High school students speak out against cell phone policy — in admirable, mature fashion
The Osceola County School District will replace AP Psychology – the lightning-rod course questioned by state leaders for some of its subject matter – with the Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) Psychology course.
Teachers will be able to teach that same-level class starting in September.
Superintendent Mark Shanoff acknowledged that the subject has “made a lot of news.”
“The Florida Department of Education FDOE and College Board have been going back and forth about the appropriateness about some of the content,” he said. “The College Board recommended Florida students not take AP Psychology.”
Earlier this summer, the state Board of Education approved a rule that requires teachers to follow a prohibition on sexual orientation and gender identity instruction in high school, unless lessons are required by state academic standards or are “part of a reproductive health course or health lesson for which a student’s parent has the option to have his or her student not attend.” The College Board followed by saying, in a release, the state’s restrictions prohibit the teaching of the AP Psychology course.
“The AP course asks students to ‘describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development.’ This element of the framework is not new: gender and sexual orientation have been part of AP Psychology since the course launched 30 years ago,” the board said, noting it “cannot modify AP Psychology in response to regulations that would censor college-level standards for credit, placement, and career readiness,” Despite Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz telling superintendents the course could be taught “in its entirety in a manner that is age and developmentally appropriate,” the Osceola district has made the change. In order for the Osceola district to have an available class for its students to take college-level psychology with college credit available, the Cambridge class, which offers a college-credit course of the same weighting, was made available. Shanoff said Cambridge worked with districts across the state and nation, and this does not impact the district’s schools teaching IB Psychology.
“We have the materials online, we will expose teachers to additional training for Cambridge psychology, so they’ll receive the same training,” he said. “It is a condensed timeline, but Cambridge has assured we will have time to teach the subject matter. I’m fairly confident students and teachers will rise to the challenge given the disruption.”
Board members lauded the district’s proactive actions, considering state guidance on the subject has gone back and forth.
Also Tuesday, a number of students asked the Board to be allowed to use cell phones during lunch under a new district policy that does not allow their use from “morning bell to dismissal bell”.
The Board was impressed with the students’ preparation and quoting state statutes about the banning of cell phone use during “instructional time,” and calling lunchtime a “break”. However, parents at the meeting also spoke in favor of the new policy, and the Board and Shanoff explained that the research from teachers and principals is that the daylong restriction is the best.
“Just in our research, talking to principals, there are fights that are planned for lunchtime, or students will attempt to attend two lunches to be on their phones,” Shanoff said. “There is a tremendous amount of concern that if you open it up at lunch, where does it end? Does it extend to class changes?
“I understand change is hard. At the same time, we have an obligation to ensure the learning environment is free of distraction. We have to support our teachers and principals, and that’s the feedback we’ve received from them.”
