John O'Connor is the Miami-based education reporter for StateImpact Florida. John previously covered politics, the budget and taxes for The (Columbia, S.C) State. He is a graduate of Allegheny College and the University of Maryland.
ESEA flexibility will move accountability systems toward decisions that are based on student growth and progress. They will consider more than a single test score measured against an arbitrary proficiency level.
Bombeck strongly disagreed with the extra credit, which is not a district policy:
So now they’re teaching students how to buy grades. Very nice. I can see offering some small extra credit for community service, but this is ridiculous.
Kerm, a teacher, said awarding extra credit was “ridiculous,” but that school districts weren’t living up to their responsibilities:
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, pictured campaigning in West Palm Beach this month, earns the highest grade among the 2012 GOP presidential contenders.
Jon Huntsman earns the highest grade — a B- — among the 2012 Republican presidential field, according to grades issued by Time magazine education columnist and bloggerAndrew J. Rotherham.
As governor of Utah, Huntsman raised teacher salaries, extended kindergarten and signed a statewide private school voucher law. Rotherham also sums up Huntsman’s differences from the GOP field as this:
He believes in evolution! He thinks climate change is a problem! He’s just like us! Yet some of his positions as governor of Utah suggest a less enlightened viewpoint when it comes to schools. Most notably, Huntsman tussled with Bush Administration Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings about whether Utah should be allowed to use its own school accountability system that would not disaggregate results by race and ethnicity — even though Utah has an achievement gap problem.
A handful of education items are on Gov. Rick Scott's early legislative priorities.
Gov. Rick Scott wants to cap school district administrative expenses, according to a draft legislative priorities list obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
Scott also wants to grant parents the ability to use state dollars to pay for private school tuition, books or other education expenses, according to the Sentinel story. Scott would rely on allies at former Gov. Jeb Bush‘s Foundation for Florida’s Future:
Education also makes Scott’s top tier of proposals.
But his advocacy of Texas-style higher education reforms that eliminate tenure for professors has already drawn criticism from university presidents and the state Board of Governors. Haridopolos said, “We’ll give it the full venue it deserves.”
Florida schools spent money intended for low-income student programs on teachers and other operating costs.
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 other operational costs.
The result is that money intended for summer school or teacher training was never spent on those programs.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is headlining an education forum hosted by Central Florida University and The Orlando Sentinel this morning.
Bush plans to outline what school reforms are still needed, according to the Foundation for Florida’s Future, the non-profit group Bush founded. Bush has spent the past months weighing in on the dispute between the federal education department and Congress over reauthorizing the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Bush has encouraged adopting the Florida model: Report card-style grades for schools and districts; measuring teacher performance; and expanding school choice and online options.
Other speakers include Fund Education Now‘s Kathleen Oropeza, Orange County School Board Chair Bill Sublette, KIPP Reach founder Tracy McDaniel, and Hillsborough County Middle School instructor James Gibbs.
School districts have complained the system sets higher standards for the state’s lowest-rated schools. For a low-rated school to pull itself off a watch list the district must improve more rapidly than other state districts.
The result is that a district on a state watch list could earn a failing grade, school officials have said, while the same performance might earn another district a ‘C’.
The recommendations trim the number of schools improvement categories to 4 from 6. Only schools earning an ‘F’ grade could be considered among the lowest-rated schools.
Pasco County schools are considering a four-day week to reduce transportation costs.
Pasco County is considering a four-day school week next year to save about $3.5 million, the St. Petersburg Times reports.
Bus drivers and cafeteria workers would lose one day of work a week. Teachers would no longer be paid for five lunch breaks each week.
A 33-member task force will decide whether to recommend shortening the school week to the Pasco County School Board. Marion County is the only Florida district that has approved a four-day week for the 2012-2013 school year.
Is a four-day week disruptive for students and teachers? Parents, could you cope with the change?
Average teacher salaries for every Florida county.
Reader feedback is an important part of building StateImpact Florida’s education coverage. Feedback Loop will be a regular feature highlighting your questions, criticisms and comments.
Here’s what you said about our reporting this week.
Reader Catherine saw our blog post about testing giant Pearson’s tendrils throughout the growing education business. Catherine questioned the relationship:
I think it is significant that Pearson makes both testing and remedial materials. Shouldn’t that be a conflict of interest?
Republican 2012 presidential hopefuls traveled to Tampa for a Tea Party-hosted debate this week. CpmforRP2012 took issue with our characterization of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s education plan and that its scope went beyond homeschooling:
If you would read Dr. Paul’s section on homeschooling you would see that it is not only about homeschooling. It also talks about getting rid of the one-size-fits-all education system that clearly is not working now, and implementing an education system that is locally based.
And StateImpact Florida’s county-by-county map of teacher salaries continues to spark discussion. Reader Bryan Adams said it’s no incentive to teach:
Makes you want to encourage all your students to go into education!
Keep the comments coming. What do you want to see us cover?
So far, the site of the proposed USF Polytechnic campus is little more than a cow pasture. But USF Poly Chancellor Marshall Goodman compares his proposed new school to its neighbor a ways down Interstate 4.
“Now think for a minute about a visionary decades ago,” Goodman told the state Board of Governors. “He came to Florida from another state and what he saw was swampland, mosquitoes and gators. And he bought all of it that it could. And he dreamed of something better in that space: a mouse…Obviously, as a distinctive university, we would be able to develop and grow programs with greater flexibility that we can as a complex organization that has a number of competing interests,” he said.”
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