In the fourth-largest school district in the nation, students who attend their assigned neighborhood public school are now in the clear minority.
Choice programs are becoming increasingly popular in Miami-Dade. Some 60 percent of Miami-Dade public school students — around 215,000 students — enrolled in some form of choice program, including charter schools, in 2016, compared to 41 percent in 2011.
That's just public-school students. Miami-Dade also has Florida's third-highest rate of private school attendance. So while more than 40 percent of Sunshine State students choose options other than their zoned public school, the South Florida district is in another league.
MIAMI - On a typical Friday at Kingdom Academy, nine- and 10-year-old entrepreneurs would be chasing profits — for a cause.
Randon Perry would be on the mic, hyping up crowds that gathered around The Stars, a performing-arts enterprise. The boys behind The Beast would offer sports lessons for a fee. The social media-savvy #Sweets hawked confections, but faced stiff competition from Pieces of Joy's baked goods.
Fourth-graders at this diverse private school in western Miami-Dade County spend their first semester learning business concepts and doing market research. (The proprietors of The Beast found out through a SurveyMonkey poll of their classmates that basketball, football and soccer were the most popular sports.) They launched their ventures in January, offering real products and services to classmates for real money. They split the end-of-year proceeds between Autism Speaks and another charity of their choice.
Fourth-graders at Kingdom Academy, a Miami-Dade private school, show off businesses they launched to hone their financial acumen.
The animal lovers behind Pieces of Joy sent their profits to PetsSmart Charities. They were the top earners, netting $160 after the cost of supplies. Their flagship product, cake pops, commanded $2 apiece. Daniella Vega, the lead supervisor, explained their appeal: "You can take cake anywhere, and just eat in your hand."
The school embraces project-based learning, building lessons for each grade around a theme that helps students connect their classroom to the real world.
In Kindergarten, students probed the question: Where does food come from? Fifth-graders explored what makes America's government different from other governments around the world.
Fourth graders learned what it would take to become a young entrepreneur.
But at Kingdom Academy, children have to demonstrate financial acumen at an even younger age. (more…)
Schools that received A's in Florida's latest round of school grades while serving large proportions of disadvantaged students tend to share at least one of two features in common: Either they're charter schools, or they're located in Miami-Dade County.
The state Department of Education released letter grades this morning based on public schools' achievement in the 2014-15 school year.
Because this is the first round of scores based on new state assessments, and there isn't enough data to calculate learning gains, the A-F ratings released this morning are considered a baseline for future years.
Some schools that serve large numbers of low-income students saw their grades fall. Those schools tend to earn higher marks for learning gains, which measure student progress from one year to the next, than they do for student proficiency. (more…)
As a spate of sudden failures has brought Florida's charter schools under a microscope, the state’s second-largest school district stands out.
Broward County is home to more charter schools than most states. And no district in Florida has shuttered more charters that opened since the 2012-13 school year. Some of those schools foundered shortly after they opened, uprooting students and sometimes leaving the district on the hook for millions of dollars.
A review by a national organization finds the district could be doing more to curb the problem.
The report, along with a similar evaluation of neighboring Miami-Dade County, sheds new light on a sometimes-overlooked dimension of Florida's charter school debate: The role of districts in stopping charter applicants who are not qualified to run schools.
Completed this summer by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) and obtained through a public records request, the review finds a "lack of rigor" in Broward’s process for reviewing charter school applications, which seemed "focused on statutory compliance rather than a quality assessment of a school’s likelihood of success."
Leslie Brown, the district’s chief portfolio services officer, said Florida law ties authorizers’ hands. Districts might spot red flags with charter schools that want to open, but as long as an application meets all the requirements in state law, a district that says “no” risks being overturned on appeal.
"There's a bit of a gap between what this national association includes in their principles and guidelines,” she said, and “what we have to do in Florida with regard to charter schools."
Sudden failures have created black eyes for the state’s more than 650 charter schools, prompting calls for change from charter boosters and critics alike. The turmoil became the subject of award-winning investigations by two newspapers, including one by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that focused largely on Broward.
Katie Piehl, NACSA’s director of authorizer development, said Florida charter schools are three times as likely as their counterparts nationally to fail within a year of opening, which has prompted her group to make the state a priority.
With few exceptions, districts are the only groups allowed to authorize charter schools in the state, which makes them the first line of defense. Piehl said district officials sometimes feel hamstrung by state law, but when it comes to weeding out weak charter applicants, some do better than others.
"You're able to see some districts that are able to, within the confines of the existing law, make high-quality application decisions," she said.
There are different ways to slice and dice the data on charter school failures, but Broward appears to be ground zero for the problem. It's seen more first-and-second year closures than any other urban school district in Florida, and significantly more Miami-Dade County, its larger neighbor to the south.
While districts are getting more stringent in their reviews of charter school applications, Broward's approval rate remains relatively high, according to numbers state officials recently presented to a state legislative panel.
This graph by the Florida Department of Education shows Broward has recently approved applications at a higher rate than other urban districts.
NACSA's report acknowledges Broward’s charter school office has a small staff tasked with vetting dozens of applications and a growing portfolio of roughly 100 schools, while contending with a "seemingly ever-changing and limiting state statute."
At the same time, it says Broward's "current interpretation of Florida law hampers its work and creates an open- door mentality, yielding approval of applicants that then close within the first few months of operation."
The latest release of national test results puts Miami-Dade County Public Schools among the best urban districts the country for low-income students.
