Charter schools: With little discussion, the Pasco County School Board finishes its long-term contract with Pepin Academies, allowing the charter school to move ahead with a fall opening. Tampa Bay Times.
School choice: Flagler parents and students will see more school choice options. Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Common Core: The state Board of Education approves revisions to the Common Core State Standards, ending a months-long debate over the controversial benchmarks. The Buzz. The changes keep calculus and cursive writing. StateImpact Florida. More from the Palm Beach Post, Associated Press and the Orlando Sentinel.
School grades: The head of the state's teachers union says Florida needs to suspend the A-F grading system while its schools transition to new testing and education standards. Sun Sentinel. Duval County's superintendent does not like the proposed changes to high-school grading formula. Florida Times-Union. Florida senators say they also will take a look at the state's school grading formula. Tampa Bay Times.
Test scores: A new study suggests college and university admissions offices place too much emphasis on SAT and ACT scores as predictors of academic success. Tampa Bay Times.
Legislation: A longtime Leon County educator urges the Senate Education Committee to remove language from a proposed bill that would allow high school students to replace one credit of physical education — a graduation requirement — with a course in computer programming language. Tampa Bay Times.
School choice: Florida's changing educational landscape requires policymakers to strike a balance when it comes to school choice offerings, writes Duval County School Board member Jason Fischer for Context Florida.
Career tech: Five high schools around Orange County will get $1 million to expand career and technical programs on their campuses thanks to a grant from Dr. Phillips Charities. Orlando Sentinel. Students get to show off their techie skills in a recent regional competition. Tampa Bay Times.
STEM ed: A national nonprofit called Girls Who Code is working to grow the next generation of STEM–science, technology, engineering and math–stars in South Florida. StateImpact Florida.
Eric Cantor: U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor will tour Academy Prep Center of Tampa today. ABC Action News.
Legislation: StudentsFirst is pushing a bill that would require the state to create a statewide return on investment index and rating system for all schools. Tampa Bay Times. U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has introduced legislation that ends the practice of restraining or secluding students with disabilities who become out of control, something Florida has considered. Tampa Bay Times. A proposed bill would give school districts full control over textbook selection, removing the state from the process completely. Tampa Bay Times.
Common Core: The Orlando Sentinel provides readers with a Q&A on the new education standards.
Superintendents: Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has been named the country’s top schools chief. Miami Herald.
Teachers: Thomashefsky, or “Mr. T” as he’s called by his students, is the 2014 Lee County Teacher of the Year. Fort Myers News-Press.
State testing: Parents and teachers worry over heavy testing schedule. Orlando Sentinel.
School grades: Florida's A-to-F school grading formula could be simplified this year with high school grades available months earlier. Orlando Sentinel.
Charter schools: Three years and a court battle later, Odyssey Space Coast Charter Academy wins approval to open another popular “green-school” in Brevard County. Florida Today. The Lee County School Board votes in favor of suing a closed charter school for $99,793. Fort Myers News-Press.
Florida Virtual School: Julie led FLVS through the ebbs and flows—and some turbulent waves—of the political cycles in Florida and kept the school growing at each turn, writes Michael Horn for Forbes. FLVS's Global School is expanding STEM options and more, writes Alison Anderson at Getting Smart. When it comes to innovations in learning, keep eye out for Julie Young’s next move, writes Tom Vander Ark for Getting Smart.
Private schools: Jazz musician Bob Dorough performs at the Montessori School of Pensacola. Pensacola News-Journal. Hillsborough's Corpus Christi Catholic School celebrates its 50th anniversary. The Tampa Tribune. As the administrator of Title I funds for all schools in Duval County — public, private and parochial — Duval's schools superintendent has a responsibility to all students who fall under that program, writes Gerald Robichaud for the Florida Times-Union.
District schools: Students at this Brevard County high school learn about forensics with the help of chicken carcasses. Florida Today. Brevard high school students prepare for the National Ocean Science Bowl. Florida Today. Lee County's superintendent lead efforts for the BYOD policy, which will allow teachers to integrate lesson plans with students' mobile devices. Naples Daily News. Pinellas County will expand its summer school program to allow even more students to continue their studies. The Tampa Tribune. The Manatee County School Board plans to expand voluntary pre-kindergarten programs and bring in data teams to analyze student performance at all grade levels, kindergarten through high school. Bradenton Herald.
Achievement: Spending more than $440 million for voluntary pre-kindergarten and stopping the practice of “social promotion” are two ways Florida has been able to move the needle in education achievement, says the chairman of the state Board of Education. Florida Times-Union.
STEM: It’s time for those who lead our K-12 schools to start talking with university professors in math, science and engineering about what needs to be done to give more students access to careers in these fields, writes Paul Cottle for the Tallahassee Democrat.
School grades: Education Commissioner Pam Stewart unveils her plan to revamp school grades. The Buzz.
