What’s Up with DEI: Florida

During July and August, we’re sharing some of the DEI state policy team and college accomplishments from the last year of work. We’re making our way (alphabetically!) through the six DEI states, profiling the DEI colleges in those states as we go. This week, we’re focusing on Florida, the Sunshine State!

The Division of Florida Colleges serves as the state team lead for Florida’s ATD/DEI state policy work. One of the state’s 28 community colleges participates in DEI (Valencia); three others are ATD colleges (Broward, Hillsborough, and Tallahassee). The division has made great efforts to leverage ATD/DEI data collection, learning, and progress across all of the colleges, including six additional colleges that received grants from the division to pursue developmental education redesign (Florida State College at Jacksonville, Miami Dade College, North Florida Community College, Santa Fe College, St. Johns River State College, and St. Petersburg College). In the last year, Florida has moved forward on all three DEI State Policy Framework levers:

Data-Driven Improvement

• The Division of Florida Colleges is developing a student success dashboard, with initial rollout planned for this summer. The goal of the dashboard is to make accountability and outcome data more visible and accessible to state and local decision makers. The dashboard will provide access to a series of dynamic reports on student performance and outcomes; each entering cohort of students (FTIC and Transfer) will be tracked for six years using the ATD intermediate benchmarks and final outcomes. 

Investment in Innovation

• The division identified six non-DEI colleges to redesign and implement pilot models for developmental education course delivery using a modularized format and awarded $10,000 grants. The college redesign teams revised and finalized their implementation plans with consultation and technical assistance from the division throughout the 2010 summer and fall terms. All six colleges began implementation of their modularized courses in January 2011.

Policy Supports

• The Florida Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (P.E.R.T.) was released in October 2010.   Twenty-six of Florida’s 28 colleges have implemented the P.E.R.T.  There also will be two diagnostic assessments for each discipline, one for each upper-level and one for each lower-level developmental education course, with the first diagnostic test available in August. The division held a developmental education faculty workshop in October 2010 to identify developmental education competencies that will inform the development of these diagnostics. Colleges will begin offering the new courses with the corresponding competencies and implementing the diagnostic assessments in fall 2011 or spring 2012 terms.
• The Florida Legislature amended the 2008 legislation to establish an early assessment and remediation program for high school students. This amendment requires school districts to test all 11th grade students within a specified score range on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test for college readiness. An estimated 150,000 students will be eligible for testing this coming year. Previously, this program was voluntary.

For more details on DEI state policy accomplishments, check out Jobs For the Future’s latest DEI publication Driving Innovation: How Six States Are Organizing to Improve Outcomes in Developmental Education Outcomes.