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October 7, 2015 The Honorable Rick Scott Governor, State of Florida The Capitol 400 South Monroe Street Tallahassee, Florida 32399 RE: Executive Order to suspend any application of the 2015 FSA Via: email Dear Governor Scott, We are writing to urge you to issue an Executive Order suspending any application…
by: Bob Norman| Local 10 News October 5, 2015 It was about a month into the school year that Joshua Brooks’ five young children, who attend the new Paramount Charter School in Sunrise, told him the news. “I just picked them up one day and all their teachers were gone,” Brooks said, still incredulous. “I’m…
by: Jeffery Solochek|Tampa Bay Times October 4, 2015 Approved in this year’s legislative budget, Florida’s Best and Brightest program promised teachers bonuses up to $10,000, if they could prove their eligibility. The key phrases, of course, were “prove” and “up to.” Proving eligibility turned out to be quite a task for many educators, who had…
by: John Romano|Tampa Bay Times October 2, 2015 For the longest time, it seemed educational reformers could do no wrong. They had the theories, they had the platform and, most importantly, they had the power. So George W. Bush’s Texas Miracle begat the nation’s No Child Left Behind law, which was around the same time…
photo: Scott Keeler, Tampa Bay Times by: Kristen M. Clark and Mary Ellen Klas Miami Herald|Times Tallahassee Bureau October 2, 2015 TALLAHASSEE When Florida lawmakers return to Tallahassee for another redistricting special session on Oct. 19, they will talk a lot about how to comply with court guidelines when redrawing state Senate districts. But they’ll…
by: Jeffery S. Solochek|Tampa Bay Times October 2, 2015 When Florida’s superintendents released their recommendations to revise the state education accountability laws, their original proposal relating to testing cut scores was notably absent. While gone, though, it was far from forgotten. As preliminary test results became public, Duval County superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who once headed…
by: Dr. Desmomd Blackburn, Brevard Public Schools superintendent October 1, 2015|Florida Today In the two months since I became the new superintendent of Brevard Public Schools, I have spent numerous hours engaging in dialogue with the citizens of this county —hearing of their pride in our accomplishments and learning about the challenges they feel…
Legislators are attending committee meetings now to hash out which bills will make it into the next session. Since this is a presidential election year, the 2016 Florida Legislature convenes on January 12th. Every year, most of the same politicians are assigned bills designed to move the “education reform” agenda closer to its ultimate goal of…
by: Andrew Marra|Palm Beach Post September 28, 2015 The state government’s effort to force the opening of a charter school in Delray Beach is an unconstitutional attack on the Palm Beach County School Board’s “exclusive power” to regulate local schools, school board attorneys argue in a new court filing. The school board is fighting in court to…
Parents, teachers and education advocates across the state are relieved that the Florida Association of District School Superintendents (FADSS) has joined them in declaring an open distrust of the high-stakes FSA testing scheme and its broken credibility. FADSS issued a unanimous statement today confirming that they had lost all confidence in the state’s school accountability…