Scientist Robert Krampf’s analysis of FCAT science test guidelines to be a collection of poorly written examples, multiple-choice questions where one or more of the wrong responses were actually scientifically correct answers, and definitions that ranged from misleading to totally wrong. State officials seemed unconcerned.
florida education
Tony Bennett, Friend of School Vouchers, Foe of Unions, is Florida’s New Education Chief
Before losing a reelection bid as Indiana’s superintendent of public instruction, Tony Bennett was boasting of introducing a voucher program and limiting collective bargaining to pay and benefits. Bennett also favors national common core standards, which are coming to Florida.
Gov. Scott’s Notion of Cheaper State College Degrees Termed “Walmart of Education”
Gov. Rick Scott “challenged” state colleges to create $10,000 four-year degrees, a continuation of his low-cost strategy for higher education that Democrats slammed as an attempt to turn the schools into “the Walmart of Education.”
Calling It Flawed and Damaging, Teachers Union Wants Evaluation System Delayed
The state’s largest teachers union is pushing for lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott to delay a new system of teacher evaluations, saying the formula for measuring teachers’ performance is flawed and could wreak havoc on their careers.
Crossing Out Amendment 8: Public Money Does Not Belong in Religious Schools
Religious groups have no rights to public money when it comes to funding private schools, precisely because religious indoctrination is part and parcel of the mission of those schools, and taxpayers should not have to pay for that, argues Cary McMullen.
More Charter Schools, and Debit Cards to Teachers, as Scott Unveils Education Agenda
The most controversial element of Scott’s plan could potentially prove to be measures to increase the role of charter schools, removing enrollment caps on existing charter schools and allowing school districts to operate their own charter schools.
An iPad for Every Student? Florida’s Textbook-Closing Switch Would Cost $441 Million
Lawmakers have helped drive the state toward more reliance on digital learning materials, passing a bill two years ago requiring schools to adopt digital-only textbooks by the 2015-16 school year and spend at least half their textbook budget on electronic materials.
Bob Graham Ridicules $300 Million Higher Ed Cut as Issue Galvanizes Democratic Races
Democrats have started a push to make higher-education cuts and the state’s tuition burdens an issue in state legislative campaigns. The state pays just 40 percent of universities’ tabs, down from 75 percent.
Gov. Scott, Ending Week-Long Education Tour, Speaks of Increasing School Funding
Gov. Rick Scott will push lawmakers to avoid cutting the education budget this year, the governor said following a dinner with union officials late last week. And if there’s enough money, he’ll again push for an increase.
Gov. Scott Claims to Make Education His Top Priority. Democrats Are Doubtful.
With Gov. Rick Scott visiting several public schools this week and highlighting what he says is his understanding that Floridians want good schools and his intention to do something about it, Democrats teed off on the GOP education funding record.
A Few Florida Facts for Republican National Convention Delegates
Florida under the leadership of Republican icons like Bush, Scott and Rubio, and supported by proud and unthinking GOP legislatures for the last 15 years, has happily served as the grow house for Republican policies. The results are stunning, writes former lawmaker Dan Gelber.
In a Victory for Florida Teachers, Judge Rejects State’s Onerous Evaluation Process
Florida’s teachers union is celebrating a 57-page order rejecting a state-approved rule that would spell out how school districts should evaluate teachers, declaring it “wholly invalid” because of flaws in the way it was pieced together.
Two Flagler School Board Races Will be Decided Aug. 14: The Live Interviews
Three-term incumbents Sue Dickinson and Colleen Conklin are being challenged by Bill Corkran and Debbie Laury in two contests for the Flagler County School Board that will be decided Aug. 14. All registered voters may vote regardless of party affiliation or address.
Dogged By FCAT Failures, Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson Resigns After 13 Months
Robinson resigned late Tuesday amid a months-long controversy over the state’s testing regimen and errors on school grades that forced the department to change the marks for dozens of schools.
Bill Corkran, Flagler County School Board Candidate: The Live Interview
Bill Corkran is one of four candidates in two races for Flagler County School Board in the Aug. 14 primary election, which will decide the winners: all Flagler voters, regardless of party affiliation and address, may cast a ballot in these races.
Sue Dickinson, Flagler County School Board Candidate: The Live Interview
Sue Dickinson is one of four candidates in two races for Flagler County School Board in the Aug. 14 primary election, which will decide the winners: all Flagler voters, regardless of party affiliation and address, may cast a ballot in these races.
Colleen Conklin, Flagler County School Board Candidate: The Live Interview
Colleen Conklin is one of four candidates in two races for Flagler County School Board in the Aug. 14 primary election, which will decide the winners: all Flagler voters, regardless of party affiliation and address, may cast a ballot in these races.
