Florida School Boards Association
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos released final non-regulatory guidance to support school districts’ compliance with the requirement that federal funds supplement, and do not supplant, state and local funds, under section 1118 of Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).…
Parents: Can’t make heads or tails of the Every Student Succeeds Act? The U.S. Department of Education has put together a cheat sheet for you. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos unveiled the “parents’ guide” at a roundtable in Mississippi, with parents, students, and educators, as part of her four-state “Rethink School” tour. Read More
Florida has finally gotten its federal education accountability plan accepted. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos sent Florida commissioner Pam Stewart a formal letter acknowledging the approval on Wednesday. Florida had been the only state in the nation not to have an approved plan. It went through five revisions — including one submitted on Monday — before DeVos…
Florida remains the only state that hasn’t received approval of a federally mandated education plan. Now, civil rights groups are weighing in on the delay. The Every Student Succeeds Act gives states latitude in creating systems for measuring student success, but they still have to be accepted by the U.S. Department of Education. Read More
Florida issued its annual batch of school grades last month. Each elementary, middle and high school got an A, B, C, D or F. Those grades certainly matter if a school consistently earns a D or an F. According to state law, such low performers risk being closed, converted to charter schools or turned over…
When the Every Student Succeeds Act was first passed in late 2015, Florida officials pledged that they’ll do everything in their power to keep their long-standing accountability system mostly intact. That’s despite the fact that the federal law has several new requirements that states must abide by. They include factoring in the test scores of…
What to do? President Donald Trump’s administration has in many ways held up Florida’s education system as a model for the nation. It’s hired many former Florida education officials to top jobs in its own education department. Yet Florida’s proposed plan to meet federal Every Student Succeeds Act standards is now the only one that remains…
Question: Is highly qualified teacher still required under ESSA? The short answer: Nope, you can toss the phrase “highly qualified teacher” into the trash, as far as the law is concerned. The longer answer: ESSA got rid of the requirement in the law it replaced, the No Child Left Behind Act, that teachers must be…
After several delays, the Florida Department of Education submitted its revised Every Student Succeeds Act plan to the federal government in mid April. Some civil rights group leaders want U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to do to the second version what she did to the first — reject it as noncompliant with federal law. Read…
The Florida Department of Education sent in its revised federal school accountability plan Monday, months after the U.S. Education department said multiple revisions were needed. In its updated version, the state said it had filed for a waiver of certain testing rules for middle school students in science and math, so they do not have to…