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Putting Education Reform To The Test

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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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December 14, 2011
December 13, 2011

Coming Soon: Our Big Charter School Investigation

Update: Here’s a link to the story. For the past three months, StateImpact Florida has been working on an investigation of charter schools. Wednesday morning, the truth comes out — both here and on NPR’s Morning Edition. The question: How many of Florida’s charter schools serve children with severe disabilities? Here’s a hint: surprisingly few. […]

Education Commissioner Defends Tougher FCAT Standards. Would You Pass The Test?

fcat.fldoe.org Florida’s education commissioner is defending his decision to toughen the standards for tenth grade reading. Commissioner Gerard Robinson acknowledges more students are likely to fail that portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). He is seeking a passing score that’s two points higher than a panel of school and business experts recommended. Robinson […]

December 12, 2011

Florida Graduation Rate At Highest Level Ever

Florida’s graduation rate has been on the rise for the last six years. In fact, the rate has reached its highest level ever. That’s the news from the Florida Department of Education, which just released a report for the 2010-2011 school year. The results show minority students in particular continue to graduate at higher levels. […]

Inside The Business Of Florida Charter Schools

Florida charter schools are a $400 million business operating with little oversight whose business interests occasionally conflict with their educational mission, according to the first story in a Miami Herald three-part investigation published Sunday. The story boils the issues down to these:

December 9, 2011

Hillsborough Students Get Bragging Rights in Assessment of Urban Districts

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is out with the math and reading scores for fourth and eighth graders in the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA). The first TUDA was offered in 2002 and is given every other year. It assesses the performance of public school students and compares scores for 21 urban districts […]

December 2, 2011

Governor’s Proposed Parent Trigger Law Looms for Florida Educators

We’ve heard about Governor Rick Scott’s proposed “parent trigger law,” which would give parents the power to shut down low performing schools and transform them into charter schools.  Now we’re hearing from some of the people who would be impacted by the change. Maria Mendoza’s daughter attends an underperforming elementary school in Ft. Myers. She […]

Scholarships and Housing Follow ’60 Minutes’ Profile of Homeless Florida Students

Two Seminole County students living in a truck became the face of the Great Recession thanks to Sunday’s ’60 Minutes’ profile. Stetson University put on its white hat and rode to their rescue Thursday. The DeLand school offered Arielle, 15, and Austin Metzger, 13, full scholarships. School president Wendy Libby told the Orlando Sentinel the […]

December 1, 2011

Florida Among the Leaders in Improving Education Data

A survey that tracks the way states use data to improve the quality of education finds progress across the board. The data could be anything from individual standardized test scores to the performance of whole school districts. The Data Quality Campaign is in its seventh year. More than fifty organizations around the country are now […]

November 30, 2011

Florida Districts Get Mixed Results in School Choice Index

The Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings has released its inaugural Education Choice and Competition Index. The interactive web application scores the nation’s 25 largest school districts based on 13 categories. The index focuses on the concept of school choice, which has been popular with Florida Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature. […]

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