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Over thirty-seven million students in the United States are using the common core standards to learn. Nearly three million students are enrolled in public schools grades K-12 in the state of Florida, making it the third-largest public school system in America. In January of 2019, Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order to eliminate Common Core from the state’s curriculum.
Florida adopted the Common Core in 2010 before introducing a modified version in 2014 called “Florida Standards.” Now, Richard Corcoran, Florida’s Education Commissioner, has been given one year to come up with a completely new set of standards for the state. With the standards changing again, teachers are unsure of what to expect moving forward. “I think our standards will be much higher in many respects,” said Governor DeSantis. “It will be more geared toward knowledge than maybe just teaching to a test.”
Covering everything can be hard—there’s only so much time in a school day, and the pace of the class can only move so fast. Regardless of what happens with the new Florida standards, teachers are relying more and more on technology to help students stay engaged, cover the content, and keep working at home. If students are engaged at home, then teachers can capitalize on that time to further student progress through the content.
Maite Hernandez, a fourth-grade teacher in Weston, Florida, uses tools like Dreamscape to supplement the tools her district makes available. When it comes to tools, Maite notes that “just relying on one is so limiting.” Hernandez consolidates all of the tools in one place. “I have a website for my classroom,” she explained, “and I link every single program that I put them on so it’s easier for them to pick one and use it.”
Free tools like Dreamscape, which was recently voted the number one educational technology by principals and superintendents at Florida’s 2019 Future of Educational Technology conference, and Nearpod, which is based in South Florida, can be used to expand the parameters of student learning and, more importantly, make learning fun! Regardless of what happens with the new state standards, leveraging new software will continue to be a good strategy for teachers looking to close the learning gap.
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), “Public Elementary/ Secondary School Universe Survey”, 2015-16, Provisional Version 1a , “Local Education Agency Universe Survey”, 2015-16, Provisional Version 1a, and “State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education”, 2015-16, Provisional Version 1a..
Bland, Thyrie. “Common Core: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Wants New Standards to Eliminate Vestiges of Core.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 1 Feb. 2019, www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2019/01/31/common-core-florida-standards-ron-desantis-governor/2738154002/.
Cait Levin is Director of Research and Instructional Technology at an independent school in Boston. She completed her BA at Barnard College and her MA at Middlebury. She has held a variety of roles at schools, including overseeing writing centers, advising, collaborating with faculty on instructional design and technology, and classroom teaching. She has taught elementary, middle, and high school courses in English, history, entrepreneurship, and design thinking. She also works with edtech companies to discover strategies for best practices when collaborating with teachers. You can find her on twitter @caitlevin
