The Accountability Plan is an annual report that is closely aligned with the Board of Governors' 2025 System Strategic Plan. This report enhances the System's commitment to accountability and strategic planning by fostering greater coordination between institutional administrators, University Boards of Trustees and the Board of Governors regarding…

In the early 1990s, a coup in Haiti sent a new wave of political refugees to southern Florida. First-year teacher Sidney Brown taught ESOL classes to Haitian teens who came to Dillard High School in Ft. Lauderdale. As she got to know her students, she was surprised by the class distinctions that divided the French-speaking students, whose…

In this article, the authors describe a recent project undertaken at the University of South Florida's (USF) Preschool for Creative Learning. To align with the inquiry approach of their laboratory school, the environment at the Preschool is designed so that children can learn through exploration and individual initiative. The administration and…

This article considers the personal reflections of an undergraduate music education major on both the significance of his experience as a participant in the Seventh International Symposium on the Sociology of Music Education, held at Michigan State University, in the United States, in June 2011, and on his place as a pre-service music teacher…

In order to develop the evaluative skills necessary for successful performance of design, a senior, Geotechnical Engineering course was revised to immerse students in the complexity of the design process utilising a project-based learning (PBL) approach to instruction. The student-centred approach stresses self-directed group learning, which…

This article presents a case study on two fourth grade students with learning disabilities in two different writing situations: writing for test preparation and writing for digital stories. The students' writing behaviors, processes, and products in these two settings are contrasted. The differences in the students' writing experiences suggest…

This study measures changes in teaching practices that occurred during a school year that included laptop implementation and professional development. The changes were documented through direct observations of more than 400 classrooms in more than 50 K-12 schools in 11 Florida districts. Trained observers used two valid observation instruments to…

This study examined the teaching styles of online instructors at Florida's 28 community colleges in an effort to determine if the instructors had adopted the learner-centered model touted in the literature. The Principles of Adult Learning Scale was the primary instrument used to collect data from 292 online instructors. The study revealed that…

At a low-income elementary school in Miami Beach, children learn for themselves, not to impress others. Guided by a privately developed instructional package, the school has embraced such tradition-smashing reforms as teacher-coaches, cooperative learning, whole-language and whole-math curricula, computer-assisted instruction, small classes, and…

Teacher-directed content, immovable subject divisions, and rigid scope and sequences perpetuate mismatch between middle school curricula and young adolescents' needs. Teachers at one Florida middle school are experimenting with Coalition of Essential Schools processes such as backward curriculum design and units of joy. Curriculum becomes an open…

Based on an analysis of student school records, teachers, administrators, and community citizens have developed a plan to incorporate programs designed to correct specific deficiencies in children in the early elementary grades, to constructively develop academic and social behavior by using positive reinforcement, meaningful rewards, and behavior…

This report summarizes the 2006-2007 evaluation that was focused toward investigating one primary question: What changes in tool-based, student-centered teaching happen as a result of the infusion of technology and professional development? The research methodology involved the use of trained external researchers from Florida EETT schools…

This report concerns one of the Florida Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title III projects validated as innovative, cost-effective, and exportable during 1973. The project rationale is that, through training, K-3 teachers may become adept at individually diagnosing specific language arts behaviors for all children in their classrooms and…

Examined the changes implemented by teachers at Brown Barge Middle School, in Pensacola, Florida, to improve curriculum. Notes the teachers' use of total quality education principles and describes six propositions of change: achieving constancy of purpose, building quality, continuous improvement, student-centered approach, using data, and…

Focuses on a telecourse funded by the Florida Department of Education to assist the State's 67 school districts in training teachers in effective English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teaching strategies to fulfill a requirement established by a consent decree in 1990. Showing videotapes of teachers applying learned strategies in the classroom…