12 amendments proposed: The Style and Drafting Committee of the Constitution Revision Commission has consolidated 24 proposals into 12 amendments that it is recommending for the November ballot. Three education-related ideas -- school board term limits, requiring a civics course for graduation and allowing the state to create a new entity to authorize charter schools -- are consolidated into a single amendment. The other education proposal, which would allow high-performing school districts to have the same regulatory flexibility as charter schools, would stand alone. The proposals must be approved by the full CRC by May 10. Proposed amendments must be approved by 60 percent of the voters to be added to the state constitution. Miami Herald. News Service of Florida.
H.B. 7069 lawsuit: Lawyers on both sides of the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Legislature's 2017 education law present their arguments to a Leon County judge and ask for a summary judgment. Those challenging H.B. 7069 say it strips local school boards of their constitutional authority, creates a separate system for charter schools outside local district control and changes the way local taxes are collected and spent. Lawyers for the state say the plaintiffs say provisions of the law are political decisions outside the court's jurisdiction, and that the plaintiffs don't have standing to bring the suit. Judge John Cooper did not rule Gradebook.
No bonuses for you: More than 1,000 Duval County educators have discovered that they won't be getting their expected bonuses from the state under the Best and Brightest scholarship program. A revision in the law limits the bonuses to current classroom teachers, and excludes such employees as academic coaches, deans of students and school counselors, media specialists, psychologists, social workers, specialists and others. The district says it's in no financial position to step in with payments for those who are missing out. Florida Times-Union.
Fighting against charters: Leon County School Superintendent Rocky Hanna is ignoring the recommendation of a review committee and is asking his school board to reject the applications of two companies that want to build charter schools. Hanna says the schools aren't needed, and that he doesn't like that charters don't have the same regulations as public schools. "If we start opening mom and pop schools on every corner we’re going to slowly bleed our traditional schools to death. ... Until we have some type of oversight on their expansion, I’m going to keep denying these requests," said Hanna, who further explains his position in an op-ed column. The board votes on the applications April 10. If they are rejected, the charter schools can appeal to the Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee Democrat.
Graduation rates warning: The Duval County graduation rate could drop 10 percentage points next year because the state is raising the scores students need to pass alternative tests to the state's assessments, warns assistant superintendent Kelly Coker-Daniel. She says as many as 1,000 students who complete the course requirements but can't pass the Florida Standards Assessments standards take an alternative test, such as the ACT or SAT, to meet the requirements for graduation. The state recently announced it was sharply raising the passing grades for all tests. Florida Times-Union.
Security in schools: Brevard County students and residents will discuss a proposal to arm school employees at a town hall meeting Saturday in Satellite Beach. The meeting is one of 100 or so Town Halls for Our Lives being held around the United States. Meanwhile, Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey makes his pitch for arming school employees by citing a 1764 school massacre. "To those that want to use this most recent tragedy for anything but finding a solution to protect our children, I say: 'Stop it,' " Ivey demanded in a Facebook video. "This is not about politics, the Second Amendment or automatic weapons. ... It's about implementing strategies that will stop an active shooter today, not two years from now." Florida Today. The Volusia County School District is considering hiring a private firm to provide security at county schools. WFTV. Improving school security in Martin County will cost $12 million, school board members are told. They are considering raising the sales tax or property taxes. TCPalm. Citrus County officials are trying to determine if the Academy of Environmental Science, the only charter school in the county, will be required to have a resource officer. AES has just 73 students. Citrus County Chronicle. (more…)
School shooting video: A circuit court judge rules that video taken outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the shootings Feb. 14 that killed 17 people must be made public. Several news organizations had sued the Broward County Sheriff's Office and the school board for refusing to release the video, arguing that it was crucial in analyzing law enforcement’s response. The judge ruled that prosecutors didn't prove how releasing the video could hamper the ongoing investigation, but delayed the release until Thursday to give the sheriff and school board a chance to appeal. Sun-Sentinel. Associated Press. Miami Herald.
