Priorities. The Pinellas County school district plans to increase its focus on lifting achievement among low-income black students. Tampa Bay Times.

Charter schools. The Pinellas school board announces another, last-ditch attempt to save two foundering charter schools. Gradebook.

College courses. Manatee County principals would have the final say on whether high school students can enter college-level courses under a revised student-progression plan. Bradenton Herald.

Special needs. A special needs preschool on the Space Coast plans to add a kindergarten. Florida Today.

STEM. How Monroe County is expanding access to computer science courses. Bridge to Tomorrow. Escambia schools run a computer science camp. Pensacola News-Journal.
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Note: This week on the blog, parents who have chosen a variety of schooling options will be sharing their educational wishes for 2016.

by Andrew Ladanowski

My wish for schools is that administrators and teachers focus on individual children’s strengths and not their weaknesses.

As an example, let’s look at high school athletes. Say the Department of Education set a minimum requirement that to play any sport, students must be able to swim a hundred yards. For one athlete who already knows how to swim, this would be reasonable. For another, it would simply take a little practice. But for a third student, who may not know how to swim, it could become an obstacle that would discourage the athlete from pursuing any sport.

We have a similar case with our son. He has speech apraxia, a motor speech disorder which makes it difficult for him to speak. Despite this challenge, he is at the top of his science and computer-science classes. He also takes advanced algebra.

Do we want to make it harder for kids to excel because of the challenges they face, or do we want to offer multiple paths so kids can be the best they can be? We immigrated to the United States to be in the land of opportunity, only to find out that for our son, it may be the land of obstacles.

My son acknowledges that his career choices are limited because of his speech challenges.  Even some menial jobs that don’t require education would be a struggle. STEM is his strength. At the same time, many claim there is a shortage of students pursuing Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) careers, in fields where my son excels. (more…)

Jeremy Ladanowski sometimes has a hard time being heard. The eighth-grader has speech apraxia, a condition that makes it difficult for him to form intelligible words.

Jeremy Ladanowski addresses the Senate Education Committee. (Screenshot via the Florida Channel).

His parents say they worry what will happen next year, when he gets to high school and will be expected to take at least two foreign language courses before he graduates. The family traveled to Tallahassee from South Florida last week to testify in favor of legislation that would give him a different option.

While he has a hard time speaking, Jeremy has found other ways to communicate. He's started building his own websites in HTML, and modifying computer games. What if he could satisfy his graduation requirements by learning a different kind of language — a computer language?

"When he's online, he has no disability," his father, Andrew Ladanowski, told the Senate Education Committee as it considered a bill that would let students substitute computer science classes for foreign language courses.

The measure is sponsored by Jeremy Ring, D-Margate. Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, has introduced similar legislation in the House.

Ring, a former Yahoo executive, said jobs in virtually every field will soon require some understanding of computer science. But state lawmakers and school administrators have balked at other recent proposals to add seemingly sensible course requirements, like financial literacy. One reason: Students' schedules are already stretched thin. (more…)