With scores down, Florida schools are paying more attention to math

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With scores down, Florida schools are paying more attention to math

Florida has a math problem. Fourth graders’ performance in the subject on the Nation’s Report Card has stagnated over the past decade. Eighth graders recently hit a 20-year low on the biannual test, ranking 41st among the states. Despite its importance, Florida lacks the infrastructure to bolster math in the classrooms, said Zandra de Araujo, mathematics director for the University of Florida’s Lastinger Center for Learning. While lawmakers have adopted laws requiring schools to use the “science of reading,” the state has no math counterpart. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

Florida House, Senate still split on university reforms

The Florida Senate is set to vote soon on potential university president search reforms, but the proposal lawmakers advanced Monday remains significantly different than what the state House already passed. In a final committee hearing, senators backed even more changes to their higher education package, leaving several policies for the Legislature to hash out in one of the most high-profile bills of session. More from Politico Florida and Florida Politics.

Florida faculty call for campus police to cut ICE ties

Faculty from across Florida’s public university system are raising alarms as students and staff face revoked visas and campus police sign up to assist in federal immigration enforcement. In a public letter, the Advisory Council of Faculty Senates, which includes faculty leaders from across Florida’s 12 public universities, asked state leaders to provide transparency and guidance to students and staff who’ve had their visas revoked. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

Why Florida lawmakers want to slash AP funding and why education groups say the math doesn’t add up

When a student passes AP (Advanced Placement), IB (International Baccalaureate), and AICE (Advanced International Certificate of Education) exams, or succeeds in career prep or Dual Enrollment classes, school districts get bonus funds meant to help cover the higher costs of the college prep courses. But the bonus money would be slashed in half under the current budgets proposed by the Florida House and Senate. [Source: Action News Jax]

A scholarship program for undocumented students will end at eight Florida universities

TheDream.Us, a scholarship program that has paid the tuition for non-citizen students who have lived in the United States since they were very young, called “Dreamers,” has announced they will terminate scholarships for the 600-plus students they serve at eight Florida universities. The decision to terminate the scholarships was primarily based on the fact that Florida revoked in-state tuition waivers for non-citizens. [Source: Miami Herald]

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