John Oliver spent 18 minutes taking on standardized testing, teacher evaluations and all things “accountability” related on his show, “Last Week Tonight.” And, of course, Florida plays a starring role. Warning: Salty language, off-color jokes and test monkeys ahead.
Last week, dozens of Florida school districts had to postpone state testing because of problems with the new Florida Standards Assessments. Students couldn’t log in to the online writing exam — and some who did were booted out and temporarily lost their answers. The problems seem to have been resolved Thursday. By Friday, more than […]
Lots of people think there’s too much testing going on in schools right now. It’s one of the most contentious issues in education. Lawmakers want to scale back the amount of time Florida students spend taking tests. But at the same time, Florida is rolling out a new test tied to new math and language […]
The Florida Department of Education released 2013 high school grades, part of the state’s school accountability system. The data includes each component of the school’s score and demographic data.
Nearly half of Florida high schools — 48 percent — earned an A grade on the state’s report card, according to a report Florida Department of Education released Wednesday. That’s up from 31 percent of high schools earning a top grade two years ago. More than 80 percent of Florida high schools earned an A […]
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 […]
The Florida Department of Education released 2013 elementary and middle school grades, part of the state’s school accountability system. The data includes each component of the school’s score and demographic data.
Editor’s note: Names of teachers and students have been changed. Let’s take a moment to look closely at test scores, which are the basis of our new “teacher accountability” system. I just got back the test results for the students at the magnet school where I taught this year, and I honestly don’t think they […]
Editor’s note: Names of teachers and students have been changed. Professionals should be responsible for their job performance and should be evaluated and retained accordingly. Who doesn’t agree with that? My problem isn’t with accountability or evaluating teachers.  My problem is with the schemes I’ve encountered so far in my career that have been designed […]
The State Board of Education has asked that a panel of school superintendents and other education officials to review the state’s school grading system and potentially recommend changes. Superintendents from Hillsborough and Miami-Dade schools said that they are concerned changes to the school grading system will mean a dramatic drop in school grades. The board […]
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