Florida School Boards Association
TALLAHASSEE — Pointing to a time crunch, a Leon County circuit judge has given the Florida Legislature little more than two months to draw new congressional districts and to defend them in court. Judge George S. Reynolds III issued an order Wednesday that said a special legislative session to redraw districts and a subsequent trial…
DetailsThe Senate on Tuesday defeated an amendment to the Every Child Achieves Act that would have allowed parents nationwide to opt out of federally-mandated state standardized tests without putting school districts at risk of federal sanctions. The chamber voted 64 to 32 against the amendment, proposed by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) amid a backlash against…
DetailsChristina Waters’s cellphone rang, and she looked down to see that the number was blocked. She knew immediately it was U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, just calling to check in. It has been that way since Waters attended a 2009 church picnic in Chicago and came away with a bullet lodged in her head from…
DetailsEarlier this week we told you about AMskills, a program bringing German-style apprenticeships to Tampa-area students. Another way Florida has tried to help school prepare students for jobs is the Career and Professional Education Act. The law helps businesses create academies within public schools to train students and help them earn professional certifications. Those certifications…
DetailsCongress is making another run at rewriting the Bush-era No Child Left Behind education law, even as the Obama administration urges changes it says would ensure that schools are held accountable when their students are seriously lagging behind their peers in better-performing schools. The Senate opened debate Tuesday on an update to the 2002 law,…
DetailsSARASOTA – Josh Mocherman, a nuclear science and chemistry teacher at Riverview High School, took the SAT 21 years ago. He does not remember what he scored, but his performance on the test he took during his junior year of high school could affect his pay as a teacher next year. The Florida Legislature this…
DetailsIt was a so-so legislative season for early education in Florida. A bill that would have raised health and safety standards for voluntary pre-kindergarten and school-readiness programs failed for the second year in a row. State leaders added no new money to voluntary pre-K, which serves 170,000 4-year-olds — while per-student spending remains well below…
DetailsInformation the Florida Department of Education recently sent to school district superintendents indicates that the state will distribute $60 million in Digital Classrooms improvement funds despite Gov. Rick Scott’s veto of a “gap analysis” that lawmakers had requested occur before the money is delivered. At least one lawmaker questioned whether the veto negatively affected the…
DetailsNot every high school student wants to or even needs to go to college, but graduating students without a college degree may have a hard time gaining entry or experience at companies hiring for high paying, high skilled jobs. A local program is trying to bring that experience to graduating students. Seven years in the…
DetailsPointing to choices made by parents, a state judge has ruled that a Southeast Florida school district cannot require a charter school to provide bus transportation to students. Administrative Law Judge Darren Schwartz, in a 45-page order issued last week, sided with Renaissance Charter School at Tradition in a long-running dispute with the St. Lucie…
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