Over the past half century, Florida has changed from solidly Democratic to a two-party state that media, candidates and analysts watch closely to see which way the nation’s political winds will blow. How did this happen? Why, going into the 2016 election year, does Florida qualify as a premier swing state? Florida’s political evolution began…
Beginning this fall, high school football players in Florida will be limited to no more than 80 minutes of live contact in practices per week during the regular season, the Florida High School Athletic Association announced Monday. The new policy, which defines live contact as “a drill in game-like conditions” and “the only time that…
There is a problem in Florida classrooms and it starts with a lack of teachers. In Walton, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties, school officials are turning to year round recruiting and hiring and other innovative ways to attract the brightest and the best. According to the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), for the 2015 to…
TAMPA — Statewide scores on the Florida Standards Assessment showed modest gains this year, the Florida Department of Education said Friday as it released a large batch of results. Closer to home, there were gains and losses in the Tampa Bay area. Pinellas math scores were up. Hillsborough students dropped a bit in English. And…
Click here to view the most current results
Florida schools are preparing for next year’s rollout of one of the nation’s most unrestricted open-enrollment laws allowing students to more easily cross district lines to go to school—a practice that has grown slowly nationwide amid both statutory and practical hurdles. Nationwide, 23 states had some type of mandatory, interdistrict open-enrollment laws in 2015, prior…
Five things you should know: State BOE Vice Chair calls for Computer Science to be front and center Students from military families to be monitored Gain a better understanding of how non-college goers fared in the years after graduation ESSA’s supplement vs. supplant firestorm “Final Straw” stressors associated with teen suicide identified in new survey
TALLAHASSEE — Throughout Florida, parents of third graders who refused to take state exams are consulting attorneys about their legal options for fighting school districts’ plans to hold back their children. Florida law prohibits third graders who fail state reading tests from being promoted to the fourth grade, unless they are granted a “good cause”…
In their proposed rules on school accountability, federal officials are attempting to walk a fine and aggressively scrutinized line. They say they’ve tried to offer the meaningful flexibility to states and districts under the Every Student Succeeds Act that many say the law requires, while answering the call to make sure that all students are…
Ann MacFarlane, a longtime observer of civic and nonprofit boards, has seen some interesting “hands on” approaches in school boards across the country. Some examples: A board member who is a CPA decided that he was not satisfied with the district’s financials, so he prepared his own version…