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SCHOOL BOARD MAKES MOVES TO BENEFIT STUDENTS, TEACHERS
MIAMI – The Miami-Dade County School Board took steps Wednesday to ensure that all public school students have highly effective teachers through two innovative programs: • Summer HEAT 2006, a professional development program that will provide advanced training to nearly 6,300 instructional personnel, both at District academies and those run by the University of Miami and Florida International University. And for a second year, 50 District principals will participate in a leadership program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. Additionally, Advanced Placement (AP) teachers will have the opportunity to participate in a special academy taught by consultants from the College Board, which runs the program that offers college-level coursework and exams to high school students. This follows the District’s rise in student AP course enrollment and world-beating results for the last two years in minority students scoring well on the exams. • An innovative agreement with Visiting International Faculty, the world’s largest cultural exchange program for teachers and schools in the United States, to provide up to 100 teachers to fill critical need areas at schools. Teachers will be fluent in English and have a university degree equivalent to U.S. standards as well as teaching experience in elementary or secondary education. The School Board also authorized an agreement with Teach for America, Inc. to provide up to 225 additional teachers to the District over the next three years. Teach for America is a national corps of recent college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools in the nation’s lowest-income communities and become life-long leaders for expanding educational opportunity. In other action, the Board approved an unprecedented pilot program with Our Kids, a Florida non-profit organization, to provide instruction to some of the county’s most fragile students – 342 foster children in 45 group homes. By providing the students with services directly at their residence, transportation problems are minimized and students can have longer study periods, including the possibility of Saturday instruction. This is the first time that the District has provided tutoring to these students in this way. Additionally, the Board accepted a report from the United Way that showed Miami-Dade County Public Schools is once again the nation’s most generous school district. Students and staff raised more than $2.5 million in a campaign themed “Thank You for 31 Years of Giving.” In return for their generosity, schools can expect to receive the equivalent of $9 million in services. ### 06-LJG/192/jjs |
