Florida School Boards Association
PSAT/NMSQT Score Release Provides Students and Educators with Tools and Learning Opportunities In October, more than 4 million students took the PSAT/NMSQT. When students and educators get test results in December, they get much more than a score – they get an invitation to productive practice and a connection to distinct benefits and opportunities to…
Republican state Rep. Rene Plasencia is pushing a bill that would return control to local school boards to decide how to evaluate teachers. Plasencia, of Orlando, is rallying support for his House Bill 427, introduced in late October and referred to the House PreK-12 Innovation Subcommittee, PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee, and Education Committee. Read More
State Sen. Dennis Baxley, who once said controversy about evolution being taught in public schools “will never be over,” wants to make Florida school districts teach “controversial theories” in science subjects in a “balanced” manner. Baxley, R-Ocala, filed a bill Friday that would alter Florida’s academic standards in several key ways. His bill would give…
Bolstered by new research and federal incentives, experts decided about a decade ago that better teacher evaluation was the path to better student achievement. A flood of states started toughening their teacher-evaluation systems, and many of them did it by incorporating student-test scores into educators’ ratings. Read More
With the 2018 legislative session just weeks away, key failures of the 2017 Legislature continued to frustrate local elected leaders at separate meetings Tuesday in Collier County. Two positive steps the Legislature could take in the next session that starts in January are to immediately repeal — then start over on components of — House…
Raising the prospect of “irreversible damage” to the public education system, nine school boards want the Florida Supreme Court to block a massive education law approved in May.The school boards late Monday filed a constitutional challenge at the Supreme Court to the bill, which has become known in the education world by the shorthand HB…
The Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, along with seven Florida teachers are suing the state, the Florida Department of Education and all 67 public school districts. That includes university lab schools, Florida Virtual School and the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. At issue: whether the state’s “Best and Brightest” teacher…
How do you fix struggling schools? One idea: Pay teachers more. Teacher bonuses are among several ideas the Miami-Dade and Broward school districts have proposed as they compete for additional funding through a controversial new state program designed to rehabilitate Florida’s lowest performing schools while potentially supplanting them with privately run charters. Read More
Deer Park Elementary had a problem. Its discipline referrals and warnings were on the rise, with 433 incidents last year for 574 students, which didn’t bode well for the school’s academic performance. “There is a direct correlation between disruptions in the classroom and how well students learn,” said principal Margie Polen, who pointed to the…
Mor than half of the Florida traditional public schools eligible to vie for newly minted “Schools of Hope” grants submitted applications by Tuesday’s deadline, the Florida Department of Education reported. The program was a late add-on to a House proposal that set aside millions of dollars to support the creation of new charter schools to…