GAINESVILLE - Last week, the Florida Board of Education approved a plan that would consolidate the two public schools in Jefferson County, Fla. and convert them to a charter school.

As the board voted, Bill Brumfield, the newly elected school board chairman, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank God," he said.

Thursday's vote ended months-long saga to win approval for a plan to turn around the struggling North Florida district.

And it sent one of the state's most impoverished and persistently struggling rural school systems down an uncharted course.

State board members remarked that Jefferson is preparing to launch a miniature version of the great experiment in New Orleans, in which the school district handed the operation of nearly all its public schools over to charter school providers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans "is a model, potentially, that can offer some hope" about what can happen when charter schools work with a district to raise student achievement, board member Rebecca Fishman Lipsey said, "especially where there's high levels of poverty."

Right now, four charter school operators may be candidates for the job. They include a network associated with one of Florida's largest management companies, the organization that revitalized public schools in a small Central Florida town, and a mom-and-pop Palm Beach County charter school founded by a Jefferson County native.

Over the next two weeks, the district will court these organizations, and try to find one that's up to the task.

"We're turning over to a charter school to save the district, for the children's sake," Brumfield told the state board, which rejected three earlier, state-mandated turnaround plans, deciding the district couldn't get the job done on its own.

Brumfield said parents, many of whom he'd taught over four decades as an educator, were ready for a big change.

"They all want this. They want something new," he said. "They see Governor's Charter [Academy] over in Tallahassee, and they want something like that, but in their community."

Decades of struggle

Jefferson County's school system is an outlier in many ways. (more…)

After calling for a moratorium on new charter schools, the NAACP started a seven-city fact-finding tour that stops in Orlando this afternoon.

Charter school advocates plan to make their presence known. Some, like Donyale Ferguson McGhee, the principal of Somerset Preperatory Academy North Lauderdale, say they weren't given a chance to formally testify, but they intend to offer public comments sending a message: "We are making a difference in lives of children."

The NAACP approved its resolution last year, despite a full-court press by charter school supporters. Leaders of the civil rights organization say they're not all-out anti-charter, but they want to halt the growth of charters while they look into concerns from segregation to student discipline.

McGhee, however, said that would deny some families the chance to enroll their children in schools that might work for them.

"I think that it works, and I think that we need to make sure that we give every parent a choice of whether or not they want their student to go to a charter school," she said.

Her school is part of a vast network operated by the management company Academica. More than 95 percent of its students are low-income, and more than 95 percent are children of color. The past two years, it's received C grades from the state for academic performance. Most importantly to McGhee, it has a 96.4 percent graduation rate.

"A lot of our kids told me in their personal testimony that they didn't know how they ever would have been able to go to college," she said. (more…)

Homework fight: Miami-Dade teachers and parents spar at a school board meeting over the amount of homework students are being given. Parents say too much is being assigned, cutting into family time. Teachers say the homework is needed because testing takes too much instruction time away from students. Miami Herald.

Testing transformation: Pinellas County school officials say younger students at struggling elementary schools are doing much better in new literacy tests than students in third, fourth and fifth grades. The differences are most apparent on language arts tests. Officials credit the use of biweekly tests, which are helping teachers see how well they've taught to the state standards and to catch students' weaknesses earlier. Tampa Bay Times.

Spending oversight: The Broward County School District is asking the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Education to oversee the district's spending of $800 million it is receiving from a voter-approved bond to renovate schools. Sun-Sentinel.

Students from Cuba: The Miami-Dade County School District is preparing for a "potential influx of child and adult learners" emigrating from Cuba after the death of Fidel Castro on Friday, says Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. CNN.

Education secretary: Betsy DeVos, a strong advocate of school choice with deep Florida ties, is nominated to be President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of education. redefinED. News Talk Florida. Politico Florida. Education Week. Groups that oppose the Common Core school standards are unhappy with the selection of DeVos as education secretary, even though she is now saying she does not support the standards. Sunshine State News. What will education in Florida look like with Donald Trump as president? Tampa Bay Times.

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Miramar High scandal: A 3,000-page report concludes that officials at Miramar High School allowed students to cheat, made questionable grade changes and showed favoritism to football players in 2014. Former principal Brian Faso and current assistant principal Cornelia Hoff deny any wrongdoing and say they will fight any disciplinary action. The football coach at the time, Matt Strout, was fired when the allegations surfaced two years ago. Sun-Sentinel.

Teacher evaluations: Florida officials said a new teacher evaluation system started in 2011 would be a "game-changer." Five years later, little has changed. Before the new rules were set, 99 percent of Florida's teachers were rated satisfactory. Under the new rules, 98 percentage of teachers are rated effective or better. Orlando Sentinel.

