Federal inquiries: The federal government is launching yet another investigation into the way black students are treated by the Pinellas County School District. The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights will look into a complaint filed by the Southern Law Poverty Center that contends the district disproportionately disciplines black and disabled students. In April, the Office for Civil Rights began an investigation of the district's assignment of students by race into gifted programs, and whether black students were given equal access to district resources. Tampa Bay Times. The Office for Civil Rights has also opened an investigation into a claim that the Bay County School District failed to evaluate several students’ eligibility for special education services, The inquiry will be added to an existing one filed in 2012 that accuses the district of disproportionately disciplining minority students. Panama City News Herald.

Funding squeeze: Key state senators say they remain committed to public education, but funding will be tight as resources are stretched. They told the Florida School Boards Association on Thursday that their priorities for this legislative session are higher teacher pay, less testing and added accountability measures for choice programs. Tampa Bay Times. The Central Florida Public School Boards Coalition issues a 10-point legislative agenda. The coalition, which includes school officials from 13 central Florida districts, is asking for more local authority over funding from the state, and to restore state funding to 2007 levels. Bradenton Herald.

Report card fail: Florida grades poorly on how it provides online data to parents, according to the Data Quality Campaign's Show Me the Data study of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Florida makes its information available in English only, requires parents to make three or more clicks on district websites to view report cards, and doesn't include all the information required by the federal government. Florida did have the most up-to-date data online. Gradebook.

Bush on reform: At the Foundation for Excellence in Education’s annual conference, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush calls for massive changes in federal education funding and policy. He urged cutting federal requirements on state and local education decisions and allowing increased school choice. redefinED. The 74. Sun-Sentinel. (more…)

APALACHICOLA, Fla. - Belinda Cassidy came to the Apalachicola Bay Charter School hoping to be hired as a teacher assistant. After walking the halls and seeing some of the classrooms for its younger students, she realized she was interested in more than a job.

She saw children spread out across classrooms, working with manipulatives. They were playing, but they also seemed to be learning. There wasn't a worksheet in sight.

"When I saw that, I told my husband, 'Whether I get that job or not, our kids are going here,'" she said.

She got the job, and her three children left a nearby private school to join her.

While she may not have known it at the time, she was about to join one of the most successful teams of rural educators in Florida.

Looking through state accountability reports, it's hard to find a school that enrolls as many economically disadvantaged students and matches the academic results of this charter school, which sits a few blocks off the main drag in a small fishing village on Florida's Forgotten Coast.

State records show 99 percent of the students in the school are economically disadvantaged, and it serves more minority students than the lone public school run by the local Franklin County district. When the most recent round of school grades came out last month, the ABC School received its fourth-straight A. Fewer than a dozen schools in the state achieved a similar feat.

Teachers and administrators say having an assistant in every two classrooms (one per grade level) goes a long way toward explaining the ABC School's results. The aides allow teachers to do things they couldn't on their own, working with students one-on-one or in small groups. They help prepare weekly reports on student learning, and can present material in different ways, doubling the chances lessons will click with students.

The aides help overcome another challenge rural and small-town schools face: Recruiting qualified teachers. After four years as an aide and two years substituting, Cassidy began teaching middle school math this year.  Chimene Johnson, the principal, said it's fairly common for assistants to make that jump. (more…)