Every month, Washington, D.C.-based education policy firm Whiteboard Advisors anonymously survey “insiders” about their views on education issues. August’s survey is all about former Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett. Whiteboard’s insiders were evenly split — 50/50 — on whether Bennett should have resigned. Whiteboard also asked about the effect Bennett’s resignation will have on Common […]

Our colleagues at StateImpact Indiana have crunched the numbers and found that 165 schools benefited from changes to the school grading formula former Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett made in 2012 while the elected leaders of Hoosier State schools. Much of the focus has been on emails between Bennett and staff which revealed Bennett’s concern […]

Florida’s system of giving schools grades from A-to-F has been in the spotlight this summer. First, state officials made last-minute changes to the A-to-F formula, preventing more than 150 schools from dropping to F grades. Then, Florida’s education commissioner Tony Bennett resigned over reports that he manipulated school grades in Indiana when he was in charge of […]

Editor’s note: Names of students and teachers have been changed. Knowing we were going to be talking about former students, Lisa Perry told me she got out some letters she had saved and read through them.  The exercise inspired her to get in touch with four of her students from over 20 years ago.  (“Facebook […]

Last month State Board of Education members turned on Florida’s school grading system. The board was being asked to voted on two temporary changes which would soften the impact of several years of changes to the state formula which assign schools and districts an A-to-F rating. One change would prevent schools from dropping more than […]

Two 2016 presidential horse race stories posit that former Gov. Jeb Bush’s stock is down following the recent resignation of Education Commissioner Tony Bennett and Florida and Indiana lawmakers questioning the veracity of the A-to-F school grading systems Bush pioneered. Bush hasn’t said whether or not he intends to run in 2016. Bush built his […]

Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett resigned his post Thursday following questions about his role in changing the state’s grading formula to boost the grade of an influential Indiana charter school while leading Hoosier State schools in 2012. Bennett called the charges “malicious” and “unfounded,” but said he did not want to become a distraction in […]

Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett is expected to resign today after the Associated Press published emails this week showing he and staff worked to change the state’s grading system in 2012, which boosted a charter school’s grade. While we’re waiting for a press conference later this morning, here’s a link to a story our colleagues […]

The Foundation for Florida’s Future and Michael Petrilli, writing at The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, are defending Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett’s decision to change Indiana’s school grading formula while leading Hoosier State schools in 2012. The change boosted a notable charter school to an A grade from an initial C grade. Emails published by […]

The big news out of Indiana yesterday was that in 2012 then-state superintendent Tony Bennett and staff discussed boosting the grade of a charter school. Bennett now leads Florida schools and defended the change. The school, Christel House Academy, initially earned a C, but Bennett said Christel House performed as well as other A-rated charter […]