Walkout Wednesday: At least 2,500 U.S. schools expect students to stage a walkout Wednesday to protest the shootings at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Feb. 14 and call for stricter controls on guns. The walkouts are expected to start at 10 a.m. and, in many cases, last 17 minutes to honor each of the 17 murdered victims. Sun-Sentinel. Students around the state plan to participate in the walkout, and schools are deciding how they will deal with it. Fort Myers News-Press. Bradenton Herald. Gainesville Sun. Northwest Florida Daily News. St. Augustine Record. The 74. Six things to know about the National Student Walkout. Education Week. About 500,000 people are expected to congregate in Washington, D.C., March 24 in the March For Our Lives rally calling for school safety and stricter gun laws, and other rallies will be held in cities around the country, including Parkland. Sun-Sentinel.
New education bills: The school safety bill and the K-12 and higher education bills got most of the attention, but other education-related bills also were passed in the Legislature. Here are some of them. Gradebook. Private schools that accept state scholarship students will have some new rules to follow under the new education bill, H.B. 7055. The state will now be permitted to visit all private schools, starting in 2019, and provisions will make it harder for those schools to hide criminal convictions of owners or file phony fire inspection reports. But they'll still be able to hire teachers without college degrees. Orlando Sentinel. H.B. 7055 also boosts school construction funding for K-12 schools and higher education institutions. News Service of Florida. The Legislature created a scholarship program to help bullied students move to private schools. It's the first program of its kind in the United States. Will it start a national trend? TrustED. U.S. News & World Report. Here's a recap of the biggest issues in the Legislature this year, as well as some of the bills that passed and failed. News Service of Florida. Associated Press. News Service of Florida. (more…)
Graduation rate rises: Florida's high school graduation rate rose 1.6 percentage points in 2017, to 82.3 percent, according to figures released Wednesday by the Florida Department of Education. The rate has gone up steadily since the 2006-2007 school year, when fewer than 60 percent of students got diplomas. Gilchrist County had the highest rate in the state, at 93.4 percent. Nassau and St. Johns were next at 90.9 percent, and Suwannee (90.5 percent) and St. Lucie (90.1 percent) were the other districts over 90 percent. Gadsden's 50 percent rate was the lowest. Florida Department of Education. News Service of Florida. Orlando Sentinel. WTXL. Palm Beach County's graduation rate jumps by almost 3 percentage points to hit an all-time high of 85 percent. Palm Beach Post. Boca News Now. Sun-Sentinel. Duval, Baker and Clay counties all show gains in their graduation rates, while Nassau's and St. Johns' drop slightly. Florida Times-Union. WJXT. Escambia County's graduate rate increases by 3.4 percentage points in the past two years, and Santa Rosa's has gone up 0.7 percentage points. Pensacola News Journal. The high school graduation rate rises in St. Lucie County, but falls in Martin and Indian River counties. TCPalm. Graduation rates top 80 percent for the first time in all four Tampa Bay area counties: Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando. Tampa Bay Times. WUSF. WTSP. Polk County's graduation rate jumped 3.6 percentage points, to 75.4 percent. Lakeland Ledger. The Manatee County graduation rate slips, but stays above 80 percent. Sarasota's rises incrementally. Bradenton Herald. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. SRQ Magazine. Alachua County's graduation rate jumps 4.3 percentage points, to 82.7 percent. Gainesville Sun. The Bay County graduation rate dips more than 2 percentage points and is below 80 percent. Panama City News Herald.
Capital for charters: Florida charter schools will get $91.2 million from school districts as part of a capital funds sharing program approved by the Legislature last year. The money comes from local districts' property taxes collected for building and maintaining schools. Districts with high debt service won't have to share their funds. The fund-sharing is part of last year's education bill, H.B. 7069. Gradebook. The Flagler County School Board will vote next week on a mediation agreement that would require the district to share money with a charter school in the district. Imagine School at Town Center has been asking for money from the district since 2012. Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Legislative preview: Fighting over the state budget is expected to dominate the Legislature in this election year. The top education issues being considered are potential revisions in H.B. 7069, which boosts charter schools, expanding Bright Futures scholarships and a bill providing scholarships for bullied K-12 students. Other issues include a bill requiring completion of a financial literacy course to graduate, an effort to expand computer coding, the use of schools as emergency shelters and a bill that would allow some employees to carry guns into schools. Tampa Bay Times. Tallahassee Democrat. Orlando Sentinel. News Service of Florida. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Associated Press. Palm Beach Post. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Schools face sanctions: Thirty-one Florida private schools face possible sanctions for failing to file financial reports as the state requires by the Sept. 15 deadline. The law requires any private school that receives $250,000 or more in Florida Tax Credit Scholarships for low-income students or Gardiner Scholarships for students with special needs to submit reports to the nonprofits that administer the scholarships. Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer both scholarship programs. redefinED. A troubled Pine Hills private school will close if it can no longer receive money from the state's scholarship programs, the school's attorney tells the Department of Education. Agape Christian Academy filed false fire inspections, hired people with criminal records and failed to pay its employees, according to records, leading to a state ban on any state scholarship money going to the school. Education Commissioner Pam Stewart will make a decision on the school's appeal of the ban. Orlando Sentinel.
