Florida School Boards Association
Florida faces a confidence crisis in its annual testing program. Last week, for the second time in two months, the computerized system crashed, the result of avoidable vendor errors. The upshot has been heightened challenges to Florida’s 15-year-old accountability model. Parents and education advocates question whether the state pushed online testing before its time. They…
Private schools in Florida are becoming vastly more dependent on state voucher programs that pay all or part of tuition for students with disabilities or from low-income families, an Orlando Sentinel analysis has found. The families of nearly 100,000 Florida students received vouchers worth about $544 million this year as the Legislature has steadily…
The Miami-Dade School District is taking advantage of a new state law and eliminating more than 300 final tests — also known as end-of-course exams. The law rescinds a requirement that districts give students a final exam in all subjects that don’t already have a required state exam. “Today’s announcement should come as welcomed news to everyone…
Miami-Dade County Public Schools has eliminated nearly all of the 300 District-Developed End-of-Course (DDEOC) assessments that were originally scheduled for Spring 2015. The move follows the passage of HB7069, a law that provides flexibility for districts to determine how to measure student progress, eliminating the state mandate for district-designated, end-of-course exams to be given in…
TALLAHASSEE — Blaming the federal government for Florida’s financial woes, Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday said he was prepared to call Florida lawmakers back for a special session to complete the budget — and even encourage them to pass a bare-bones budget if necessary. Scott also suggested one of his top priorities was in jeopardy:…
SANFORD, Fla. – School board members with Seminole County schools have directed the superintendent to have staff draft language for a waiver they wish to send to the Florida Department of Education seeking to use other national standardized tests. The tests, such as the PSAT and SAT, are 98 percent in line with Common Core…
TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Lottery today announced a new milestone of $28 billion in transfers to the state’s Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF) since opening its doors in 1988. In fiscal year 2013-14, the Lottery achieved record sales resulting in the transfer of $1.49 billion to Florida’s students and schools. The Lottery is currently on…
Glitches plagued the Florida Standards Assessment test statewide again on Monday, caused by a technical mistake by the test creator and vendor. Middle and high school students in Sarasota and Manatee counties were among those unable to log into the state testing portal on Monday morning, and testing was postponed. Previously scheduled afternoon testing went…
Florida Department of Education Commissioner Pam Stewart says school districts can resume scheduled tests. The department is blaming testing administrator the American Institutes for Research, for outages that stopped testing Monday. In a statement, Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said AIR made a technical change to its system that resulted in login problems when students…
MANATEE — After a technical glitch caused statewide outages early Monday, standardized testing started hours later in Manatee County schools. In a conference call with the state Department of Education and Commissioner Pam Stewart, every district across the state was told it had regained access to testing, “We have confirmed that the login issue has…