Despite Florida’s testing validity study, schools still need to know which third graders scored lowest on the Florida Standards Assessments language arts exams to help them decide whether the children should move to fourth grade or not. They got the list of students in the lowest 20 percent on Thursday. That’s the level at which…
A committee designed to advise Florida education commissioner Pam Stewart on standards, testing, deregulation and other hot topics has set its first meeting of substance for later this month. Stewart announced she would create the Keep Florida Learning Committee back in December, amid the clamor parents, teachers and others angry over the state’s testing system. Hundreds of…
U.S. CENSUS REPORT ON EDUCATION SPENDING The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual report on Education Spending. The Report provides comprehensive national and state-by-state data and statistics on a variety of education funding issues. School board members and others may find this information useful in their advocacy efforts, particularly as the Legislature is working…
LAKELAND | Polk County’s teachers won’t be evaluated based on student performance this year, The Ledger discovered Tuesday. An education bill passed into law in April reduced student performance from 50 percent to 33 percent of a teacher’s evaluation score. But the Polk County School District has decided it will not be used at all,…
TODAY’S HAPPENINGS In the House Finance & Tax Committee: The committee considered Proposed Committee Bill (PCB) FTC1 that provides a tax cut package valued at approximately $435 million. The bill was filed as HB 33-A. In the Senate Appropriations Committee: The Committee amended and passed SB 2-A — Health Insurance Affordability Exchange which offers premium…
Dunbar High School students have done it again! Because of their exceptionally high scores on Microsoft Office certification tests, students Bennett Hunter (11th grade), Tyler Millis (11th grade) and Ian Sexton (12th grade) have been named tops in the State of Florida in Microsoft PowerPoint 2013, Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Excel 2010, respectively. Competing…
TALLAHASSEE — A contrite Legislature returned to the capital Monday with a series of concessions and the goal of quieting the bitter intraparty feud over health care that sent lawmakers into overtime. The House, which left the regular session three days early, gaveled open the session as loudspeakers blared the Beatles tuneCome Together, and then…
In response to a previous study which made the case that online classes are not as effective at community colleges, the US Department of Education is funding a $1.6 million study concerning the effectiveness of virtual schooling in the state of Florida to take place over a three-year time span. A previous study presented at the…
Florida’s testing season has ended. The final bell of the school year is near. Yet so much about the state’s new exams has changed or remains in limbo following a spring filled with testing problems and new legislation. State and local education officials are scrambling to decipher the new laws and implement them for students,…
FSBA 2015 LEGISLATIVE SESSION SUMMARY — PART I FSBA’s Legislative Session Summary – Part I provides detailed summaries of the education related bills that were passed during the regular Session. In addition to the detailed Summary, we have conducted two Education Legislation Webinars on these bills. The first webinar focused on HB 7069 and the…