We have held off on reporting on the progress of the Education Budget Conference Committee because the first exchange of offers between the Conference Committee members produce significant swings in funding and policy that are not really indicative of the final result and, instead, can cause confusion. However, the chambers have now progressed in the…
DetailsCalling it an issue of school safety, the Florida House nearly unanimously approved a bill this spring encouraging schools to adopt “standard student attire.” The measure, not a Senate priority, died as the legislative session collapsed days before its official end. But now it’s back in special session. How does it live on? It carried…
DetailsIn its effort to restore some credibility to Florida’s testing system, the Legislature called for a validity study on this spring’s Florida Standards Assessments. One company bid. Alpine Testing Solutions asked for just under $595,000 for the work. Who will cover that price tag? State senators think American Institutes for Reseach, the firm that oversaw the…
DetailsJeremiah Begeansma drew a picture of a blue gun with a box around it to show that was “an important gun” and in a museum. The 7-year-old then explained that a super hero would swoop in before a “bad guy” could steal it and “do bad things.” Jeremiah’s pictorial tale — which he showed using…
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The legislature has made some progress in moving forward with the task of crafting the state budget. On Thursday, the House amended the Senates main appropriations bills by stripping out the Senate language and replacing it with the House version of each bill. The House version of each of these bills was then Laid on…
DetailsEducation Week takes a page from Elisabeth Kubler-Ross — who coined the five stages of grief — and outline the emotional stages of Common Core supporters and opponents. The math and language arts standards turn five years old this week. Florida schools are wrapping up the first school year of using their version of Common…
DetailsEdWeek’s annual Diplomas Count report shows that the U.S. high school on-time graduation rate has hit another all-time high with 81 percent of students graduating within four-years of entering high school. You may remember last month another report found the same. Both reports were based on similar data so it is not surprising they found…
DetailsDespite Florida’s testing validity study, schools still need to know which third graders scored lowest on the Florida Standards Assessments language arts exams to help them decide whether the children should move to fourth grade or not. They got the list of students in the lowest 20 percent on Thursday. That’s the level at which…
DetailsA committee designed to advise Florida education commissioner Pam Stewart on standards, testing, deregulation and other hot topics has set its first meeting of substance for later this month. Stewart announced she would create the Keep Florida Learning Committee back in December, amid the clamor parents, teachers and others angry over the state’s testing system. Hundreds of…
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U.S. CENSUS REPORT ON EDUCATION SPENDING The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual report on Education Spending. The Report provides comprehensive national and state-by-state data and statistics on a variety of education funding issues. School board members and others may find this information useful in their advocacy efforts, particularly as the Legislature is working…
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