Florida governor announces official end to Common Core and outlines new standards

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday that he has officially ended Common Core in his state and outlined new standards that he says “embrace common sense.”

“When I took office, I made a pledge to the citizens of Florida to overhaul our educational standards to remove all vestiges of Common Core and return to the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic,” the Republican governor said in a press conference.

“It really goes beyond Common Core to embrace common sense.”

Conservatives have long been opponents of the controversial Common Core teaching practices, and many believe the reform harms innovation, school choice, and, ultimately, students.

Some of the changes being made to the school system in Florida include an elevated focus on math facts, increased focus on the “correct” answer and not the method, and placing reading at the core of the development process. The state will also pay for students to take the ACT or SAT.

"The great thing about these new standards is that each and every part is very clear and to the point, whereas old standards may have three steps. This one has one step,” Seth Federman, a member of the Florida Council of Teachers of English, said about the new rules.

The state’s education commissioner, Richard Corcoran, was at the press conference and also expressed support for the change.

“We want to produce students who are excellent thinkers and who are prepared for the world and who can go out there and grab a job and wrestle with the great questions of life, synthesize large volumes of information, make a great decision," he said.

Not all the reactions to the governor’s press conference were positive, however.

The state’s teachers union said that not enough attention was being given to providing teachers with the resources they need.

“The Department of Education should be focused on what happens in the classroom," Florida Education Association President Fedrick Ingram said. "The teachers and the teaching that goes on and giving teachers the time, the resources, and the funding."

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How Historically Black Colleges and Universities Aid Military Preparedness

At a Heritage Foundation panel discussion Jan. 23, Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford explains how historically black colleges and universities can be beneficial to entire families. (Photo: Willis Bretz for The Heritage Foundation)

Historically black colleges and universities have been an integral part of the U.S. military’s competitive edge, according to participants in a panel discussion Thursday at The Heritage Foundation’s inaugural forum on HBCUs.

The panel discussion—hosted by James Carafano, a national security expert at The Heritage Foundation—laid out the role HBCUs play in ensuring military readiness and national security in the face of growing international challenges.

Marshall Williams, the Army’s principal deputy assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, said the quality of personnel is key for the U.S. military right now, because we can no longer count on our wealth advantage compared with our chief rivals.

“We live in trying times right now,” Williams said. “The world has become far more complex. Russia and China, our near-peer adversaries, have improved their large-scale ground combat capabilities, long-range capabilities, through significant advancements and investments in technology.”

This is the first time in our history, he said, that money isn’t our advantage and that we can’t outspend our opponents.

Where the U.S. does have an advantage is with our people, Williams said.

“We will win against our enemies by having the right people, with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time. That’s how we’re going to do it,” he said.

By strengthening individuals, the U.S. military becomes the most capable force in the world, Williams said.

“There is no doubt that HBCUs are a valuable and powerful resource for our nation in terms of education of young African Americans and giving them the tools to help our country to compete globally,” he said.

Retired Lt. Gen. Gwen Bingham, a former chief of staff for installation management for the Army, echoed the importance of personnel.

“Certainly, when we talk about global readiness, military preparedness, the secret sauce, I believe, is our people,” Bingham said. “[W]hen we talk about global competitiveness and being able to have that military preparedness that gives us the edge over our adversaries, it’s really about our people, and certainly HBCUs are an integral part of that pool of talent.”

Ronal Butler, president of Woodbridge, Virginia-based Networking & Engineering Technologies Inc., said preparation for the kind of readiness needed in the armed forces goes beyond the classroom, and workforce development is essential for students integrating into real-life, high-pressure situations.

“What happens is, we’ve got students who come out, they’ve got the textbook knowledge; they think they understand what’s going on,” Butler said. “But then, when you actually see a monitor, and see all the countries that are hacking into a particular military base per hour, then you understand—’Wow! School kind of got me ready, but this workforce is going to teach me a lot more of what I need to prepare for.’”

Army Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford said historically black colleges and universities do a particularly good job of preparing people to serve in the armed forces. He explained how he was nurtured as a first-generation college student during his time at South Carolina State University.

Importantly, he said, HBCUs give students important qualities that prepare them for leadership.

“You become very resilient at historically black colleges. You learn the power of resiliency. You learn the power of overcoming challenges,” Crawford said.

Just as importantly, he added, he learned to be deeply competitive during his time at an HBCU.

“What you will find in an HBCU graduate is almost an insatiable appetite to be competitive, ultimately to win,” Crawford said.

In his case, the importance of the school, he said, is that it led to other family members going to college and succeeding.

“When I think about the enduring legacy of an HBCU, it’s not that I got an opportunity to be a first-generation college graduate. It’s not that I had the opportunity because I had powerful mentors who grabbed me along the way,” Crawford explained.

“The enduring legacy of an HBCU is that my other three siblings all went to college. Their children all went to college. My children had the opportunity to go to college.”

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Schooling at home becomes more popular in Australia

THE number of Queensland kids being homeschooled has almost doubled over the past five years and thousands more could be illegally flying under the radar.

Education Queensland data reveals that 3411 school-aged children and teenagers are being homeschooled — up from 1770 in 2015.

But Queensland University Technology home education expert Dr Rebecca English said it did not show the true numbers. She said.research suggested there could be thousands more illegally homeschooling. "They're still homeschooling but just don't tell the department about it which I believe is quite worrying." She said.  A change in the departmental process to register as a home educator became more difficult in 2018.

However, a department of education spokesman said parents had a legal obligation to ensure their school-aged child was enrolled in school or registered in home education. "The parent's application must be accompanied by documentation verifying the identity of the parent, the identity and age of the child and a summary of proposed educational program that shows evidence of high-quality education," he said.

Ipswich mother Kathryn McGowan said instead of sending her son Patrick to mainstream school, she had enrolled him in distance education because home education registration was too. complicated.

As a teacher, Ms McGowan said she knew her five-year-old son was not ready for mainstream school.

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail" of 30 January, 2020