Private school restrictions: A bill is filed that would prohibit individuals who have filed for bankruptcy within the past five years from operating private schools that accept students who receive state scholarship money. Filed by Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, the bill would apply to the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, which serves more than 100,000 students. Orlando Sentinel.
Test-subbing questioned: Florida's plan to let school districts decide whether to substitute state standardized assessment tests with the SAT or ACT probably won't work, according to a report prepared by the Assessments Solutions Group and presented to the Florida Department of Education and the Legislature. The study's authors say neither of the college admissions exams meet all of Florida’s academic standards for algebra 1 or for 10th-grade language arts. And because the two national exams would produce different results than the Florida Standards Assessments, it wouldn't produce fair results for the school grading system, they argue. The $420,338 study was mandated by H.B. 7069, the education bill that passed the Legislature last year. Orlando Sentinel.
Teacher bonuses: State Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee, files a bill that would end the state's Best and Brightest bonus program for teachers and principals. She also has objections to using SAT and ACT tests to help determine if teachers are eligible, and to giving principals bonuses based on the number of teachers in their school qualifying for the bonuses. "I have a problem with this Legislature's focus on one-time bonuses vs. annual salary increases," she says. "It's not a responsible way for people to be able to plan their lives." Gradebook.
Contract negotiations: The Brevard County teachers union is encouraging its members to work only the hours and duties required by the contract as a way of protesting the latest pay raise offered by the district. The district is offering a 1.3 percent pay raise, or $600, for teachers rated "effective," and a 1.8 percent raise, or $875, to "highly effective" teachers The union wants $200 more than the offer for each set of teachers. Florida Today.
ESSA plan: After federal education officials recently raised questions about Florida's plan to comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act, the state asks for an extension beyond the Jan. 4 deadline to rework the plan. State officials say they are still reviewing the letter federal officials sent that questions the state's plans to measure how individual groups of students perform and to consider progress made by English-language learners when holding schools accountable for student learning and progress. "We acknowledge that USED may not be able to provide a final determination within the 120-day period in the law," Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart wrote in her request for an extension. "Our focus is the successful completion of the 2017-18 school year as school districts continue to recover from Hurricane Irma and embrace the nearly 9,000 students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as a result of Hurricane Maria.” Politico Florida.
Active shooter training: The University of Central Florida is using video game technology to help train teachers on how to react to an active shooter scenario. The $5.6 million technology was developed by the Homeland Security Department and the U.S. Army, and is similar to the program used to train soldiers in combat tactics. "With teachers, they did not self-select into a role where they expect to have bullets flying near them. Unfortunately, it’s becoming a reality,” says chief project engineer Tamara Griffith. “We want to teach teachers how to respond as first responders.” Associated Press.
Bonuses mistakenly paid: Twenty-seven Leon County School District employees wrongly received about $180,000 from the state's Best and Brightest teacher bonuses program, according to a recent report from the Florida auditor general. The audit showed that 21 teachers who received $143,155 in bonuses were not rated as "highly effective," a requirement to be eligible for the payments. Another six who received $40,902 weren't eligible because they didn't meet the state's definition of a classroom teacher. All must repay the district, which in turn will send the money to the state Department of Education. The audit also raised concerns about a lack of competitive bidding to select health insurance companies and the security of personal information for students. Tallahassee Democrat. WTXL. WCTV.
Feds order ESSA revise: The U.S. Department of Education says Florida is among 10 states that will have to revise their plans on implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act. The department's letter to Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart says the state's plan does not fulfill ESSA requirements in three areas: identifying schools with large achievement gaps between student subgroups, including English-language learners' proficiency scores in the state's accountability system, and providing the state's tests in students' native language. The letter informs the state it has no choice but to change its plan to comply with ESSA. Education Week. Politico Florida.