Deborah Laury, Flagler County School Board Candidate: The Live Interview
Deborah Laury is one of four candidates in two races for Flagler County School Board in the Aug. 14 primary election, which will decide the winners: all Flagler voters, regardless of party affiliation and address, may cast a ballot in these races.
Flagler School District’s Feared Budget Cut Was Vastly Overstated, But Tax Cut Is Real
A report in the papers this morning that the Flagler school district was facing an additional $3.8 million cut (or 4 percent of its budget) was premature. The state is cutting the local school tax and its revenue, but making up all the difference except $400,000, which the district has already plugged.
Florida Colleges Vow to Be 1st in U.S. to Double Graduation Rates By 2020–With Extra Funding
Florida’s 28 state and community colleges will request a 35 percent increase in state funding to reach those goals and think Gov. Rick Scott will back their play. Graduating from a four-year college costs $23,647.
Flagler’s Teachers Union President on FCAT, The GOP, and High-Stakes Misconceptions
Katie Hansen, president of Flagler County’s teachers union, forcefully argues against FCAT’s culture of high-stakes testing and false but pervasive notions that unions protect bad teachers and contribute only to Democrats.
Verdict on Jeb Bush’s Education Guru: “Nonsensical, Confusing and Disingenuous.”
Matthew Ladner got a 2011 Bunkum Award for the research he has published while working at Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, a nonprofit whose mission is to encourage Florida-style education reform in other states.
FCAT Flack: Gov. Rick Scott Grades Up PR
As the Florida Department of Education tries to handle the fallout of the collapse in FCAT writing scores, the office of Gov. Rick Scott has been intimately involved in efforts to roll out the test scores, according to staff emails.
Advanced Placement Gambit: Challenging Students at the Risk of Penalizing Teachers
Flagler County high schools are encouraging more students to take Advanced Placement tests, which beef up a school’s profile. But when students fail the testm their teachers are penalized, now that their pay is tied to student performance.
Dear Gov. Scott: “We Are Going To Start Losing Teachers.” An Ex-School Board Member’s Plea
Evie Shellenberger, the former Flagler County School Board member, writes Gov. Rick Scott to warn him of despairing teachers and a generation of students left behind by Florida’s neglect of vocational education, and invites him to a one-on-one sit down discussion.
School Chancellor, in Flagler, Touts Higher FCAT Standards as State Board Drops Them
Florida Public Schools Chancellor Pam Stewart’s 75-minute appearance before the Flagler County School Board, teachers and others Tuesday afternoon lent more PR than insights into the state’s latest FCAT fiasco, satisfying few locally.
For Sen. Thrasher, FPC Visit Turns Into 3-Hour Education on “Unintended Consequences”
Sen. John Thrasher, at Flagler Palm Coast High School Tuesday morning, heard how legislation on testing and teacher evaluations is at odds with reality, vowed to study alternatives, and welcomed Flagler officials’ request to make public schools part of the reform game.
Dear Mrs. Nahirny: Tales From the “Don’t Quit” File on Teacher Appreciation Week
Every year during Teacher Appreciation Week (May 7-11), Matanzas’s Jo Ann Nahirny has her English students write thank you cards to teachers, and receives a few herself, which she’s always kept in what she calls her “don’t quit” file. She opens it up.
Scott, in St. Johns, Signs $70 Billion Budget, Vetoing Only One-Fifth Last Year’s Amount
The vetoes were a sharp decrease from the $615 million in spending Scott killed last year, though he struck dozens of transportation and cultural programs and asked state universities to limit tuition increases to 5 percent.
His Veto Pen Spilling No Hints, Gov. Rick Scott Readies to Sign Budget in St. Johns Tuesday
Only one thing is clear about what will happen Tuesday when Gov. Rick Scott signs the $70 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1: An increase in state funding for education will stand.
FCAT Season From a Teacher’s Perspective: An Absurd and Demeaning Fraud
Florida’s FCAT autocrats have gamed the system into an exam only the dumbest can fail while hijacking teachers’ and students’ time for nine weeks of regimentation and secrecy worthy of classified military secrets, argues teacher Joann Nahirny in her latest dispatch from the trenches.
Parent Trigger Bill: Florida Senate’s Rebel Republicans Help Defeat Charter School Ploy
The Senate on a tie vote defeated a bill that would have let parents turn failing schools into charters, the latest and perhaps final victory for a dissident faction of the GOP caucus as the curtain came down on the 2012 legislative session.
Charter School Giveaway Bill Veiled as Parental Control Drawing Frantic Opposition
Democrats are looking to the Senate and a rogue set of lawmakers to help them defeat an education bill they think is a giveaway to the charter school industry at the expense of public schools.
