Florida School Boards Association
A proposal to eliminate some testing requirements for Florida schoolchildren won the unanimous support of a second House committee on Thursday. The real debate centered around an amendment proposed by Rep. Mia Jones. Jones, D-Jacksonville, proposed holding off on school grades during the transition to new standards and assessments — something superintendents, school board members…
There are six bills in the Florida legislature to loosen gun restrictions in school and emergency scenarios. One bill that is gaining momentum would allow concealed guns on college campuses in Florida. Students, faculty and parents gathered on the capitol steps, asking the legislature to slow down on those six bills. Richar Martinez’s 20-year -old…
A Florida House panel gave its unanimous support Monday to a bill that would reduce the amount of testing in public schools. A similar proposal passed out of its first committee in the Senate last week — albeit along party lines. A few members of the public weighed in on the House proposal on Monday,…
As the second week of standardized testing gets underway across Florida, a House committee is expected today to advance its plan to ease back on required assessments. But a Senate panel is on a similar course, but announced it wants to first learn more about the difficulties many counties have faced with administering the new…
Florida’s standardized exams that debuted last week suffered from cyber attacks that led to blank screens throughout the state as students attempted to take the tests, the Department of Education said Monday. Citing testing provider American Institutes for Research, the state education department said the hack, which is being investigated by the Florida Department of…
Last week, dozens of Florida school districts had to postpone state testing because of problems with the new Florida Standards Assessments. Students couldn’t log in to the online writing exam — and some who did were booted out and temporarily lost their answers. The problems seem to have been resolved Thursday. By Friday, more than…
TALLAHASSEE — A plan to scale back testing in Florida schools cleared its first vote in the Florida Legislature on Wednesday, winning the approval of the Senate Education Committee. Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican and former school superintendent, said the bill would “place a lid on too much testing.” But the vote did little…
The Florida House plans to move quickly on its testing bill, leaders said Thursday. “We’re going to try to get this to the floor as soon as we possibly can so we can alleviate all of the stress and uncertainty in the field,” House Education Committee Chairwoman Marlene O’Toole said. Her goal: to ensure “the teachers can teach,…
With technology glitches hampering testing in major school districts, a Senate committee on Wednesday advanced legislation that represents the first significant attempt to scale back the scope of exams in Florida’s public schools. In a 7-4 vote, the Senate Pre-K-12 Education Committee endorsed a bill (SB 616) that would cap testing time at no more…
The Florida Department of Education gave the all-clear to resume high-stakes testing on Tuesday, but South Florida’s largest counties postponed the exams as technical problems persisted for a second day. Florida’s testing failures instantly became fodder for state lawmakers as they opened their annual session. A pair of senators went so far as to call…