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Stories about students and the initiatives designed to improve performance. Are the many education reforms Florida has adopted having an impact?

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January 18, 2012

Florida Department of Education Offers No Details on New School Rankings

Last week we noted a Fortune story including an anecdote about Gov. Rick Scott wanting to rank every Florida public school from best to worst. Intrigued, we asked the Department of Education about Scott’s request. Is this something the agency is just studying? When will the first rankings be released? What’s the methodology? Will the […]

January 17, 2012

“Student Warning! Do Your Homework Early” – Wikipedia To Go Dark Tomorrow

Its the sixth-most visited Web site in the world. But tomorrow, Wikipedia will globally black out the English version of its site. And the co-founder of the free, online encyclopedia, Jimmy Wales, is looking out for procrastinating students. On Twitter, Wales said, “Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday.” Wikipedia is protesting proposed federal anti-piracy bills […]

January 13, 2012

Feedback Loop: A Change of Heart Over Collective Bargaining

Based on November’s voter turnout in Ohio, it’s no surprise readers were ready to respond to our story this week that Florida leaders likely won’t initiate a collective bargaining fight in Florida this year (despite past statements to the contrary). On Facebook, Angela Howard said there’s little advantage to collective bargaining anyway: I don’t understand […]

January 12, 2012

A ‘C’ Doesn’t Make the Grade in New York City

New York City’s decision to close a C-rated charter school has sparked a national conversation about what kind of performance should be expected of charter schools. The school had been previously warned about its performance. Some observers say the closure of Peninsula Preparatory Charter School is a signal charters need to do more. Is it […]

January 5, 2012

Explaining Florida’s High School Grading System

Yesterday we asked why there were so many A and B high schools, according to the latest grades. The folks at the Jacksonville Public Education Fund have an answer in the chart at right. It’s because the state grades have very narrow ranges on a 1,600-point scale and many school found a way to quickly […]

How Will No Child Left Behind Be Remembered?

Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the No Child Left Behind federal education law, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Maureen Downey is thinking about its legacy: Because the anniversary is looming, I am getting lots of statements on the law and its impact, most offering a mixed review of its effectiveness. I listened Tuesday to a […]

January 4, 2012

When Is An A Not An A?

Manatee County schools’ response to Wednesday’s school grade announcement caught our eye this afternoon. “Five of seven Manatee District High Schools scored enough points to qualify for an A grade from the state,” a press release read. What the carefully worded release did not say is that five of seven Manatee high school actually earned […]

Five Things We Learned From Florida’s High School Grades

Florida high schools learned their grades from the Department of Education Wednesday. StateImpact Florida learned a few lessons in the data: 1) Grades are going up — More high schools than ever earned an ‘A’ or ‘B’ grade on last year’s report cards. The biggest surge came in schools earning Bs — up to 207 […]

High School Grades Are Out

The state has fewer “F” schools and more “A” and “B” schools, according to new high school grades released by the state. The Florida Department of Education said, “Based on the results… school recognition funds will be determined and will reward schools that have sustained high student performance or demonstrated substantial improvement in student performance.” The “A” […]

December 29, 2011

11 for 2011: The Best Of StateImpact Florida

This was a good year for us at StateImpact Florida. We launched six months ago with the mission of becoming Florida’s source for education news and analysis brought to you by NPR and WUSF in Tampa, WLRN in Miami, and WJCT in Jacksonville. We had a few successes and learned a few lessons along the […]