Graduation rates: Florida school districts are expecting graduation rates for the class of 2017 to fall because the state's new education law, H.B. 7069, won't allow them to count students who left for private schools. Legislators fashioned the bill to stop districts that were suspected of funneling students who couldn't pass the state's test to alternative schools, where they could graduate without passing the tests. But many educators think the law unfairly penalizes schools that try to help students who struggle with the traditional graduation path. TCPalm.
Personalized learning: A pilot program on personalized learning would be opened to any school district in the state under bills filed by Rep. Jennifer Sullivan, R-Mount Dora, and Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg. A 2016 law created the pilot program for school districts in Pinellas, Palm Beach, Lake Seminole counties, and the P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, to experiment with “competency-based learning” that allows students to progress at their own pace. The bills would also change the words "competency-based" to "mastery-based." redefinED.
Suit dismissal denied: A Leon County circuit judge denies the state's request to dismiss a Palm Beach County School Board lawsuit against a portion of the education law, H.B. 7069. The district says the law is unconstitutional because it infringes on the rights of local school boards by requiring them to share local property tax money with charter schools. The state says the Palm Beach board's “claims are based on erroneous interpretations of the Florida Constitution” and contends the state has the authority to supervise the public school system. News Service of Florida. Meanwhile, the Florida Supreme Court is transferring another case, this one brought by nine school districts alleging that H.B. 7069 violates the constitutional single-subject rule for laws. The case will now be heard in a Leon County circuit court. The education bill began as a six-page proposal but expanded to 274 pages and dozens of subjects in the final days of the 2017 legislative session. Gradebook. Florida Politics. redefinED. Politico Florida.
Pay raises coming: The Broward County School Board approves a pay raise proposal for teachers. Most teachers will get a raise of at least 2.5 percent, while ones rated as "highly effective" will get up to 3.6 percent. The raises are retroactive to July, and will appear in teachers' paychecks in January. The deal, which was approved by 91 percent of the teachers who voted, will cost the district $24.3 million. Sun-Sentinel.
Teachers honored: Chasey Niebrugge, an exceptional student education teacher at River Hall Elementary in Alva, is chosen as the Lee County School District's teacher of the year. WBBH. Fort Myers News-Press. Four finalists are chosen for the St. Johns County School District's teacher of the year award. They are: Amy Grimm, 1st grade, Julington Creek Elementary; Kathleen Hunting, 2nd grade, Osceola Elementary; Chassity Johnson, 8th grade math, Sebastian Middle; and Jonathan Higgins, psychology, Pedro Menendez High. The winner will be announced Jan. 24. St. Augustine Record. Joseph Underwood, who teaches television production at Miami Senior High School, is one of 50 teachers in the world chosen as finalists for the 2018 Global Teacher Prize awarded by the Varkey Foundation. The winner receives $100,000 a year for 10 years. Patch.com.
Schools of Hope: Thirty-three struggling Florida schools have applied for extra money through the state's Schools of Hope program. This is the second round of applications. In the first round, 50 schools applied for the extra $2,000 per student, but only 11 were accepted. The state is limiting the number of schools in the program to 25. The state Board of Education is expected to announce the winners next month. Gradebook.
Proposed amendments: A committee of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission approves two proposed constitutional amendments - one that would set term limits for local school board members at eight consecutive years, retroactive to 2016, and another that would require school district superintendents to be appointed rather than elected. The proposals still have to be approved by 22 of the 37 commissioners before they can be placed on the November 2018 ballot. Then, 60 percent of voters would have to approve to put the amendments into effect. Gradebook. Politico Florida. The move to require school superintendents to be appointed riles some superintendents from rural areas. Politico Florida. The panel also will consider a proposal that would allow entities other than local school districts to oversee charter schools. The proposal was made by Erika Donalds, a Collier County School Board and CRC member. redefinED.
State responds to suits: Lawyers for the state are asking a a Leon County circuit court judge to dismiss a lawsuit against six provisions in the new education bill, H.B. 7069. They argued that the 13 districts bringing the suit don't have the standing to challenge five of those provisions. They also say claims that the law will harm local schools is "speculative." The sixth provision in the law requires districts to share more local tax revenues with charter schools. It is being challenged by the Palm Beach County School Board. State lawyers point out that districts are already required to share some local tax money with charters. redefinED.
