Florida School Boards Association
As the state Legislature prepares to convene for a special session in hopes of hashing out a health care compromise — and passing a balanced budget — school districts across the state are in a budget limbo. Districts rely on local taxes and state allocations to function. But without a finalized state budget, school financial…
The panel asked to choose a firm to review the validity of Florida’s new testing system doesn’t appear to have much work to do when it meets Friday. Only one group has submitted a bid to do the work. A partnership of Utah-based Alpine Testing Solutions and Washington, D.C.-based edCount LLC proposed to do the evaluation…
The name of the most famous home-schooled athlete is bringing new currency to a debate that’s been going on for decades. With the National Federation of State High School Associations’ membership split on the issue, the group is serving as a venue for discussion. The name Tim Tebow elicits a wide variety of reactions across…
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Education is funding a $1.6 million, three-year study of the effectiveness of virtual schooling in Florida, one place where online learning is fast growing. University of Michigan economics and education professor Brian Jacob says there are “enormous gaps” in what’s known about how well online learning…
Even if the much-debated bills to revamp Florida high school athletics won’t be passed in 2015, the ideas aren’t dead. The bills – House Bill 7137 and Senate Bill 948 – would’ve created more-lenient eligibility rules for transferring student-athletes and revamped the Florida High School Activities Association. The House passed 7137, but its premature adjournment…
Dennis Mope’s dream of running a network of military-themed charter schools for at-risk students ended quickly and with little warning this month in Jacksonville and Orlando. Two of Mope’s Acclaim Academy charter schools closed abruptly, displacing hundreds of students just three weeks before the end of the school year. A third school in Kissimmee was…
Leon County Deputy Jon “Bubba” Etheridge has been walking the halls of Tallahassee schools for more than a decade. His goal, like that of the other 21 School Resource Deputies assigned to cover 45 schools, is to help kids and their families address drug and alcohol problems before they result in life-altering problems. They want…
One young lady was diagnosed with Stage IV pediatric cancer and created a support group for teenage cancer patients. Another took a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich and turned it into 3,000 to feed the homeless. And a young man whose little brother has autism started a school club that’s raised $70,000 to help…
BUNNELL — As they wait for state lawmakers to approve a budget, local officials cheered a call from the state Board of Education to increase school funding to its highest levels. Flagler County officials and employees attended the state board meeting Wednesday at the Government Services Building in Bunnell. Board members unanimously passed a resolution…
This week brought news of more trouble with Florida’s school testing system. It’s been a familiar refrain this spring: Students across the state sit down to take a computerized test mandated by law, and they can’t log on. Or they can, but then they get logged off. Or something else goes wrong and the tests…