Florida School Boards Association
TALLAHASSEE — A controversial plan from a Broward County Democrat to require high schools to offer computer coding courses and let students count them toward foreign language requirements was heralded Thursday as “novel,” “innovative” and “forward-thinking.” But some members of the Florida Senate, as well as some local school district administrators, question how costly the…
Perhaps it is fitting that in the same week that school districts must tell the Department of Education how many teachers qualified for the state’s very controversial Best and Brightest bonus, the Florida House Education Committee will consider legislation to make the one-time measure permanent. Senate Education Committee chairman John Legg, meanwhile, filed his own…
How best to set proposed “cut scores,” or passing rates, for the new Florida Standards Assessments continues to divide state Board of Education members and state Education Commissioner Pam Stewart. The board plans to set the cut scores in January and continues to debate whether the scores should be set higher than what Stewart recommends…
TALLAHASSEE The chairman in charge of crafting the Senate’s education budget proposal signaled again Thursday that Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s plan to increase K-12 education dollars primarily off the checkbooks of local taxpayers isn’t going to fly. Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, is preparing his fellow senators to consider other options including ones that would require…
Gov. Rick Scott took his campaign for a billion dollar tax cut in 2016 directly to lawmakers last week, making a rare appearance at a House committee meeting when his budget director Cynthia Kelly briefed lawmakers on his budget recommendation. The $79.3 billion spending plan represents a 1-percent increase over the current state budget. It sparked…
Elsa of Arendelle, from Disney’s “Frozen” movie, runs straight 100 pixels, turns right 90 degrees, and then repeats steps one and two three more times. The outcome? The princess ice skates in the shape of a square. These are the very basics of computer science in block-based coding form that students are starting to learn…