Florida School Boards Association
In 2016, expect standardized testing reform to be front and center among the Legislature’s education deliberations yet again. After an effort in the 2015 session eliminated some tests students have to take that lawmakers said were duplicates, state Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, the education budget chairman and former Senate president, says he’s going after even…
DetailsBAY COUNTY– Bay District School officials are still working their way through a report handed down from the Department of Education. The department contracted a third party group, Alpine Testing Solutions, to examine the validity of the Florida Standards Assessments which students are required to take each year. The almost 200-page report states that the tests are…
DetailsNotice regarding next week’s FSBA’s Board of Directors’ Leadership Development and Training; Board of Directors’ Meeting: Please be aware that we are closely monitoring the path and conditions of Tropical Storm Erika. Florida is currently expecting heavy rains on Monday and Tuesday next week; Wednesday should see a clearing of the weather event. If these…
DetailsGAINESVILLE—Education commissioner Pam Stewart on Wednesday said she expects to receive the results of a third-party review of Florida’s new state assessments by next week but offered no detail as to what the department will do if the tests are invalidated. “We’re waiting on results of the validity study, and as soon as we have…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE — Some lawmakers hope to ditch Florida’s controversial new state exams by requiring the Department of Education to instead administer existing national exams, like the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills or the SAT college entrance exam. State education commissioner Pam Stewart rejected the idea when it was originally proposed by Seminole County Public Schools,…
DetailsThe National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) nationwide include a new universal meal service option, the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which has been phased in by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) over the past several years. CEP was created through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, and allows…
DetailsEvery year, many state and local public officers and employees receive automatic fines because they file their annual financial disclosure forms late or not at all. The fines are $25 a day, and continue to accrue until the official either files the form, or the fine reaches $1,500—whichever comes first. In addition, recent changes in…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s new online standardized test was the target of a cyberattack that caused delays at some schools, officials said Monday. The state’s top law enforcement agency has launched an investigation right as school districts are in the middle of giving the test, based on new standards linked to Common Core. The…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE — Nearly 40 percent of Florida’s 2015 high school graduates who took the ACT failed to meet all four of the test’s performance benchmarks predicting success in college. According to data released by the organization that develops the ACT, 130,798 students, or 79 percent of the state’s class of 2015, took the college entrance…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE — Among Gov. Rick Scott’s legacies after two terms in office will be the role he plays in the next remake of the state Constitution. Florida’s Constitution allows for a “revision commission” to meet every two decades to propose possible changes to the constitution, and Scott selects 15 of the 37 commissioners and a…
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