Note: Step Up For Students publishes this blog and employs its editor as well as the author of this post.

As early as sixth grade, Lacey Nowling knew her love for children was calling her to become a pediatrician.

Living in the tiny town of Jay, Fla., in the far northwestern reaches of the panhandle, she had a clear vision of her future.

But certainty turned to doubt as her school work got harder and harder in ninth grade.

“She had bad grades,” Lacey’s mom, Elizabeth Nowling, recalled. “She was running D’s and F’s most of the school year. She was just barely making it by the skin of her teeth.”

At the same time, Lacey was feeling more and more out of place at her neighborhood school. Because of the bad influences there, she was becoming distracted from her schoolwork. Then, the only thing that was keeping her at that school – band – fell apart as well.

“Band was my safe place,” she said. “Band was what kept me going.”

The last straw was at band camp when Lacey, a piccolo player, unwittingly broke a rule by drinking Gatorade on the field. The director chided her in front of the band and made her stay in a push-up position for the rest of practice.

“After practice we went back to the band room, and I went into the bathroom and cried,” Lacey said, still emotional as she recounted the event years later. “It was a few weeks later when I quit.”

For months, Lacey’s mother had been pushing her to transfer to Faith Christian Academy, a private school at their church. Lacey was now open to the change.

Her younger brother, Zack, was already attending FCA with the help of the Step Up For Students scholarship, which gives parents the ability to choose from more than 1,600 participating private schools statewide. (more…)

At least 13 private schools that accept the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship have applied to administer the FCAT and end-of-course exams next year.

The schools, mostly faith-based and in South and Central Florida, have submitted their applications to the Florida Department of Education, which will decide in August whether to approve them.

DOE spokeswoman Tiffany Cowie said there may be more schools that made the March 1 deadline, but the department won’t know the final number until the mail is cleared towards the end of the week.

A state law passed in 2012 allows private schools with at least one student receiving the tax credit scholarship to offer the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and/or end of course exams, which are required in public schools.

Of the 13 schools that applied, eight signed up only for EOCs.

“The FCAT is a dinosaur,’’ said Principal Sandra Basinger of St. Mary’s Catholic School in Brevard County, where her seventh- and eighth-graders hope to take EOCs in Algebra I and Geometry next spring.

Like a lot of Catholic schools, St. Mary’s administers the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to its students in grades 2-8. The test is as good as if not better than the FCAT, Basinger said. And with Florida phasing out the state assessment for other tests in line with the new Common Core standards, “really, I just don’t think it would be worth it,’’ she said.

James Herzog, associate director of education for the Florida Catholic Conference in Tallahassee, said in an email to redefinED that he has heard the same sentiment from other Catholic schools.

“From a practical standpoint, it would … not make any sense for Catholic schools (or most other nonpublic schools) to offer the FCAT for a year or two only and then have to switch again to something else … ,’’ he said.

Herzog originally anticipated 30 to 40 Catholic schools would apply to give the FCAT.

“Obviously, I was way off,’’ he said. (more…)