Florida School Boards Association
Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart called it “welcome news.” County school superintendents say it confirms their worst fears about the botched rollout of the Florida Standards Assessments and suggest the test results are worthless. So you read the following annotated excerpts from the just-released $600,000 study by Alpine Testing Solutions of this year’s FSA and…
Public speakers were evenly divided at a Tuesday public hearing on the Sarasota County School District’s plans to build and fund as many as 11 schools by 2040. Of the four public speakers, two spoke in favor of reinstating the impact fees, one-time charges on new construction to offset the cost of growth. Two, including…
In conjunction with the first of three public hearings, the Florida Department of Education has released its educator and reactor panels’ recommended cut scores for the Florida Standards Assessments. The proposal, in a lengthy slide presentation, shows recommendations for math and language arts exams at several grade levels. Generally speaking, if applied the suggested levels…
Florida testing and the use of the results will be front and center Thursday afternoon as the Senate Education Committee holds a 90-minute hearing on the aftermath of HB 7069, the bill adopted last spring to cut back on some (but not all) of the excesses that generated so much criticism over several months. Much…
For weeks now, Palm Beach County schools have struggled to get students to classes on time. Bus routes have been redrawn. And the district sent up flares, looking to hire anyone who wants to drive a bus. It’s the first crisis new superintendent Robert Avossa has had to face since taking over the job in…
As one of Stephen Colbert’s first Late Show guests this week, presidential candidate Jeb Bush invoked the now-familiar story of how he reformed education in Florida. “The government plays a useful role, but it ought to be reformed,” Bush told his host. “That’s why when I was governor of the state of Florida, I turned…
TAMPA — Robin DeVault’s 15-year-old daughter knew there were problems with the Florida Standards Assessment the second she saw the test. “She was quite upset. She got in the car and said, ‘Mom, that was an epic fail,’” said DeVault, president of the Hillsborough County Council PTA. “You don’t want to hold students and teachers…
The Florida Legislature is anticipating a $635 million budget surplus in 2016, money that some state lawmakers are already hinting will go towards more tax cuts and education funding, among other things. The budget projection comes just a week before legislators return to Tallahassee to begin early work in preparation for the next regular legislative…
The rollout of Florida’s standardized tests was so hampered by glitches that students “shut down” after having their answers lost over and over again, and others may have accidentally gotten a peek at questions a day before they had to answer them. A recently released survey of Florida school districts that use the controversial Florida…
The charter school movement has been expelled from Washington state’s public education system, with a Supreme Court ruling late Friday that the privately run schools are not public schools under the state’s constitution. Meanwhile, the quick fix for that sizable hurdle sought by the state’s charter school proponents—a special legislative session—does not appear likely because Washington’s public education…