the roof of the family van during a long vacation road trip.

Only it’s not the dog this time. It’s Big Bird. Memes aren't memes, you know, unless they adapt.

This week, NPR's Tell Me More and StateImpact Florida hosted an international Twitter conversation about education reform at the WLRN studios. South Florida social media maven Alex de Carvalho (@alexdc) was one of the thousands of people to participate to join that conversation. He organizes regular local web and technology gatherings and is a founding member of RefreshMiami.

This week, Tell Me More and StateImpact Florida hosted an international Twitter conversation about education reform at the WLRN studios. One of the thousands of people who participated in that conversation was Cindi Rigsbee. She's a teacher and author who blogs at cindirigsbee.com. She wrote this guest post after participating in the conversation on Wednesday.