Following a year of research, the Florida League of Women Voters issued a report this week that’s highly critical of the state’s charter school movement. Education “reform” critics, such as historian Diane Ravitch and AFT president Randi Weingarten, have begun passing around the document, calling it a “bombshell.” In it, the League observes that Florida…
President Barack Obama’s proposal to equip nearly every school with high-speed wireless Internet will cost $800 million per year — $3.2 billion total by the 2018 deadline — according to a new estimate given to the Federal Communications Commission. The initiative is important to Florida schools for two reasons. First, schools are switching to new…
2014 Florida Statewide Assessment Scores Reading Statewide Comparison of Reading Scores (PDF, 89KB) State and District Scores for All Curriculum Groups Grade 3 (Excel, 52KB) School Scores for All Curriculum Groups Grade 3 (Excel, 512KB) Mathematics Statewide Comparison of Mathematics Scores (PDF, 88KB) State and District Scores for All Curriculum Groups Grade 3 (Excel, 50KB)…
Florida schools received the first scores from the state’s final round of FCAT testing on Friday, showing little overall improvement from 2013. Third-graders, who can be held back a year if they score at the lowest level in reading, had the same 57 percent proficiency rate in reading as a year ago. Nineteen percent, or…
Hackers stole employee data earlier this month from the American Institutes for Research, the company chosen to produce Florida’s next standardized test. No student information was stolen, according to Education Week. But, the hackers got Social Security numbers and credit card information for about 6,500 current and former employees. Read full story
High school teachers often try — sometimes to no avail– to convince students that how well they do in school will matter later in life. Now they have data to prove it. A report published Monday in the Eastern Economic Journal by researchers from the University of Miami found that a person’s grade-point average in high school not…
The message on the Timber Creek High School website provided a gentle warning to the class of 2014: “The senior year is filled with many opportunities to make memories,” it read, “but unfortunately, these opportunities can become expensive.” With graduation ceremonies now looming, 12th-graders and their parents know all too well that senior year can…
The past decade has seen impressive growth in and commitment to helping more students graduate, fueled in part by a growing body of research on barriers. What has been missing from the current research, however, is a vibrant portrait of young people’s experiences gathered and reported in a way that deepens the national conversation about…
The FSBA 2014 Legislative Session Summary is now available on the FSBA website at www.fsba.org — click on “2014 Session Resource Center” or use this direct link: https://fsba.org/legislative-resource-center/. Our Summary is divided into two Parts — Part I provides details of the education related funding provided in the 2014-2015 General Appropriations Act and includes budget highlights and…
ORLANDO — Three hundred elementary schools — and likely at least a handful in Central Florida — will have to add an hour to their day next year, using the time for extra reading instruction, under the budget the Florida Legislature just approved. For the past two years, 100 schools with low FCAT reading scores had to extend their…