Florida School Boards Association
The Florida Department of Education has released practice questions for the new assessments that will replace the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test next year. The tests, which are aligned to the new Common Core-based Florida Standards, are available at the Florida Standards Assessments website. Some questions are similar to what students might have seen on the…
DetailsJob openings for STEM positions take longer to fill than openings in other fields. The median duration of advertising for a STEM vacancy is more than twice as long as for a non-STEM vacancy. For STEM openings requiring a Ph.D. or other professional degree, advertisements last an average of 50 days, compared to 33 days…
DetailsForget the FCAT. Think FSA instead. Florida’s 15-year-old test officially gave way Monday to the Florida Standards Assessment, with the launch of a new website that gives a first look at the state’s new accountability exams. “We wanted parents and students and teachers to see the different types of questions there might be,” said Vince…
DetailsMore Florida students soon will be eligible for private-school vouchers under controversial legislation recently signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott. Here are the details: Q. What does the new law do? The new law expands the Tax-Credit Scholarship Program, which already provides private-school scholarships to low-income students, from $4,880 to $5,272. That means parents…
DetailsJACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida’s school voucher program is no longer just for low income families. It’s been expanded to now include the middle-class. This comes at a cost to tax-payers and some say public schools will pay the ultimate price. Colleen Wood has two children that attend one of Florida’s highest ranking public school districts;…
DetailsThe League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC Florida) is disappointed that Gov. Rick Scott signed voucher expansion provisions for private schools in SB 850 into law, something that affects Latino students who are trying to learn English disproportionately in the state. In doing so Governor Scott ignored the issues raised by so many parent,…
DetailsSome Florida school district elected officials are joining the push by parent and teacher groups asking Gov. Rick Scott to kill SB 850, which lawmakers sent to him late last week. The bill does many things, such as requiring school districts to create collegiate high schools with their local colleges. But the lines that have riled…
DetailsNo matter what you’ve read or heard about the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education in Florida’s schools, the reality is that it’s been a tough six years for the idea that every Florida K-12 student should be scientifically literate. The science literacy cause reached its highest point on Feb. 19, 2008…
DetailsBill Gates knows a thing or two about product development. So when the Microsoft billionaire’s foundation recommends that states wait at least two years before assigning high-stakes consequences to new Common Core State Standards testing schemes, Tallahassee should listen. Maintaining Florida’s already discredited school grading scheme simply for continuity’s sake makes no sense. A change…
DetailsTALLAHASSEE — Parent and teacher groups are turning the pressure up on Gov. Rick Scott to veto a proposed expansion of the state school voucher program. Members of the Florida PTA, grassroots parent groups, the Florida Conference of NAACP, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the statewide teachers union have launched a campaign…
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