Florida on the Rise
This podcast series describes why Florida is changing the demands placed on high school students and what those changes entail. These changes to Florida's educational requirements, created by Senate Bill 4, are a response to an emerging new world economic order. We have already seen how the nation has changed, with manufacturing moving to Asia and a need for college and career preparation with a much higher level of science, math, engineering, technology and reading comprehension. This is true for our car mechanics, civil engineers, health care workers — in fact just about everyone. Like it or not, no one can escape 21st century technology.
In short, what a Florida high school diploma means is changing. Our legislature, business leaders and educators know that education must evolve to keep pace with the world. Children now entering high school will be required to solve the problems presented by accelerating human knowledge, competition and threats to our nation. The winners and losers of this century will be decided by just how much our young people can achieve intellectually.
As you will hear in this series of podcasts, education in Florida is on the rise! Our business, legislative and education leaders have raised the definition of what it means to be prepared for the 21st century. They have decided that our young people are the equal to any in the world — but only if we expect it of them, and only if we significantly change the way they are taught. They are insisting that a diploma become a true certification that our young people have taken their first steps toward a life in which they will be more able to solve difficult and complex problems in careers that begin right after high school and after college.
Florida, and indeed the nation, needs your children to succeed. So please begin by listening to the first podcast in the "Florida on the Rise" series. Then join us for the rest of the series to hear what Florida is doing to enable our children to solve the many difficult problems facing their generation.
In these podcasts, you will hear about many of the efforts to teach our students to not just ride the locomotive of technology, but to drive it. You will hear about how teaching "why" is as important as "what," how learning by doing can make abstract ideas real and real makes them "learnable." You will hear about how math and science teaching is being turned on its head by making questions more important than answers.
You will also hear that from now on, the important exams that our students will take in their core academic classes will cover what was taught that year. And that what is to be taught will be what needs to be taught — to every student in every classroom in every school in the state. You will hear that teachers are to be held accountable for teaching what they should be teaching and held responsible for their students learning it. End of Course Exams will assure that a high school diploma is a guarantee that each graduate is ready for college and a career — a good career.
The specifics of the Senate Bill 4 requirements are in podcast 10. Listening to this podcast is an essential start in guiding your child as his or her educational world morphs from 20th Century memorizing to 21st Century thinking.
Each podcast contains an audio segment and text you can download.
Podcast 1 — A New High School Diploma for a New World Economic Order
In this podcast, we talk about the emergence of a new world order and how we need to significantly change the way young people are taught.
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Podcast 2 — The New Rigor: The Opportunity for All Students to be Prepared
This podcast talks about how we're trying to prepare our students for success in college and job placement after college by encouraging them to take more rigorous courses in high school. You will hear about why it's important to provide all students with access to accelerated courses.
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Podcast 3 — Be Prepared! It's Time to Get Ready
In this podcast, you will hear about how the success of our students is dependent on how well their education prepares them to go on to college. A high school diploma can no longer be the end point; it must be a beginning.
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Podcast 4 — Climbing the Career Ladder to that J.O.B. Degree
This podcast discusses how high school should be a step on a student's career ladder and how Florida is turning education on its head by more closely aligning what goes on in the classroom with what goes on in the real world.
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Podcast 5 — Science, Technology, Engineering and Math — Thinking in the 21st Century
In this podcast, we talk about the importance of encouraging studies in science, technology, engineering and math and how these disciplines are the tools our young people must have at their disposal to be competitive in tomorrow's workforce.
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Podcast 6 — A New Kind of Teaching for a New World Order
This podcast talks about how it is the responsibility of teachers to help students learn to use their minds and to challenge them to think.
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Podcast 7 — A New/Old Way of Actually Learning
In this podcast, you'll hear about "learning by doing" and the role it plays in showing students the connection between what they know, what they're interested in and how it might apply to their future career path.
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Podcast 8 — Science and Math: Learning to Think, Not Learning to Memorize and Repeat
This podcast discusses why we need to encourage students to ask questions and search for their own answers. Science and math can no longer revolve around memorization of textbooks and parroting lectures.
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Podcast 9 — It's About Hard Work — Once Again!
In this podcast, we talk about how students need to once again embrace hard work as a path to success. Support for this has to come from the entire community — both local and regional — if students are going to meet the new, more rigorous standards.
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Podcast 10 — The Rigor is in the Details: Senate Bill 4
This podcast talks about the specifics of the Senate Bill 4 requirements, including End of Course assessments, required classes and what the bill means for students.
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Podcast 11 — Online Tools to Support Parents
In this podcast, you'll hear about the various websites and online tools available to parents, including Facts.org, CHOICES and the Electronic Personal Education Plan.
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