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MIRAMAR, Fla. – A South Florida music instructor is a finalist for the national teacher of the year award. 

Alvin Davis, Florida’s 2012 teacher of the year, was named a finalist in the national contest by the Council of Chief State School Officers Thursday. Finalists from three other states are also vying for the prize.

Davis is a music teacher at Miramar High School in Broward County.

As part of duties as the Florida Department of Education/Macy’s Teacher of the Year, he has been traveling throughout the state visiting schools and sharing information.

A panel of educators selected the finalists from all 50 states. The winner will be honored by the president in April.

THE ACREAGE — Motorists will have to slow down in front of Seminole Ridge High School twice a day this school year.

Palm Beach County workers plan to install flashing lights and a 20 mph school speed limit zone on the normally 45 mph Seminole Pratt Whitney Road in front of the high school in time for the first day of school Aug. 22.

The 20 mph speed limit will be in effect for the stretch in front of the school when students are arriving in the morning and leaving in the afternoon, said Deputy County Engineer Tanya McConnell.

The speed zone comes at the urging of elected officials and residents throughout the western Palm Beach County communities who said the road is unsafe for children walking to school.

Indian Trail Improvement District Board member Ralph Bair said that stretch of road has had a history of near-misses and students being hit by cars since the school opened.

On Oct. 27, 17-year-old Ryan Garcia was hit and injured by a school bus as Garcia crossed Seminole Pratt-Whitney Road just north of the school shortly before sunrise. Garcia’s family, along with parents and elected officials like school board member Marcia Andrews, marched along the road in December with signs demanding the speed zone.

It’s certainly better than what we had before, Andrews said of the new speed zone and lights. She said the county should institute 20 mph school speed zones in front of all the district’s schools. We have to make sure we keep it safe for all our students. There is no price tag on a person’s life.

This year, county commissioners asked engineers to study the roads around high schools in the county to see if any others needed speed zones, McConnell said.

The only other high schools that county engineers said warranted speed zones were West Boca Raton High School and John I. Leonard High School in Greenacres. Speed zones are planned for those schools this year, McConnell said.

Bair said the county also needs to extend the sidewalk on the east side of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road about 2 miles north to Orange Boulevard to make it safer for students. The sidewalks now extend only about one-third of a mile north of the school to a shopping center.

There’s no place for kids to walk and when it is wet they walk on the road, Bair said.

McConnell said county engineers are considering some extension of the sidewalks north of the school this year.

A Miramar High School music teacher who focuses as much on homework as harmony is Florida’s new Teacher of the Year.

Alvin Davis, 35, won out over four other finalists to take the honor, sponsored by Macy’s and the Florida Department of Education. The award was announced Thursday night at a ceremony at the Hard Rock Live at Universal Studios in Orlando.

“It’s always exciting to be recognized for the work you do all year,” Davis said, who added that his award was for “all teachers.”

Davis, who is celebrating his 10th wedding anniversary with his wife, Tiffani, said he would spend a few days in Orlando “enjoying family,” which includes his 15-month-old daughter, Caitlyn.

Then he was scheduled to do some work at Florida A&M University next week, where he said he was scheduled to meet with students who want to become teachers. “I’ll let them know what a great profession it is,” he said.

Davis will receive $10,000 from the Macy’s Foundation and an all-expenses-paid trip for four to New York City to attend the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. He will also serve as the Christa McAuliffe Ambassador for education, touring Florida as an education advocate.

Davis said one reason for his success is that he has a passion for teaching.

“I always focus on my students,” he said. “I always think of my students as my own children. How would I want my daughter to be taught?”

He has taught music for 10 years. According to his biography, he focuses on three areas: academics, discipline and music. For the past three years, every student who was a regular participating member of the Miramar High band program has gone on to college, school district officials said.

He requires his students to receive one-on-one counseling with a member of the band staff, and he personally reviews students’ report cards and interim reports. Every school band rehearsal includes a one-hour study hall where students are tutored.

Seniors can perform only if they have registered to take the ACT or SAT, and must prove they have applied for admission to a college or university.

“He always strives for excellence and high student achievement,” Broward school district officials wrote in his biography.

The other four finalists were Lora McCalister-Cruel, a literacy coach at A.  Crawford Mosley High in Lynn Haven; Belinda Nease, a special-education teacher at Southside Elementary in Fernandina Beach; Stephanie Thetford, a math teacher at Fort Walton Beach High; and Tracy Staley, a science and writing teacher at Ponce de Leon Elementary in Clearwater. They will receive $5,000, a $500 Macy’s gift card and a $1,000 check for their school.

Even as the Broward school district faces cuts and teacher layoffs, Davis remains upbeat about his profession.

“Everyone’s in a pinch,” he said. “The national government and state government are trying to balance their budgets. All civil servants feel it, whether they’re police officers or teachers. But I have confidence in our country to bounce back.”

Despite a multi-billion pound rise in education spending under the last Government, the proportion of teachers labelled “outstanding” has halved in the same year, school inspectors have found.

Ofsted found millions of British schoolchildren were being taught by teachers who did not plan lessons properly, were unable to control their students and had poor knowledge of their subjects.

Over the past year inspectors labelled more than 17,600 teachers as “inadequate”, compared with 8,800 the year before.

Only 35,200 teachers, from a total teaching pool of 440,000 were given the best “outstanding” ranking, compared to 70,400.

Meanwhile, the proportion of teachers labelled “satisfactory” also rose, from 123,200 in 2009 to 162,800 last year.

The school’s watchdog said last night that the figures may reflect a change in assessment methods.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has previously vowed to introduce guidelines to make it simpler to sack bad teachers.

A spokesman for the National Union of Head Teachers, said: “More has to be done to ease out incompetent teachers.

“It drags the rest of the teachers down. It really lowers morale and makes matters worse.”

A spokesman for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers added: “Naturally we want the best people to be teaching our children. But we would be upset by any attempt by heads to target teachers that they do not like.

“People need to be treated fairly. Drop-out rates for new teachers are high. Therefore those who do not feel up to the job, or do not like it, leave of their own accord.”

An Ofsted spokesman said the rise was likely explained by a change in methods of inspection, which has highlighted cases which would previously have been undisclosed.

“Since 2009 we have placed a greater emphasis on classroom teaching, increasing the amount of time inspectors spend observing lessons,” he told the Daily Mail.