ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL, FOX 35) – On the agenda at the Orange County school board meeting today will be strategies to meet the new class size amendment such as dual enrollment, virtual classrooms and even seven period days.

As you may remember smaller class sizes was voted in– in 2002 and this year is the deadline to meet the guideline, but some school districts are fighting back.

What are the new rules of the class size amendment?

For the rest of the article, go to School boards scramble to meet class sizes

Schools and state governments have begun to take notice of the potential savings that virtual education can provide, with Florida, Arizona, and Alabama even establishing state-sponsored virtual school programs that offer courses to thousands of students a year.

The Florida Virtual School runs all year long, does not have a specific academic calendar, and has a staff of 1,000 full-time teachers that is on call seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., a significant shift for teachers used to working during typical schools hours from September to June. The school plans to enroll close to 240,000 students from 45 states and 30 countries this year, most of whom will only take a course or two with the school.

“We’re growing every year by 30 to 40%,” says Andy Ross, who is the chief sales and marketing officer at the Florida Virtual School. Ross claims that Florida Virtual School has saved Florida $22 million last year by offering its virtual courses to students.

For the rest of the article, go to Summer school goes online

The Miami-Dade school district intends to fully comply with the constitutional amendment limiting class size, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the School Board this week.

To trim class sizes, the school system will:

• Expand virtual classes offered at high schools.

• Require academic coaches who typically instruct teachers to also teach students.

• Provide financial incentives for teachers to teach additional classes.

• Move some central office administrators into classrooms.

“This is our best shot to get there,” Carvalho said.

The plan does not require any teacher layoffs, Carvalho said.

Florida voters passed the Class Size Amendment in 2002 — an action meant to ensure that core classes would be limited to 18 students in grades pre-K through third, 22 in fourth through eighth grades and 25 students in high school.

For the rest of the article, go to Miami-Dade schools chief: We’ll meet class size limits

In a virtual classroom, class sizes don’t matter.

Eau Gallie High is taking advantage of that by offering a unique pilot program this fall. It will offer one core class — a foreign language class — through Florida Virtual School.

That means the 35 students sitting in Eau Gallie’s computer lab practicing their language skills will technically be enrolled at the virtual school so Eau Gallie won’t have to comply with class size rules for that period. If they did, the school would have to limit the class to 25 students.

Eau Gallie will just assign the students to the class as they do with any other class.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual classrooms give schools online options

More than 150 rural education and technology experts responded to an invitation from the Obama Administration to participate in a National Rural Education Technology Summit on Wednesday, July 21 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian to learn from one another and provide feedback to federal officials.

A student from a remote rural school in Florida described how virtual learning helped her overcome learning challenges and provided additional opportunities to complement her traditional school. Senior Obama Administration officials engaged the audience in conversations about using the latest technology innovations to provide educational opportunities at any time, any location, and in different ways.

Discussions included the National Education Technology Plan, reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act., STEM, and the “future of learning” – a panel with Julie Young, President & CEO of Florida Virtual School; Rob Lippincott, Senior Vice President of Education at PBS; and Ramona Pierson, Founder & Chief Science Officer for SynapticMash, a Seattle-based education technology start-up. These industry experts described opportunities to use technology to engage students with targeted and appropriate interventions based on better use of data and digital content, including simulations, video, interactive environments, and embedded assessments.

For the rest of the article, go to Department of Education Hosts National Rural Education Technology Summit

Other ways the district will meet class-size include paying middle and high school teachers to take on an extra period, expanding the I-Flagler virtual school program to accommodate more secondary students, and creating multi-grade classrooms, Valentine said.

Valentine’s initial plan to employ associate teachers rankled members of the district’s teacher’s union because it would cause a revision of the salary scale.

Still, the union wanted to team up with district officials to find a solution that was favorable to both sides, said union member Pam Vatten.

“We’re really trying to work together to solve this problem,” she said.

The hire of substitute teachers is ideal, especially because “the cost savings is dramatic,” she said.

Districts have until October to meet the class-size rule or risk losing state money.

For the rest of the article, go to Flagler schools look to subs

“We’re looking at all possibilities, including building a K-8 school that would allow us to close a middle or elementary school,” said School Board Chairwoman Jane Pfeilsticker. “If we choose to do any of this, it will take a year to implement.”

There are many reasons for the empty seats, district officials say.

The struggling economy and housing market played a large role. New charter schools, the increasing popularity of home schooling and the Florida virtual school program, that allows students to take online classes outside of a regular school, have lowered the number of students in traditional schools, said Danny Lundeen, the district’s supervisor of student demographics and projections.

There are currently 3,755 empty seats in elementary schools, 1,941 in middle schools, and 1,287 in high schools, Lundeen said.

For the rest of the article, go to Manatee School District Looks at Closing, Consolidating Schools

Another solution to the class-size restriction under consideration in Okaloosa County is to have more secondary students enrolled in virtual enrollment programs.

Tibbetts said it wasn’t clear yet how students would be selected for taking their courses online, but it could be students who are strong in reading and working independently, or students who simply enroll in the courses after classes have already met their limit.

Even with all the steps schools are taking now to try to lessen the amendment’s impact, school officials all said they can’t anticipate everything.

“Our goal is to be in compliance with the law, and we’ll continue to work in that direction,” Wyrosdick said. “It (enrollment) will change throughout the year, and it’s like trying to hit a moving target without even seeing it.”

For the rest of the article, go to Stricter class-size rules a juggling act for school districts

The program does have some eligibility requirements to meet before a student can begin work on the criteria for summer completion of their expulsion.

First, an eighth-grader must have been expelled and recommended for alternative placement during the first six weeks of the last nine-week marking period of the school year.

“If they are expelled any later in the last quarter than that, there is not time for them to be placed in an alternative program and to complete the summer program’s expulsion criteria,” Wyrosdick said.

Then students must complete one online Florida Virtual School course that applies to their graduation plan. They must also complete an online substance abuse or non-smoking program.

“They cannot just go ahead and do that without contacting us since we have to enroll them into those programs,” Wyrosdick said.

They must also write a letter of apology to the school where they attended last year, and then sign a behavioral pledge at the high school they will be attending this fall.

For the rest of the article, go to School district enacts summer ‘redemption’ for expulsions

Many local high schools do not have enough computers, sufficient network access or even the right rooms to securely test hundreds of students online, educators say. In another tight budget year, finding money for needed upgrades — they could cost $750,000 in Seminole County alone — isn’t easy.

Florida’s track record with computer-based testing is short and problem-plagued, adding to administrators’ apprehension about the test change. The debut of the state’s online reading test last fall and its trial run of computerized FCAT and algebra exams this spring both were marred by mishaps.

And there is the potential for even more trouble in coming years, administrators fear, as the number of computer-based standardized tests increases.

Next spring, some 370,000 ninth- and 10th-graders statewide are to take online the math section of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and a new algebra end-of-course exam. A smaller number of older students is scheduled to take FCAT math online in the fall.

A survey by the Florida Department of Education this spring showed that only two districts — and only Brevard County in Central Florida — deemed themselves fully ready for computer-based testing.

For the rest of the article, go to Online testing of students: Will Florida be ready?