A new bill would make chewing these into guns a less severe offense in Florida schools.
Pop-Tarts chewed into the shape of a gun would not be grounds for suspension under a bill passed Thursday by the House Education Committee.
The bill is supposed to cut down on the number of students arrested because of zero tolerance policies.
The ‘Toaster Pastry Gun Freedom Act’ is known as the Pop-Tart bill after a 7-year-old in Maryland was suspended from school for biting his snack into the shape of a gun.
Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala – the man behind Florida’s Stand Your Ground law – sponsors the bill.
“I think it does lay down the proper balance and hopefully will be an example and an opportunity for administrators to feel they are empowered to make those common sense judgments,” Baxley said.
In his State of the State address on Tuesday, Gov. Rick Scott promoted his $18.8 billion budget for education.
NEA Public Relations/flickr
FEA President Andy Ford
But if it were up to Florida Education Association president Andy Ford, there would be even more money going to Florida’s public schools.
The Florida Education Association is the state umbrella group for Florida teachers’ unions. Before the legislative session began, Ford sat down with StateImpact Florida to talk about policy priorities this year.
Q: Where is FEA on the Common Core State Standards now?
A: We support the standards and even the Florida version of the standards. We think those improvements were actually for the better. But we have some problems with the implementation. There hasn’t been sufficient time put in place to move from one system to the other. We also don’t have the resources to be able to make the transition. And we’re just moving too quickly, we need to slow it down a little.
This year teachers are teaching the standards. The test the kids are going to take is based on the old standards. So there’s going to be some confusion there. Continue Reading →
Education Commissioner Pam Stewart's suggested school grading formula changes were approved by a Senate committee Tuesday.
A Senate panel has approved changes to the state school grading formula which echo those proposed by Florida schools chief Pam Stewart, the Times/Herald Tallahassee bureau reports.
The bill looks similar to recommendations made last month by state Education Commissioner Pam Stewart. It eliminates the bonus points schools can earn, as well as the so-called triggers that automatically cause a school grade to drop. It also removes several factors from the complex formula used to evaluate high schools, including five-year graduation rates and some college readiness measures.
Schools would continue to receive A-F grades during the transition to a new formula. But there would be no consequences for poor performance in the first year.
The education committee made two tweaks to Stewart’s original recommendations. They added a provision that would give middle schools credit for participation and performance in high-school classes. They also added language that would exempt children with complex disabilities from state testing, in response to recent discussions about the plight of profoundly disabled children.
As Florida prepares to move to new K-12 math and language arts standards this fall, state Democrats have joined school superintendents and the Florida PTA in asking for a three-year delay before school performance is judged using Common Core.
School grades are partly based on student test results. Tests tied to the new Common Core standards are expected to be more difficult, and perhaps half as many Florida students will meet state goals.
Gov. Rick Scott is asking lawmakers to revoke a law which allows state universities to request up to an additional 15 percent tuition increase.
Gov. Rick Scott is asking lawmakers to eliminate the state’s tuition differential law, which allows universities to request as much as a 15 percent tuition increase each year.
Scott has fought higher education tuition hikes since he took office in 2011.
“We are changing how we fund higher education,” Scott said, according to the prepared version of his State of the State speech, “but if we want to make higher education more accessible to low and middle-income families we have to make it more affordable.
“We will hold the line on tuition,” he added moments later.
Former Washington Post owner Donald Graham has raised $25 million to provide financial aid for undocumented students who want to go to college.
Former Washington Post owner Donald Graham and Miami education activist Gaby Pacheco sat down with NPR to talk about a new scholarship program for undocumented immigrants.
Common Core protestors at February's State Board of Education Meeting in Orlando. They aren't giving up, but lawmakers say the conversation about Common Core is moving on.
Sondra Hulette and her granddaughter joined dozens of anti-Common Core protestors as they circled a fountain outside the Orange County school district offices last month.
Inside the building, the State Board of Education was about to rename Common Core as “The Florida Standards.” But outside, Hulette and others chanted “Stop Common Core!” “Keep education local!” and “Follow the money!”
Common Core are math and language arts standards adopted by Florida and 44 other states. They outline what students should know at the end of each grade.
But Hulette and many others oppose the standards because they are concerned about losing local control over classroom decisions, cost and other factors.
Hulette’s granddaughter is homeschooled, but she worries college placement exams are being written to the standards. And that would force parents of homeschooled students to address the standards or possibly leave their kids unprepared for the exams.
“I don’t want what’s happening in the public school to infiltrate what I have the authority over as homeschoolers,” Hulette said. “It’s going to impose some things on her that are illogical.”
Opposition to the standards has dominated Florida’s education conversation the past year, but Christina Phillips’ sixth grade language arts students at Monroe Middle School in Tampa wouldn’t know that from their school work. Phillips’ lessons have been Common Core-based for the past two years.
As school districts purchase textbooks and other materials for new standards, two studies find much of what is on the market is a poor match for Common Core.
Brevard County schools are considering 30 new middle and high school textbooks for the nationally crafted math and language arts standards known as Common Core,Florida Today reports.
The standards are currently used in kindergarten through second grade, and are scheduled to be used in every Florida grade when classes start this fall.
Like Brevard County, school districts across the state that have yet to do so will soon need to make big curriculum decisions. But there’s a problem — researchers are finding many textbooks and classroom materials aren’t a perfect match for Common Core.
The final recommendation is up to Education Commissioner Pam Stewart. She has said she plans to announce her choice next month.
AIR beat out bids from testing heavyweights such as Pearson — who currently has the state FCAT contract — CTB/McGraw-Hill and the ACT Aspire. From the story:
Casi Adkinson, a teacher at West Defuniak Elementary listens as a student explains her answer during morning group work.
In Defuniak Springs in Florida’s panhandle, the third graders at West Defuniak Elementary are learning division.
Specifically, 72 divided by six. Their teacher, Casi Adkinson drew circles onto the board.
“I share my 72 into my six circles,” Adkinson said. “Are we ready to do that together? Ready? 1,2,3,4,5…”
With the class counting along, Adkinson drew 72 marks, grouped into six separate circles.
“Ok, I shared my 72,” she said. “What do I do next? Alaya?
“Oh! You count how many there are in the six circles,” Alaya said.
By the time the lesson is over, the class finished only four problems.
“I know to some people, they might think ‘that’s not many problems, I’d want to cover 20,’” Adkinson said. “It doesn’t matter if you cover 20 problems if they don’t understand why they’re doing it.”
The idea of ‘less is more’ has permeated West Defuniak Elementary since 2011. That’s when the school began to phase in the new Common Core standards with its youngest students.
This weekend, a Duval County high school will be hosting a conversation about volunteerism, bridging disparities and the community roll of a historic African-American school.
William M. Raines High School opened in segregated Jacksonville in 1965. Its first principal famously hired the best teachers he could find—recruiting educators with degrees from Columbia. For decades, it was a community pillar.
But in recent years, Raines has struggled with poverty, neighborhood violence and low test scores. At one point, the state threatened to close Raines and several other failing Duval schools.
But for many Raines grads—including filmmaker Emanuel Washington—the school was too important to dissolve.
Washington made a documentary about the school’s history, We Remember Raines, which will be screened at the school on Saturday. Continue Reading →
About StateImpact
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
