Testing standards toughened: The Florida Board of Education adopts tougher standards for the state exams high school students must pass to graduate. The board also eliminated the Post Secondary Education Readiness Test, one of the alternatives for students who don't pass the state exams. Alternatives to the state tests are now the SAT, ACT and just-added PSAT, though the board also boosted the scores needed on those tests to qualify for graduation. The new standards go into effect for students entering high school this fall. Educators protested the changes, saying they will significantly lower graduation rates. Orlando Sentinel. Gradebook. News Service of Florida. Politico Florida. WFTS. Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart announces that she's retiring Jan. 8, the day Gov. Rick Scott leaves office, though she says she's open to staying on if the next governor asks her to. Stewart has been in the job since 2013, when she replaced Tony Bennett after he resigned. Gradebook.
Schools of Hope: The Board of Education also approves two new Schools of Hope operators, bringing the state's total to four. Schools of Hope qualify for special financing and grants to expand services and increase instructional time. Officials for KIPP New Jersey and Democracy Prep Public Schools say they look forward to working with school districts and the state to put schools in areas where traditional public schools have struggled. KIPP is helping create a new school in Miami in a partnership with the Miami-Dade district, while Democracy Prep wants to complement KIPP in Miami and is also looking into places like Polk and Hillsborough counties. redefinED.
Employee of the year: Stephanie Melton, an exceptional student education behavioral health assistant at W.E. Cherry Elementary School in Clay County, is selected by the Florida Department of Education as the 2018 school-related employee of the year. She wins $10,000. The other finalists -- Sylvester Jones of Bay County; Jermaine Green of Miami-Dade County; Debra Canning of Pinellas County; and Sarah Woods of Sarasota County -- each win $6,500. Florida Department of Education.
Governor's education budget: Gov. Rick Scott's $87.4 billion budget proposal includes a request to increase per student spending by $200, to $7,497, boost the state's voluntary pre-kindergarten program by $12 million, add $23 million for Bright Futures scholarships, and give $18 million to help teachers buy classroom supplies. Scott would pay for the increases by keeping property tax rates the same and allowing increasing property values to drive up revenue. The proposal now goes to the Legislature for consideration. News Service of Florida. Gradebook. Associated Press. Florida Politics. Orlando Sentinel. Politico Florida. Florida Times-Union.
H.B. 7069 challenge: Nine Florida schools boards contend that the new education law, H.B. 7069, violates the law by dealing with more than one subject, and are asking the state Supreme Court to void it. Two other lawsuits have been filed against the law by school districts, but this one focuses solely on the single-subject issue and is asking for immediate action. “Waiting for a trial-court determination and its subsequent appellate review will allow irreversible damage to the function of the public education system to occur throughout the state of Florida,” the lawsuit states. The nine school boards are from Alachua, Bay, Broward, Hamilton, Lee, Polk, St. Lucie, Volusia and Wakulla counties. News Service of Florida. Politico Florida. The Collier County School Board votes to join at least 13 other districts in suing the state over the education bill because it requires public school districts to share property tax revenues with charter schools. Naples Daily News.
ESSA plans: Florida's accountability plan for complying with the Every Student Succeeds Act is weak in the category of encouraging schools to focus on all students, not just low performers, according to an evaluation by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank. Florida was one of 13 states considered weak in this area. The state was given an evaluation of strong in the other two areas weighed: in the clarity of the ratings to parents, educators and the public, and in the fairness of the rating system for all schools, including ones with high levels of poverty. The 74.
Education budget plans: The Senate appropriations subcommittee approves a plan to increase preK-12 education spending by $535 million. The panel chairman, Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, says retaining current property tax rates would let localities collect hundreds of millions of dollars more as property values increase. “We don’t consider the additional amount of taxes they pay to be a tax increase. We consider it incidental to the increase in value in the property,” Simmons said, as a response to the House's insistence that it is a tax increase. The Senate and House education budgets are now almost $540 million apart. The Senate budget also includes no money for the teacher bonuses program. Simmons implied the program would become part of negotiations between the Senate and House, which has $214 million set aside for the bonus program. News Service of Florida. Politico Florida. Miami Herald. Naples Daily News. WFSU.
School improvement: The House Education Committee takes up a school improvement bill today that would set aggressive requirements for districts to turn around academically struggling schools. Turnaround plans would be required for schools receiving D or F grades from the state just a few months after the grades are issued. If the plans do not raise the school grade to a C within three years, the schools would be labeled "persistently low-performing" and districts would have to close them, convert them to a charter, or bring in an outside operator. Districts would no longer have the option of carrying out their own turnaround plans. redefinED. Gradebook.
School HQ evacuated: An infestation of vermin and blow flies has forced the evacuation of the Okaloosa County School District Administrative Complex in Fort Walton Beach. The administration and school board members will work from the Niceville Central Complex until further notice. "I'm not going to have them stay some place that I'm not going to stay in," says Superintendent Mary Beth Jackson. "We've tried to put Band-Aids on and fix it, but I'm afraid we may be a bit past that now." Northwest Florida Daily News.
Charter school laws: Florida ranks eighth in the nation in a recent analysis of states' charter school laws, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Indiana was rated No. 1. Florida ranks highly on autonomy and accountability, for not having caps on the number of charter schools allowed, and for providing a strong appeals process for applicants that are denied. The report notes that state still provides inequitable funding to charter schools. redefinED. (more…)
No homework: Mandatory homework is out at Henry S. West Laboratory School, a public K-8 in Coral Gables. School officials say students will no longer be graded on homework or penalized if they don't finish the optional assignments. Principal Barbara Soto Pujadas says the school's families are overstressed and overscheduled. Miami Herald.
Neighborhood schools: The concept of neighborhood schools is shrinking, as school choice, magnet schools and charter schools give students and their parents more options than the school around the corner. More than 130,000 south Florida students are now in charter schools, which is double the number from a decade ago. And next year, parents can send their children to any public school in the state that has space available. Sun-Sentinel.
Recess for schools: Duval County parents start a petition drive to have 20 minutes of recess every day in every elementary school in the county. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti is resisting, saying he doesn't want to force the requirement on teachers even as he is encouraging them to accept research that says students do better academically if they get free time. Florida Times-Union. Associated Press. (more…)
Principal power: Principals in seven Florida counties would get more authority and money to turn around underperforming schools under a bill passed by a House committee on Thursday. Broward, Duval, Jefferson, Madison, Palm Beach, Pinellas and Seminole counties could apply for $100,000 under the program and $10,000 for each participating principal. Politico Florida.
Reading program: University of Florida researchers are asking the state for money to start an intensive reading program for underachieving students. The program teaches students decoding, a process that includes seeing words, breaking them into individual sounds and then articulating the sounds. A test in October at two failing St. Petersburg elementary schools showed significant improvement by students, according to a report. Politico Florida.
Charter school funding: Charter schools should get state money for construction and building maintenance because they don't qualify for local money, according to House Appropriations Committee chairman Richard Corcoran. The House budget would give charter schools $90 million and public schools $50 million, The Senate bill has no such money for charters. Politico Florida.
Recess mom Q&A: Angela Browning, a paralegal with three children in Orange County schools, helped start a movement by moms to have recess restored to elementary schools. In this Q&A, she discusses why she got involved and why it's important. Education Week. (more…)