Silencing Maneuvers: When the Florida Legislature Resembles the Politbureau
Stopping debate at three minutes, Republicans in the House Education Committee passed a bill overhauling standards and finances for charter schools and another limiting the power of the Florida High School Athletics Association.
Bill Requiring Property Tax Revenue to Pay For Charter School Construction Advances
Supporters say the measure creates more parity between charter schools and other public schools. Opponents slammed the measure as corporate welfare that would provide tax dollars to the private operators of charter schools — despite the fact that supporters of charter legislation said years ago that they would not ask for capital outlay dollars.
U.S. Citizen, Floridian, But Denied In-State Tuition Over Parents’ Status: Senate Kills Fix
A measure that would grant in-state tuition to Florida high school students who are U.S. citizens but whose parents are in the country illegally was voted down Tuesday by a Senate committee.
House Releases $69.2 Billion Budget, Including 9.5% Increase in Pre-K-12 Funding
House budget builders on Friday released their $69.2 billion spending blueprint that includes more than $1 billion in additional funding for K-12 education and more than $2.5 billion in reserves.
In Another Move To Charters, Florida Would Give Parents More Say Over Failing Schools
Parents of children in chronically failing schools would get greater power to force the schools to change, including the possibility they could make the school into a charter school or contract its management out, under a Jeb Bush-inspired bill that advanced Tuesday in the Florida House.
Maintaining Low A, Flagler School District Is 29th in New Florida Ranking; St. Johns Is 1st
The new rankings by the state Department of Education are a first step in what will lead to school-by-school rankings in the near future. But those rankings are entirely based on FCAT scores, limiting their validity.
A La Carte College Tuition: Florida’s Science-Tech Majors Could End Up Paying More
Florida’s quest for more science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees might eventually lead to a quest for higher tuition for students entering those programs, based on comments by higher education leaders.
Testing Industrial Complex Descends on Florida To Fight Over $35 Million Contract
McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are in a battle over the right to provide testing items to the Florida Department of Education under a Race to the Top contract worth tens of millions of dollars.
Florida Charter Schools: A Go-Go Industry Awash in Tax Money and Little Oversight
Florida lawmakers have been more concerned about promoting rather than regulating charter schools, so bad charter schools operate with impunity. A Miami Herald investigation uncovers the charter school bandwagon.
Educators Deride Scott’s “Smiley Face” Budget, Hospitals Call It “Tax on the Sick”
Despite Scott’s proposed boost, the state would still spend about $210 million less on education under Scott’s plan than it did five years ago, with overall education funding down about $1.6 billion. Hospital advocates call proposed cuts to Medicaid a “tax on the sick.”
Reversing Trend, Gov. Scott Will Ask for $1 Billion Education Boost Despite Shortfalls
Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday will ask for a near-historic increase in per-student funding despite shortfalls in tax collection. The reversal of the past two year’s trend, if upheld by the Legislature, will relieve education administrators expecting tighter budgets ahead.
Florida Universities Respond to Rick Scott’s Inquisition With a Massive Document Dump
Public university leaders, through thousands of pages of answers that include backup academic studies and appendixes, have replied to Gov. Rick Scott’s request to outline what the schools are doing to ensure graduates meet the need of Florida employers.
School Prayer Cloaked as Student-Led Making Another Contested Run at Legalization
The latest school-prayer proposal proposal before the Florida Legislature would let local school boards adopt prayer-enabling resolutions, letting students lead audiences in prayer at games or graduations or other non-compulsory events.
Small Crowd, Loud Responses as Awake the State Demonstration Occupies Palm Coast
Some 50 to 60 protesters grabbed drivers’ attention at Palm Coast Parkway and Belle Terre Tuesday afternoon, echoing in signs much of the outrage that the Occupy Wall Street movement is making familiar across the nation.
Proposed Amendment to End Ban on Government Funding of Religion is Challenged
Proposed Amendment 7 on the 2012 ballot deletes a provision in the Florida constitution that bars government funding of religious institutions, replacing it with a prohibition against denying funds to anyone based on religious identity or belief.
Unaccountability and Unproven Quality in Rush Toward Virtual Education in Florida
A new study, citing Florida and other virtual school pioneers, says for-profit companies are pushing states to offer full-time virtual instruction paid for by state tax dollars with little research on the quality of these programs.
Bogus Students, Fake Curriculums, Ghost Schools: Florida’s Voucher Fraud Is Probed
Florida House members grilled a Department of Education official Tuesday over reports of rampant fraud and lax oversight of private schools that receive state funds through a voucher program for students with disabilities.