LightningStrike Taking Miami-Dade by Storm
Dr. Michael M. Krop Sr. High • 1410 Countyline Road • Miami, Florida 33179
September 30 , 2015 • Issue 1 • Volume 18
Class sizes need amending Mikaela Mendez news editor
The increase in class sizes has been aided by an amendment to the original statute. Now a school can be labeled with the word “choice,” which means the average class size can be used instead of a class-by-class limit.
On the first day of school, Brian Litvinoff walked into his English 4 honors class with a smile on his face because he had Michael Kelly as his teacher. But his smile slowly faded. He could barely make it through rows of tightly packed desks to get to his seat. And when the lesson started, hearing Kelly over 44 students was harder than trying to get to his desk. “It was like anchovies in a can,” Litvinoff said. “Kelly still managed to maintain the noise level down for the most part, but that’s because he stated stern rules.” According to Kelly, having so many students in a class is a great disservice to the students. “It has become an example of warehouse education,” Kelly said. “Students are being stored in rooms and expected to learn.” And Kelly isn’t the only teacher to have over 25 students in a core class. Math teacher William Taillon has 38 students in his 4th period Algebra 1 class. The excess amount of students in math classes could be due to it being down one math teacher compared to last year. Being short one math teacher is a big concern to the math department. “The question is not whether we can find a qualified teacher, Stein said. “But rather we haven’t been given the permission to hire them.” According to The New York Times article, “Tight
Budgets Mean Squeeze in Classrooms,” published in 2011, millions of public school students are seeing class sizes swell because of budget costs and teacher layoffs. This is the first year in which Florida schools will not be fined for having more than 25 students per core class. The district expects schools to take the money they would pay for the fee and use it to pay teachers to open up an extra class. According to an article in the Miami Herald published in 2014 lawmakers cut the number of “core” classes covered by the class size limits by nearly twothirds four years ago. The Herald said the Florida Department of Education even gives districts guidance on how to circumvent the requirements in a class size. The classes that are included in the size amendment for core classes are regular and honors English one through four, Geometry, Algebra 1, Math for College Readiness, biology, U.S. History, World History and Economics. No new teachers have been hired, according to Harley, but extra teaching supplements for every core subject have been added. In a few weeks, Harley has a meeting with the District regarding budgets. If the District approves the new budget, there is a possibility more classes will be opening. “At this point, we did the best we could to level classes, but it does not accommodate every student’s schedule,” Harley said. “It is not as easy as people think.”
STANDARDIZED TESTING
New SAT format aids sophomores and below
Michael Katz opinion editor The current version of the SAT will be administered four more times, the last on January 23rd. The new test begins in March, and it is a different species, so listen up. Starting next March, aim for a 1600. There is, regrettably, no 800 point curve. The 800 point difference is due to the removal of the writing section from your overall score, which will now be comprised of two sections: Evidence-Based Reading/Writing and Math. The writing section of the new test is now optional – and highly recommended. The new test condenses the ten sections of the old into four. It will no longer test obscure vocabulary, but will ask students to define words based on how they are used in context. The test will also include more charts and
graphs, which means students will have to stay focused for a longer time period and work more efficiently in order to finish. However, there is no longer a ¼ point reduction for wrong answers. Students won’t waste time thinking about whether it is worth it to guess, and will have a 25 percent chance of getting credit for questions they did not get to. The new version will also incorporate excerpts from great texts such as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, and will test comprehension by asking evidence-based questions. These problems ask a question about the text, followed by another question that asks which piece of evidence supports the previous answer, making it nearly impossible to get the second right if the first is wrong. The writing section is no walk
NEW EXAM 65 MINUTE 35 MINUTE
BY THE NUMBERs
52 QUESTION READING SECTION
50 MINUTE 25 MINUTE OPTIONAL ESSAY
• College misconceptions - page 7 • New teachers, new faces - page 13 • Corbin’s Critique: Maze Runner - page 14 •Captains speak out - page 17
Appreciating Ms. Baglos
20 QUESTION SECTION OF
SOURCES 1. Time Magazine, 2. Sat.Ivyglobal.com/news-vs-old in the park, either. Now twice as long (50 minutes), it asks students to read a passage and then explain how the author is persuading the audience. However, this is a welcome change for many. “You can’t
More inside:
• Music: The industry that rocked and rolled away - page 4
44 WRITING AND LANGUAGE SECTION
MK HS
Welcoming Dr. Harley
pages 10 -11
determine someone’s writing ability in 25 minutes on a random topic,” senior Noam Ben-David said . “It’s too formulaic.” Thanks to the changes, students will no longer have to worry about systematic scoring,
nor will they have to worry about how to study for the new format of the test. College Board recently partnered with Khan Academy, a free online learning site, in order to provide free online test prep. No longer will companies like ► story continues on page 3