Teachers: Teachers line up against legislation to overhaul the state's $132 billion pension system. The Buzz. Private donors offer $40 million in incentive pay for teachers at struggling Jacksonville schools. Florida Times-Union. A new Florida Education Association poll finds a supermajority of Floridians rate their children’s teachers positively and an overwhelmingly majority approve of the job their public schools are doing. The Florida Current.
AP: The state ranked fifth in the nation for the percentage of 2013 graduates who had passed at least one AP exam. Sun Sentinel. Florida has the highest rate of low-income students of any state in the Top 10, at 56 percent. redefinED. More from the Tampa Bay Times, and Associated Press.
Charter schools: The Franklin Academy charter school is opening a second campus next fall in Palm Beach Gardens. Palm Beach Post. The Leon County School district could soon be running a charter school on one of its existing campuses. Tallahassee Democrat. Lee County school officials are seeking $99,793 from Richard Milburn Academy of Florida Inc., which ran three charter high schools until closing for financial reasons. Fort Myers News-Press. Woodmont Charter School, an F-rated elementary and middle school run by Charter Schools USA, is advertising on television for more students - but not mentioning its state grade. Tampa Bay Times. A Pasco charter school approval may hit some snags. Tampa Bay Times.
Gender specific: Hoping to score public funding to create single-gender schools, Duval County's superintendent gives Rep. Erik Fresen, chairman of the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee, a tour of a local middle school with classes that separate boys and girls. Florida Times-Union.
Private schools: Tampa's Berkeley Prep plans to build a 75,000-square-foot arts and sciences center that will feature classrooms equipped with the latest technology, college-level laboratories and performance studios, as well as an art gallery, study areas, a recital hall and meeting spaces. The Tampa Tribune.
District schools: Pinellas County public schools are closer to securing a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant that Superintendent Michael Grego says would “totally transform the school district.” The Tampa Tribune. A Pinellas County "turnaround'' school takes its best shot at academic success. Tampa Bay Times.
Charlie Crist: An opinion on charter-school funding by then-Republican Attorney General Charlie Crist is at odds with a portion of the Democratic base whose help he now needs to become the next governor. Florida Times-Union.
Florida Virtual School. Longtime leader Julie Young is retiring. redefinED, Orlando Business Journal. Jeb Bush says she has "earned the rare title of visionary." Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Vouchers: House Speaker Will Weatherford wants to make Florida’s biggest source of tax dollars — the sales tax — available for private school vouchers next year. Palm Beach Post.
Private schools: StateImpact Florida looks at why a Florida private school helps its staff stay high-tech.
Charter schools. The Lee County School District is attempting to recoup about $100,000 from a charter school network that shut down more than a year ago. Fort Myers News Press.
Catholic schools: About 30 students at St. Lawrence, a K-8 Catholic school near North Miami Beach, chant “No place for hate,” as they gear up for a schoolwide anti-bullying campaign. Miami Herald.
School choice: Giving students ‘full choice’ could reduce low-income families’ disadvantages, writes the Palm Beach Post.
School grades. Education Commissioner Pam Stewart wants a simpler formula. Florida Current. More from the Tallahassee Democrat.
Science: Despite a huge public investment aimed at creating a high-tech economy, Florida continues to lag the nation in many measures of scientific prowess, says the National Science Foundation. Palm Beach Post. (more…)
Charter schools: At Oasis High School, one of Cape Coral's city-run charters, students from the Model United Nations team are heading to MIT for their next conference. Fort Myers News-Press.
Tampa Prep's robotics teams qualify for a state tournament. The Tampa Tribune. Chinese exchange students make friends at Carrollwood Day School in Tampa. The Tampa Tribune.
State testing: A state senator, a civil rights attorney and the mother of a young student say the Florida Department of Education is sending a bad message to public school children and their teachers by having lower achievement goals in reading and math for minority students. The Florida Current.
AP Capstone: Hundreds of Pinellas and Hillsborough county students could soon be among the first to earn a new academic distinction with no enrollment caps through the AP Capstone program. The Tampa Tribune.
School legislation: A state House panel approves a draft bill that bars school districts from suspending students for “brandishing a partially consumed pastry or other food item” bitten into the shape of a weapon or “possessing a toy firearm or weapon made of plastic snap-together building blocks.” Tallahassee Democrat. The House K-12 Subcommittee approves a measure that requires middle schools to identify students who get suspended, fail English or math courses or miss more than 10 percent of their classes. Tallahassee Democrat. Sen. Alan Hays files a bill to remove the Department of Education from the selection of textbooks and instructional materials. Tampa Bay Times.
School funding: Tax collections for Miami-Dade County Public Schools could fall $60 million short for the second consecutive year. Miami Herald.
Charter schools: The Pasco County School Board approves a 15-year contract for Pepin Academies, which caters to students with learning disabilities. Tampa Bay Times. Dayspring Academy, Pasco County’s first charter school, plans to add a ninth-grade class in the 2014-15 school. Tampa Bay Times.