This week's release of the Nation's Report Card brought its share of bad news. Amid the falling or stagnant test scores, there were a few apparent bright spots. Chicago was one. Washington, D.C., long the toast of education reformers around the country, was another.
And then there was Miami-Dade. The nation's fourth-largest school district was among the handful of urban districts where both eighth-graders and fourth-graders either raised their scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or at least held mostly steady, in both reading and math.
Like Florida as a whole, its solid results look even better after accounting for student demographics.
Few districts rival the performance of Miami-Dade's low-income readers. Of 22 urban areas included in this year's Trial Urban District Assessment, only Boston comes close.
Of 22 urban districts, Miami-Dade and Boston had the best reading performance among students who qualify for free- and reduced-price lunch. Source: Nations Report Card/NAEP.
In fourth-grade reading, where Florida students have long excelled, Miami-Dade's students from low-income families have made steady progress. (more…)
School choice. The school system needs to be tailored to individual students' needs, Miami-Dade's superintendent writes in a back-to-school op-ed touting the expansion of the district's school choice programs. Miami Herald. Duval students return with more choices available. Florida Times-Union.
Failure factories. Part two of a Tampa Bay Times investigation of five struggling elementary schools is here. District officials address the public. A columnist offers up ideas.
Back to school. More districts around the state start classes today. Miami Herald. Tampa Tribune. Daytona Beach News-Journal. Stuart News. Leesburg Daily Commercial. Manatee's new chief says the district needs to do better in the coming year. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Officials need to ensure students are ready to learn, the Herald-Tribune editorializes. Groups help low-income and homeless students get ready for school. Tampa Tribune. Miami Herald. Bradenton Herald. Gainesville Sun. Orange and Brevard Counties expect enrollment jumps. Orlando Sentinel. Florida Today.
Tax credit scholarships. Crux looks at the impact scholarship programs in Florida and elsewhere are having on Catholic schools.
Charter schools. A high-poverty charter school for girls prepares for the new school year. Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Teacher evaluations. Why do so few Broward teachers get top marks? Sun-Sentinel.
Discipline. Miami-Dade rolls out a new approach in time for the start of school. Miami Herald.
Growth. Manatee schools are brimming with students. Bradenton Herald. More here.
NCLB. Florida gets its federal waiver renewed. Gradebook. School Zone.
Special needs. A former homecoming king with Down syndrome and legions of fans succumbs to pneumonia. Orlando Sentinel.
Learning disabilities. Duval opens a new school for children with dyslexia. Florida Times-Union. (more…)
Miami-Dade County Public Schools have created an expansive school choice system.
As the Miami Herald reports, the school district is also starting to create a transportation system to match. It's easier to manage a bus system when students are largely confined to neighborhood zones.
Choice schools — whether it’s a magnet, charter or advanced curriculum program – don’t typically provide transportation. Carpooling becomes difficult when your neighbors attend classes across the 2,000 square miles that make up Miami-Dade County. More than half of Miami-Dade students now attend a school they hand-picked.
For some, the commute is more than a hassle — it’s an impossibility that can cut a student off from the best school for his or her needs. With an eye towards equity, the Miami-Dade County school district is expanding busing options for some students when classes begin August 24. Eight schools will provide busing this year, serving 800 students, according to the district.
“We know transportation is impacting the ability of kids to get to some of these programs,” said Sylvia Diaz, an assistant superintendent overseeing school choice.
Charter schools. A charter school advocate rings the alarm on facilities funding. Gradebook. WFSU. redefinED.
Home schooling. The Alachua school district creates a task force to review its policies. Gainesville Sun.
Uniforms. Miami-Dade prepares a plan to take advantage of a new state incentive program. Miami Herald.
Back to school. Hillsborough's new superintendent fires up teachers during a pre-school-year rally. Gradebook. School supply drives help needy students prepare. Bradenton Herald.
Teacher quality. This is the last year of a Gates-backed grant program to provide teacher mentors in Hillsborough. Tampa Tribune. A teacher bonus plan is panned. Highlands Today. Incentive programs should be based on research, a state Board of Education member says. Gradebook.
Unions. Duval Head Start employees vote to unionize. Florida Times-Union.
Campaigns. A candidate enters the ring for Lee County School Board. Fort Myers News-Press.
Charter schools. A high-tech charter middle school grows into a new location. Sun-Sentinel. A national group looks to Florida to test a new charter school screening database. Gradebook. A Collier charter school will remain without transportation this year. Naples Daily News.
Internships. Bank of America offers summer jobs in Jacksonville. Florida Times-Union.
Spanish. Miami-Dade public schools look to boost Spanish instruction. Miami Herald.
Teacher pay. Collier district officials remain at odds with teachers over raises. Naples Daily News. (more…)
While Miami-Dade County is home to more charter schools than most U.S. states and more than one in four students receiving Florida tax credit scholarships, it's also home to some of the most vibrant district-run school choice systems in the country, which is expected to grow even larger in the coming school year.
This week the district touted its plans to add 53 new choice programs, including new magnets at 12 schools, an Italian Language academy, and a career academy focused on cybersecurity. That will bring the total number of choice options to more than 500.
"This is by far the far the most dramatic, robust expansion of educational programs in the history of our school system," Miami-Dade schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in a video report by local NBC affiliate WPLG.
StateImpact Florida reports the district plans to beef up its transportation network to support its school choice programs, which enroll more than half its students.
