CBHS named one of Best High Schools in America

US News and World Report has named Cocoa Beach High as one of America’s Best High School’s in its newly released rankings. CBHS received a silver rating indicating it placed between 100 and 505 in the nation based on a formula that included how well all its students did in math and reading and how well the college prep students did on AP tests. West Shore, which also received the silver designation, and CBHS were the only Brevard Schools in the rankings.

US News Article

This new US News list, some have said, was developed to counter the much criticized Newsweek list, which has much narrower criteria. CBHS, it should be noted, made both lists.

Update: Fl Today article:

At West Shore High School, for example, 74.8 percent of students took AP exams, while 71.9 percent of those taking the test passed. At Cocoa Beach, 45.3 percent of the student body took AP exams with a 67 percent pass rate.

Grades vary widely by state

from washingtonpost.com

According to College Board surveys of members of the 2007 senior class who took the SAT, only 29 percent of students in Connecticut and Massachusetts had A-plus, A or A-minus averages, while 38 percent of students in New York and New Jersey, 39 percent in Virginia, 40 percent in California, 42 percent in Florida and a breath-taking 49 percent in Texas had grade point averages that high. In the United States as a whole, 43 percent of seniors who took the SAT reported A-plus, A or A-minus averages.

History repeats itself on IB exam

This story on last spring’s IB History Paper 2 exam got by me. Apparently Americans aren’t the only ones who have trouble getting standardized testing right.

from the London Times Online
More than 27,000 pupils sat a two-year-old history paper for their International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma last week.

The error was discovered after pupils left the examination, saying that they had seen the paper before. The board confirmed in a note of apology to schools that a “grave mistake” had been made.

The resolution, as I understand it, was to try and identify when grading, the kids who had obviously seen the test before and adjust their grades accordingly…or something like that.

From the IBO: 

At the grade award meeting for history close attention will be paid to the results for all schools with the aim of identifying anomalies in the results for this assessment component. For example, comparisons will be made with candidates’ performance on other components and in comparison with the teachers’ predicted grades. Where differentials can be linked to prior experience of the paper, an adjustment to the marks awarded will be considered.

BCC to remain 2 year college

from floridatoday.com:
ORLANDO – As community colleges around the state begin offering bachelor’s degrees, leaders of Brevard Community College expressed their commitment to remain a two-year institution.

Many BCC students not seeing advisors

from floridatoday.com:
Community colleges nationwide, including Brevard Community College, must work harder to engage students who already spend little time on campus and have almost no interaction with their professors outside of the classroom, a new survey found.

More than one-third of BCC students who participated in the study said they never or rarely used academic advising services — a key component of college success, according to the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, which surveyed 1,000 BCC students.

Project Graduation meets Wednesday

Project Graduation has its own blog where you can get all the scoop. They meet Wednesday night, Nov. 28th at 6:30 in the cafebrary. Click below for all the details and bookmark the blog to keep up with all the Project Graduation News.

Project Graduation Cocoa Beach High School Blog

FCAT lessons learned study released

from South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com:

A group of educators from across the state has scrutinized five years worth of Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores, questions and answers, with the hope that teachers would use the information to improve classroom learning.

Links to full reports

PSAT goof up announced

One less question to get wrong… or right, for that matter.

 from collegeboard.com

Question number 21 from the writing skills section of the Saturday form of the 2007 PSAT/NMSQT was removed from scoring. Due to a printing error that affected a significant number of test books, several letters of a word appearing in one of the answer choices for Question 21 did not print properly. To rectify this problem, question number 21 was not scored for any test taker. It is important to note, however, that the removal of this question did not affect the comparability of the 20-80 scaled scores for this section. Even with the removal of this question, the statistical process of equating, which is used to translate raw scores (based on right, wrong, and omitted responses) to scaled scores, ensures that the 20-80 scaled scores on this section are comparable to scores on the writing sections of other editions of the PSAT/NMSQT.

Self-professed contrarian looks at college admissions

from GuestColumns : TCPalm:

I have become convinced that the college admissions process is a powerful tool to prepare a student for life.

Promised news release on boundaries issued by BPS

BPS News Release:

VIERA—At the Nov. 20 Brevard County School Board Meeting, staff presented recommendations for adjustments to the attendance areas for the district’s Cambridge and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. The plan will be presented to the School Board for action at the Dec. 11 meeting, and will again be on the agenda Jan. 22, 2008, for a public hearing. New programs are being added to:

·        Address increased access for students across the district

·        Support the Secondary Schools of National Prominence initiative which requires students to take three rigorous courses

·        Maximize use of capacity

·        Better prepare middle school students for a more rigorous high school experience

The IB diploma program is a rigorous pre-university course of study leading to internationally standardized examinations. The program is designed as a comprehensive two-year curriculum that allows its graduates to fulfill requirements of many different nations’ education systems.

The Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) Program, or Cambridge Program, is an advanced academic pre-university curriculum. The Cambridge AICE Diploma requires students to study at least three subjects drawn from the different curriculum areas: Mathematics and Sciences; Languages; Arts and Humanities.

More specific information on the boundary recommendations may be found online:

http://www.brevard.k12.fl.us/School_Board/eAgendaTOC/11-20-2007%20Organization%20of%20the%20Board%20-%20Regular%20Meeting%20on%20Tuesday,%20November%2020,%202007/Cambridge%20IB%2011-20.pdf

http://www.brevard.k12.fl.us/presentations/11-20-07-IBandCambridge.pdf