Florida School Boards Association
The Florida School Boards Association has formally adopted a resolution calling on Gov. Rick Scott to waive the use of 2015 state test results for school grades, personnel evaluations, student progression and other uses. The group also built upon superintendents’ request for a full review of the state’s education accountability program, which several groups have…
Florida’s accountability system is broken. Due to its hasty construction, a third of the questions for third-grade reading are not directly aligned to the standards they are supposed to measure. A lapse in the test construction process, moreover, failed to tie the complexity of the test questions to the proficiency levels being assessed. This FSA…
TALLAHASSEE — A stakeholder group representing school boards is formally pushing the state to halt the use of students’ test scores in accountability measures like teacher evaluations and school grades. The Florida School Boards Association’s legislative committee approved a resolution last week calling on Gov. Rick Scott and the state Department of Education to “waive”…
Before a friendly hometown crowd at the Boys & Girls Club of Marion County on Friday, state Education Commissioner Pam Stewart talked about the success and progress Florida public schools have seen in recent years. She talked about improving graduation rates, top 10 national rankings and the importance of mentoring programs. What she did not…
SARASOTA – More than 20,700 state exams in 2015 were not graded because students did not fill out enough answers, compared with about 5,600 similarly ungraded exams in 2014. While 20,700 incomplete exams seem like a lot, it accounts for only 0.6 percent of the more than 3.3 million tests taken in 2015. The Florida…
So many groups have called on Florida Gov. Rick Scott to “pause” the state’s school accountability rules for 2015, it seemed the right time to put the question to him (well, his press office, really). The response: “Governor Scott believes in accountability and results. DOE (Department of Education) will continue to follow the law.” All other questions…
Two key Florida civil rights organizations, along with three parent groups, have joined the growing crowd calling for reconsideration of the way the state’s spring test results are used. The NAACP and League of United Latin American Citizens Florida branches, Miami-Dade PTA, Fund Education Now and Parents Across America-Florida sent a letter Wednesday to Gov. Rick…
Escambia and Santa Rosa schools superintendents have joined others statewide to oppose using the Florida Standards Assessment to measure teacher performance and school grades. Malcolm Thomas, Escambia County School District superintendent, as well as Tim Wyrosdick with the Santa Rosa School District, said they support accountability but described the 2015 FSA as a very hastily…
Waking up early on a Saturday. Sharpened No. 2 pencils and a calculator. For teenagers headed to a four-year college, taking a standardized entrance exam such as the ACT and SAT is typically a requirement. But it’s far from a universal experience. In 50 of the largest U.S. cities, examined in a new report from…
Citing disillusionment with the Florida Department of Education’s rollout of the controversial Florida Standards Assessment, the tests’ validity and the consequences for students, teachers and schools, Alachua County Public Schools Superintendent Owen Roberts announced his resignation from a state-level testing and education review committee Tuesday night. Education Commissioner Pam Stewart established the Keep Florida Learning…