'High' high school: The Orange County School District is considering building a six-story high school in the southwest part of the county to meet the demand of growing school enrollment. One problem: The land the district is looking at is just 50 acres, which doesn't meet the county ordinance requirements of 65 acres for high schools in unincorporated areas. The school wouldn't open for at least six years. Orlando Sentinel.

After the storm: Schools in Leon and Wakulla counties will reopen Wednesday. Both counties are still trying to restore power and clean up schools after Hurricane Hermine hit the area late last week. Tallahassee Democrat. WFSU. Jefferson County schools also reopen Wednesday. WTXL. The Manatee County School District may consider using the first days of Thanksgiving week to make up two days lost to the storm last week. Bradenton Herald. (more…)

When he first came on the scene, he was in and out of prison, recording freestyles with his cousins in Southern California. But more than two decades after he first made it big, parents no longer fear him. He's at home in Katy Perry videos and Old Navy commercials.

In this way, longtime school choice advocate Howard Fuller said Snoop Dogg's trajectory parallels that of charter schools, which celebrated their 25th birthday this week during a national conference in Nashville. In the late '80s and early '90s, it may have been hard to imagine them breaking into the establishment, but now, for all the political battles they face, they've become entrenched.

"We're heading towards being mainstream," Fuller said during a discussion of what the charter movement can expect at future big anniversary celebrations. "I hope there's someone out there, selling mixtapes out of the back of their car."

In Florida, there are still educators launching innovative, inner-city startup schools on shoe-string budgets, from Orlando to Overtown. But in many cases, they aren't starting charter schools. They're starting private schools where students rely on school choice scholarships to cover tuition. The barriers to opening a new charter school are getting higher. Startup funding is harder to come by. While they get less funding per student than charters, these private schools are constrained by fewer regulations.

Fuller said charter schools need an "innovation strategy" that embraces entrepreneurial educators looking to break free from conventional schooling models. In that vein, he added, the school choice movement needs to think about all three sectors of public education — four if you count homeschooling — and how they fit together.

(Fuller also gave an opening speech that brought the house down, in which he called for the movement to refocus its energies on "the poor, disinherited, and dispossessed.")

Philanthropy only goes so far

The Walton Family Foundation decided to give charters a massive anniversary gift: $250 million for school facilities.

In a speech announcing the Building Equity Initiative, Marc Sternberg, the foundation's K-12 program director, said the foundation wants to help educators worry less about real estate, so they can focus on the classroom. Eventually, it hopes to create space in high-performing charter schools for 250,000 more students. (more…)

The Florida Board of Education sided today with three proposed charter schools in Indian River and St. Lucie Counties, overturning attempts by local school boards to stop them from opening.

After the decisions, one board member rebuked the school districts for creating roadblocks to new schools, which would replicate existing high-performing Somerset Academy charter schools.

"I think it is of benefit to our state for us to be as supportive and welcoming as possible to anyone — whether a traditional or charter school — that is doing great things for our students," Rebecca Fishman Lipsey told her fellow board members. Many of the objections to the proposed schools, she said, "seemed a lot like digging to find ways to potentially hold back someone from doing great things for kids."

The school boards in Indian River and St. Lucie Counties last fall rebuffed the charter school network, which is affiliated with the management company Academica.

Citing recent decisions by state appellate courts that blocked proposed replications of high-performing charter schools, the districts argued the proposed schools would not "substantially" replicate existing high-performing charters in Somerset's network.

Attorney Collette Papa said the proposed St. Lucie school and the Broward school it was trying to replicate shared the same "educational program design." The extant and future school would both serve middle-school grades, which wasn't true in the recent court cases.

Suzanne D'Agresta, an attorney for the Indian River school district, said she was concerned the proposed charters in her district would run afoul of a federal desegregation order, and did not offer detailed plans for recruiting black students.
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A network of schools affiliated with one of Florida's largest charter school management companies is set to square off with two Treasure Coast school districts in a series of appeals before the state Board of Education.

The cases, set to be heard during the board's Thursday meeting in Tallahassee, center on an issue that has already landed in two state appellate courts and underscored one of the core tensions between Florida's school boards and its largest charter school networks.

What power do local school boards put the kibosh on high-performing schools that want to expand into new territory?

If charters with good track records and high academic ratings want to "substantially" replicate their operations in other places, Florida law helps clear the path. School districts that reject high-performing charter replications have the burden of proving the charters don't meet requirements in state law.

But what, exactly, it means to "substantially" replicate a high-performing charter school has been the subject of multiple legal battles, and is the crux of three cases involving proposed Somerset Academy charter schools.

