Florida School Boards Association
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Governor Rick Scott recognized six educators who formerly served in various branches of the military with the Governor’s Shine Award for their service to our country and their contributions to Florida’s students. The Governor’s Shine Award is presented to Floridians who have positively impacted children through education. Governor Scott said, “It…
DetailsSchool districts aren’t the only ones raising concerns about a plan to standardize charter school contracts in Florida. Some charter school representatives have indicated they have concerns about the proposal, which is set to be taken up next week by the state Board of Education, and might consider challenging a state rule creating a standard contract…
DetailsFlorida school boards are questioning the constitutionality of standard charter school contracts as the state Board of Education gets set to vote on rules creating them. Their objections appear in hundreds of pages of recent comments and letters to the state Department of Education. The Florida School Boards Association wrote in July: “We view this as an…
DetailsWhen the Lee County School Board voted recently to rid its classrooms of state-mandated tests, it backed off the next day after realizing the state could punish it if it stood firm. Last month, the Pasco County School Board said it wanted to end the first semester of 2015-16 before winter break. But state law…
DetailsHoping to strike while interest remains high, groups advocating on behalf of Florida’s English language learners have begun circulating proposed changes to state law governing these children’s education. The organizations have begun working with South Florida lawmakers, whose constituencies include large numbers of non-English speakers, to promote rules they say would more fairly account for…
DetailsIf Florida stays its current course on standardized testing, Kim Johnson believes her son will become a casualty of the system when he starts third grade next year. He learns differently than other kids his age, but he’ll have to take a test that doesn’t account for those differences. And if he fails it, Johnson’s…
DetailsFlorida government leaders have challenged federal rules regarding when to count the test scores of children still learning English. It’s not fair to include their results in school grading measures, the officials argue, before the students are ready. Matt DiCarlo of the Albert Shanker Institute, who closely monitors Florida’s accountability system, contends that if the…
DetailsCalif.—For years, Craig Foster, a retired Wall Street executive turned public school activist, has been zipping up and down the Pacific Coast Highway seeking support for a split between Malibu, the mostly wealthy, mostly white city of beachfront bungalows and modernist mansions, and Santa Monica, the equally picturesque but less moneyed city that shares its…
DetailsVirginia’s legislators and governor should embrace a total ban on gifts of any value from private interests, including lobbyists, to lawmakers. I say this not because I think politicians can be bought with a free cheeseburger or Redskins tickets. I do not believe that at all, but it seems clear that a great majority of…
DetailsIn reflecting on former NYC Education Commissioner Joel Klein’s forthcoming book on his tenure leading the nation’s largest public school district, the New York Times‘ Frank Bruni notes that Klein refers to teacher quality as “the biggest factor in the education equation.” For years now, the voices talking about teacher quality have grown louder and louder. Each…
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