Letter From the FPSCC President
Dear Florida Public School Choice Consortium Members and Friends: This year has been an exciting and most productive year for the Florida Public School Choice Consortium (FPSCC). Florida still leads the charge in innovative school reform in the state as we continue to set the bar higher in our quest for greater student achievement. Read more...
 |
 What’s Right with
|
|
Voluntary Public School Choice (VPSC) Nova Grant and Parent Resource Center |
||
FT. LAUDERDALE-DAVIE Fla. – The U.S. Department of Education has awarded one of the thirteen five-year Voluntary Public School Choice Program (VPSC) Grants to the Florida Department of Education’s (FDOE’s) Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice (OIEPC). The FDOE’s OIEPC granted approximately $5 million in a cooperative agreement to Nova Southeastern University’s Fischler School of Education and Human Services (FSEHS) National Institute for Educational Options (NIEO) Florida School Choice Resource Center (FSCRC) over the next five years. Read more... |
|
|
|
||
Judy's Journal
|
Different Levels of Parental Involvement (DLOPI) ProgramA ROAD MAP FOR PARENT LIAISONS WORKING WITH PARENT RESOURCE CENTERS (PRC) |
|
|
||
Florida Choice Options with the VPSC GrantGreetings from Tallahassee! I have so much to share, where should I start? Since my appointment in January as the Voluntary Public School Choice (VPSC) Program Manager, there has not been an insipid moment. I have |
Career Academies on the Hill Conference
|
|
|
||
School Reform Services from NIEO, FSEHS Nova Southeastern UniversityMagnet Schools /Programs, Career Academies and Smaller Learning Communities are some of the fastest growing school reform initiatives in Florida. Spurred by federal grants, these programs aimed at personalizing both relationships and learning often show significant gains in school completion rates and test scores. Lowered discipline referrals and improved attendance are also positive changes noted by schools that fully implement these programs. Career Academies that provide true career exposure and training with articulated post secondary transitions also show higher rates of completion in technical and college programs. Read more... |
VOICESThe Coach isn’t easy on them. He enforces a dress code and a code of good conduct. He expects and receives respect. There are more than 40 youth crowded into the meeting room at the East Jacksonville Neighborhood Resource Center but when Coach speaks, you can hear a pin drop.  “We need to clear up some of their misconceptions about work,” said Nathaniel S. Washington, known as “Coach” to the youth who are participating in the Summer Work Program at the East Jacksonville Neighborhood Resource Center, an initiative of FreshMinistries. “Kids these days have lost the essential survival skills that are part of the good old fashioned work ethic.” Read more... |
|
|
||
Professional Development BuzzNational Institute for Educational Options (NIEO) at the Fischler School of Education and Human Services is offering a set of services called Motivation Matters. It is grounded in the belief that motivation and engagement are the fast track to improving achievement, increasing graduation rates and promoting successful post secondary transitions. The materials and workshops focus on identifying and capturing the intrinsic incentives to learn. Each of us has a unique motivation profile that influences the things that matter to us or that we naturally find interesting. Using a simple tool to identify preferences, parents and educators can team around a positive aspect of each student and keep kids engaged in learning. Read more... |
Florida School Choice Resource Center Advisory BoardThe Florida School Choice Resource Center (FSCRC) Advisory Board helps guide the Center in meeting the goals and objectives of the project and the public school choice needs in South Florida. The Advisory Board is comprised of public school choice leaders and stakeholders from various forms of school choice options including magnet programs, charter schools, career academies, and school district choice offices in South Florida and throughout the state. |
|
|
||
Joe Mills Career Excellence AwardCongratulations to Angie Grasberger who received the Joe Mills Career Excellence Award at the Florida Association of Career Technical Educators Conference on July 25, 2008. This award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding meritorious contributions of state or national significance to the improvement, promotion, development and progress of career and technical education. This award was established in 1987 to honor Joe Mills for his consummate dedication to the goals of technical and career education and the profession. This award is modeled after the ACTE award that honors the late Representative Carl Perkins. It is designed to recognize individuals who have demonstrated the same humanitarian concerns exemplified by Representative Perkins and Mr. Mills. Read more... |
||
As school came to a close for 2007-08 and is just beginning for 2008-09, there are many things to be proud of and some to dismay. We are pleased to finally receive our funding in April of 2008. Florida Department of Education (FDOE) was funded as one of three grants in the State of Florida (Miami-Dade and Hillsborough counties also were funded) among only fourteen grants in the nation under the Voluntary Public School Choice (VPSC) program. 
Imagine if every parent liaison had a roadmap designed with the most appropriate activities and strategies to teach parents the skills needed on their journey to improve parent participation. Further, envision that these skills along this path would help ensure that parents reach their destination as active participants in making the best and appropriate school choice options and programs for their children. 
had the opportunity to spotlight the School Choice Parent Resource Centers (PRCs), to serve on a panel at the USDOE Regional Summit on Innovations in Education, to represent school choice on the Florida Parental Information and Resource Center (PIRC) State Board, and to process three RFP applications for the VPSC Interdistrict Agreements Models. And the work has just begun! 
On April 15-17, 2008, the Florida Public School Choice Consortium (FPSCC) hosted a conference at the Doubletree Hotel in Tallahassee to provide a venue to showcase Florida’s Career Academies and encourage interaction among educators and legislators. The National Career Academy Coalition (NCAC), the Southeast Coalition of Essential Schools Center (SCESC), the Florida Association of Career Technical Educators (FACTE), and the national Association of Career Technical Education (ACTE) partnered in this effort to demonstrate support for Florida’s Career Academies. 