Religious schools: A student at Citrus Park Christian School in Hillsborough County takes her ailment and uses it to focus on a medical career. The Tampa Tribune.
Gender specific: A proposal to create more gender-specific district schools sails through the House Choice & Innovation Subcommittee. redefinED.
Career readiness: Manatee County School District works with community business leaders to step up high school career readiness programs. Bradenton Herald.
Rick Scott: School superintendents from across the state tell Gov. Scott that even with his proposed boost in education spending, they still can't afford to pay for maintenance, new school buses, security upgrades and the technology needed to administer computer-based tests. The Buzz. More from the Florida Times-Union. (more…)
Private schools: Students half a world away are exchanging their food, music and ideas with the Canterbury School in Lee County thanks to the Cultural Bridges Science and Social Science program. Fort Myers News-Press. Palm Beach County private schools open their doors to students of a local Christian school that announced it's closing. Palm Beach Post.
Faith-based schools: Jacksonville's Catholic schools provide about 46,000 meals to the needy each year. Florida Times-Union.
Charter schools: Tucked in Gov. Rick Scott's proposed budget is a provision for new charter schools that want state construction funding to locate in neighborhoods with schools identified as struggling by the state’s A-F grading system. Tallahassee Democrat.
School choice: Choice options, and fairness, are growing by leaps and bounds, writes Lloyd Brown for Sunshine State News.
Collegiate high schools: A Florida lawmaker tells the Tampa Bay Times he plans to file a proposed bill requiring state colleges to partner with school districts to create collegiate high schools, where students can earn a diploma and an associate degree in a rigorous college environment.
Digital learning: Florida students could choose computer programming courses instead of a foreign language as part of a bill to help Florida schools add more technology and digital instruction. StateImpact Florida.
School safety: The union representing schools police officers reports a marked increase in the number of guns seized from within Miami-Dade County Public Schools in the first half of the school year. Miami Herald.
Evolution: Why are we still debating evolution in education, asks Beth Kassab for the Orlando Sentinel.
Dyslexic students: Duval County's superintendent wants to add more services for dyslexic students. Florida Times-Union.
Financial literacy: The Florida Department of Education wants to hear the public's thoughts on proposed standards for financial literacy, guidelines for what students should learn so they can "make responsible and effective financial decisions." Orlando Sentinel.
School vouchers: House Speaker Will Weatherford is among Republicans looking to expand school choice efforts this year, including beefing up the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program. Palm Beach Post.
Charter schools: A new state law that requires a "model" contract between school districts and charter operators is not stopping Orange County from requiring new charters to meet performance standards. Orlando Sentinel.
Faith-based schools: Parents are shocked after learning a Palm Beach County Presbyterian church is closing its school. Palm Beach Post. Hundreds of low-income students at Duval County private or parochial schools will likely lose tutoring and other academic help because the federal money paying for it is drying up. Florida Times-Union.
School choice: The city of Hollywood is pushing its public schools to better market themselves this year, in hopes of luring new students — and new families. Sun Sentinel. Pasco County students and parents face a broader array of education options as the district's 2014-15 school choice application window opens. Tampa Bay Times.
Digital learning: A proposed bill to expand school technology could lead to more tablets and computers, more professional development for teachers and more opportunities for K-12 students to take classes in subjects like computer programming. The Tampa Tribune. More from Tampa Bay Times. StateImact Florida asks teachers how they learned to connect technology to learning.
Education budget: While Gov. Rick Scott's suggested a $542 million bump in K-12 funding is no small chunk of change, few people believe it’s anywhere near enough to meet the ever-growing demands of the state’s public schools, writes Rick Christie for the Palm Beach Post.
School choice: Expect debates on vouchers, school grades and charter schools this year as legislators set priorities for the upcoming session. The Buzz. Lawmakers propose legislation affecting public schools, from an overhaul of Florida’s school accountability system to a “massive expansion” of school-choice and career-education programs. Tallahassee Democrat. More from The Florida Current. More than 3,000 parents and prospective students crowd into the Bradenton Area Convention Center for Manatee County School District's first school choice fair. Bradenton Herald.
Charter schools: The Charter School Appeals Commission recommends the state Board of Education turn down a Lakeland group's proposal for a charter school. The Ledger. Former Gov. Jeb Bush tours the Latin Builders Association Construction & Business Management Academy Charter High School as part of National School Choice Week. Local10.com
Virtual schools: Mom Heather Tempesta lets her daughter try Florida Virtual School after all. Tampa Bay Times.
Magnet schools: Manatee School for the Arts student and teacher get to spend D-Day at Normandy. Bradenton Herald.
Education budget: Orange County school leaders say Gov. Rick Scott's budget proposal isn't as generous as it seems. Orlando Sentinel. Much of Scott's proposed education spending boost would come from property taxes. The Buzz.
Governor's race: Seventy-one percent of Washington insiders surveyed in January think that the Florida gubernatorial race is the most important one to watch for education. Education Week.
