Palm Beach and Broward county school boards have already approved a similar resolution. Alachua, Flagler and Pinellas boards are weighing the measure.
The resolution is based on one authored by Parents Across America, a group that opposes so-called high stakes testing the privatization of public education. More than 400 Texas school boards have approved the resolution.
Read the Hernando County school board version after the jump:
College Board Vice President James Montoya (front center) announces the release of the 'Repository of Resources for Undocumented Students' at a College Board event in Miami, Fla.
Editors note: This post was written by WLRN reporter Luc Cohen.
Undocumented high school students have a new tool to help them with their college admissions process.
Florida students did better than expected in reading and math, according to a Florida Department of Education analysis of the latest batch of Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results.
Results for 2012 FCAT 2.0 Reading show 59 percent of students in grades 4 through 8 scored a 3 — considered ‘satisfactory’ — or above. In FCAT 2.0 Mathematics, 57 percent of students in grades 4 through 8 scored a 3 or higher.
The test is more demanding than its predecessor. This school year was the first time new achievement levels were in place.
The 2012 scores are roughly equal to last year’s scores, after the state education department compared the old scores to the new scale.
Pinellas County schools superintendent John Stewart.
Pinellas County schools superintendent John Stewart isn’t sure how the state calculates the number of chronic absentees but says getting students to school more often is a priority, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Pinellas County schools ranked first among Florida’s urban school districts for the percentage of students missing at least 21 days of school, according to a StateImpact Florida analysis. Nearly 18 percent of Pinellas students were chronically absent, according to state data.
Those days add up quick — 467,586 days last year, or the equivalent of nearly 2,600 school years.
Stewart disputes that ranking, saying he doesn’t know how other districts report absenteeism. But Stewart wants students in school more often.
A former employee with Pearson, the company that created and scores the FCAT, says the people who score the essays also lower their grading standards to produce the test results states predict their students will get, though Pearson denies the practice.
We spoke to Todd Farley, author of the book Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry.
Suezan Turknett, principal of Imagine School at Evening Rose in Tallahassee, speaks to parents.
Charter schools tend to be less diverse than traditional public schools, according to a new report, and federal and state officials should consider rules that give charter schools more flexibility in choosing students.
As schools of choice, charters could use diversity to improve student education, according to a report from the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) and The Century Foundation. But federal law requires charter schools give every applicant the same chance at enrolling — typically through a lottery.
That’s a problem, the authors write, because charter schools traditionally are started to provide an alternative to failing schools in low-income and minority communities. Studies show a lack of diversity can be detrimental to kids, they argue.
This week we told you about former Gov. Jeb Bush’s national education role, and how many of the policies he’s taking to other states got their start in Florida thanks to a well-maintained political network.
We also told you that Bush’s ideas are seeing some resistance from Floridians.
Readers took to the debate.
Standardized tests are the backbone for holding schools and teachers accountable, and a guest commenter said they are a necessary tool despite their shortcomings:
The UCP Bailes campus is an Orlando charter school with a mix of students with disabilities and without. Schools such as UCP could be hit by new state school grade rules..
But one Orlando charter school is pretty happy with their results.
We told you about the UCP Bailes campus in East Orlando back in December. The school began its life specializing in students with cerebral palsy and other severe disabilities. Since then the school has adopted an inclusion model.
About half the students have disabilities and half do not.
UCP students scored an average of 199 on the reading test, just under the state’s average score of 201. The percentage of UCP students scoring 3 or higher on the test, 63 percent, bested the state average of 56 percent.
After an onslaught of applications, the deadline has been extended for anyone hoping to be on FPU’s Board of Trustees.
39 applications were received by yesterday’s deadline. Continue Reading →
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