While charter schools are an increasingly popular option for Florida students, a University of Central Florida researcher says they don’t perform as well as district schools. Dr. Stanley Smith, a professor at the University of Central Florida’s business school, analyzed school grades of Florida elementary schools last summer, examining the effect of poverty and minority [...]
StateImpact Florida hit the road for Orlando this week, and so we packed a few podcasts for the trip. We highly recommend a fascinating piece by This American Life that takes a look at the growing body of research about “non-cognitive skills,” such as resilience, tenacity and self-control. Research shows that the stress from living [...]
Florida is one of three states scoring below average on four measures of school funding fairness, according to a national report card. The report was produced by the New Jersey-based Education Law Center and Rutgers University researchers. The authors argue state funding formulas should send more money to districts with higher poverty rates. The study [...]
Asking whether poverty is included in the Florida formula to evaluate teachers is posing the wrong question, according to Matthew DiCarlo at The Shanker Blog. DiCarlo is referring to a recent story where some educators questioned the lack of a poverty factor in the state teacher evaluation formula. State officials argue poverty is irrelevant because [...]
A bill seen mostly as an effort to give immigrant families cheaper college tuition rates has died in the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee. The failed SB 106 would have allowed undocumented students and legal Florida residents with undocumented parents to pay in-state tuition rates, which are up to three times less expensive than the out-of-state [...]
Florida teachers will soon be judged on how much they improve student scores on a standardized test. Part of their pay is going to be based on a new formula created by the state. But the formula doesn’t take into account what researchers say is one of the strongest indicators of student success: poverty. The [...]
Torres is a reporter for the Florida Center on Investigative Reporting. Since the economy collapsed in 2008, Florida’s student population has become poorer each year — with almost all school districts in the state experiencing spikes in the number of kids who qualify for subsidized meals. Children have become homeless at alarming numbers as well. [...]
Florida’s largest school districts spent just half the federal stimulus money intended to improve low-income student performance on those programs, according to an investigation by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. Instead, districts spent more than $200 million of the $400 million of the money — known as Title I — on employee salaries and [...]
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