Florida School Boards Association
Florida high school students could soon ditch Spanish class in favor of computer coding. State Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) filed a bill Monday that would allow students to take two computer coding classes in lieu of foreign language requirements currently in place. Read full article
From Washington to the state Capitol, political stars are aligning for a major drive to expand charter and voucher schools – a double-barreled push sparking fear among defenders of traditional schools. President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Michigan school choice advocate Betsy DeVos as new education secretary is viewed as a clear signal he is serious…
The Republican Party has a firm grip on the Florida statehouse, but voters could be disappointed if they expect the 2017 legislative session to hum along like a finely-tuned sports car. Speaker of the House Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, and Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, may enjoy comfortable margins in their chambers, but the two…
Florida education funding could face tight times in the coming legislative session, with revenue low and competition for resources high. But key state senators told the state’s school board members this week that they remained staunch supporters of public schools, and they would work to direct as much money as possible into the system, while…
The Florida Department of Education launched a new website that will help Florida families make critical education decisions by enabling them to access school and district-level data and will better inform families about the state’s college and career ready standards and the quality of learning taking place in their students’ classrooms. The website is live…
A motivational speaker who worked in the White House. A mandatory seminar on sexual harassment. Breakout sessions on the death penalty, workers comp, Medicaid, the courts and the Florida retirement system. It’s all part of two days of member training next week in the Florida House of Representatives, with code numbers assigned to each seminar,…
Florida long has provided online report cards of the state’s public schools for parents and others to study. But its model falls short in several areas, according to a newly released review of similar report cards from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Read full article
According to a report issued by the Stanford History Education Group, which administered the Fukushima flower question and a battery of other “civic online reasoning” tests to students from middle schools to college ages, “young people’s ability to reason about the information on the internet can be summed up in one word: bleak.” The Stanford History Education…
Some new faces will oversee the education policy debates in the Florida Senate during the 2017 session, while a familiar hand will run education appropriations in the chamber. Senate President Joe Negron announced Tuesday that Sen. Dorothy Hukill, a Volusia County Republican, will chair the Education Committee with Sen. Debbie Mayfield, an Indian River County…
A popular, parent-backed proposal to require daily recess at all of Florida’s public elementary schools will be back before the Florida Legislature next spring. Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, filed a bill Tuesday that mirrors one that died in the spring — despite fervent support — when then-education policy chairman John Legg, R-Trinity, refused to hear…