The Somerset network is affiliated with the charter school giant Academica. This fall, despite pleas from parents and some high-profile backing, school boards in Indian River and St. Lucie Counties rebuffed its attempts to replicate some of its existing schools. (more…)

School grades: After months of delays, the Department of Education releases Florida school grades for 2014-2015. The grades are similar to the projections issued in December, and will become the baseline for comparison to future grades. Twenty-two of the state's 67 districts received A grades. None received an F, and only two received a D. A grades were given to 1,169 of the state's 3,219 schools. B grades were given to 642 schools, while 859 got a C, 365 got a D and 184 got an F. The next round of Florida Standards Assessments testing is just two weeks away. Department of Education. Tampa Bay Times. Sunshine State News. WFSU. Miami Herald. Tampa Tribune. Orlando Sentinel. Sun-Sentinel. Palm Beach Post. Florida Times-Union. Pensacola News Journal. Florida Today. Fort Myers News-Press. TCPalm. Bradenton Herald. Naples Daily News. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Gainesville Sun. Ocala Star Banner. Tallahassee Democrat. Daytona Beach News-Journal. Northwest Florida Daily News. Panama City News Herald. Daily Commercial. Lakeland Ledger. St. Augustine Record.

Fresen and charters: Florida Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, has been pushing hard in the Legislature to limit public school capital spending and to force districts to share that money with charter schools. But he's also an executive for Civica, an architecture firm that builds charter schools. Civica has built many schools for Academica, charter school management company in Florida that employs Fresen’s brother-in-law and sister as executives. Fresen sees no conflicts. “Nothing in this bill has anything to do with anything that I do for a living,” he says. Miami Herald.

Charter investigation: A Wellington charter school paid $48,000 to a company owned by the school's chairman for a loan that was never made. Eagle Arts Academy's payments to Gregory James Blount even continued after the Palm Beach School Board began investigating. Palm Beach Post.

Superintendent resigns: Polk County School Superintendent Kathryn LeRoy resigns and leaves with a $230,000 severance package. LeRoy has been a target for school board members since an investigation into complaints lodged against her by an associate superintendent. Board members say if she hadn't resigned, she would have been fired. Lakeland Ledger.

One-room school: The last one-room school in Florida is likely to close at the end of the school year. The principal of Duette Elementary is retiring and won't ask the Manatee County School District to renew the school's contract. It has just 11 students this year. Bradenton Herald. (more…)

School grading: The Seminole County School District is considering changes to its controversial middle-school grading system for assignments and tests, from the 0-4 method back to something like the traditional 0-100 model. Orlando Sentinel.

Charter schools controversy: Academica's for-profit charter school Doral Academy has narrowly won approval to open in Jefferson County, Colorado. Academica runs charter schools in Florida, and last year the Miami Herald has reported the company is being scrutinized by the U.S. Department of Education's inspector general. Colorado Independent. Convicted felon Demetrio Perez Jr. has borrowed $56.2 million in mortgages for 70 properties in Miami-Dade County, including the Lincoln-Marti charter schools. Perez served six months of house arrest in 2002 for defrauding elderly tenants in low-income apartments. Real Deal.

School achievement: Indiantown's Warfield Elementary School is full of poor students, many of whom speak only Spanish, but has been earned an A grade from the state for 11 consecutive years. How does it do it? TCPalm. A Volusia County schools program aims to get minority students and struggling ones into more advanced education classes. Daytona Beach News-Journal.

District pay raises: Administrators and non-instructional employees in the Lake County School District are getting a raise. Daily Commercial.  Orlando Sentinel. Polk County teachers are angry over the lack of progress with the school board over pay raises and teacher evaluations. Lakeland Ledger. A group within the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association is urging teachers to reject the latest contract proposal from the school district. Tampa Bay Times.

District funding: The Polk County School District is asking the legislative delegation for help with capital improvements and extra money for early learning and reading programs. Lakeland Ledger. The Manatee County School Board should resume imposing impact fees on development, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune editorializes. (more…)

Virtual schools. Florida Virtual School is battling proposed budget cuts, reports Associated Press. A state investigation finds online provider K12 Inc. employed three teachers who lacked proper certification to teach some subjects, reports StateImpact Florida.

Magnet schools. A Hillsborough high school best known for its football program starts an academic program heavy on dual enrollment. Tampa Bay Times.

Charter schools. Neighbors are upset about plans for a 2,000-student Academica charter school in East Kendall. Miami Herald.

District charter schools. The Polk district's Step Up Academies for struggling students (no connection to Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog) are being asked by district officials to be even more like schools within schools. Lakeland Ledger.

Common Core. Protesters at the Capitol, reports StateImpact Florida. Tony Bennett's thoughts on PARCC, also from StateImpact Florida. (more…)