5 Doubts About Data-Driven Schools

  by: Anya Kamenetz |NPR ED | June 3, 2016 Have you ever seen a school data wall? In a struggling Newark, N.J., public school, I’ve seen bulletin boards showing the test scores of each grade compared with state averages. And in one in affluent Silicon Valley, I’ve seen smartboards that track individual students’ math…

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Failing our kids: 50% of all low-graduation schools are Virtual & Charter

A new report issued by Johns Hopkins University, Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic has found that charter, virtual and alternative schools are failing to graduate huge numbers of students compared to district schools. Lynn Hatter, WFSU notes: “Researchers found 52 percent of the nation’s low-graduation-rate high schools are charter, virtual and…

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School choice bill not about choice at all

by: Beth Kassab|Orlando Sentinel|April 20, 2016 School choice is already well established in Florida. Students who attend failing or very low performing schools can switch to a better school and even receive a stipend to help out with transportation expenses. Those “Opportunity Scholarships” have been around since 1999. Students with disabilities can transfer to public…

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The People vs. The State of Florida

by Scott Maxwell|Orlando Sentinel|4.10.16 For the past few weeks, in a small courtroom up in Tallahassee, Florida has been on trial. Yeah, the entire state. It stands accused of denying children of a proper education. The plaintiffs are parents — some from here in Orlando — who say they’re sick of underpaid teachers, punitive testing…

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Florida’s miserly 1% increase to Public ED explains F grade in new report

Governor Scott recently signed Florida’s 2016 Budget granting public schools a miserly 1% increase. What Scott and legislators called an “historic” level fell chronically short, echoing the  “F” in funding Florida earned in a newly released national study. Let’s recap: The current per pupil funding amount of $7,178 is $74 more than the final 2007/08 calculation of $7,142.79.  That’s…

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