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“Significant Gains:” How A Tampa Middle School Earned Its ‘A’ Grade

Last year Mount Pleasant Standard Base Middle School’s grade dropped to an F from an A. Principal Yolanda Capers says the grade stung because she saw her students improving. “It’s devastating because…our students were still learning,” she says. “58 percent of our students made learning gains in reading. That’s a lot of learning gains. However […]

How Losing a Principal Can Hurt Students

Principals are the key to making a school successful. That’s what the research shows. So what happens when a superintendent pulls several top performing principals out of their roles to fill upper management positions? That’s the move Leon County Superintendent Jackie Pons made, and now he’s defending his decision to reassign seven of his principals.

How Trayvon Martin’s High School Reacted To His Public Death

It’s been nearly a month since self-appointed neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teen in Sanford, Fla. Martin’s death has inspired a national debate about race and justice. But at the high school Martin attended in Miami, his death had not been announced publicly until today, when the school […]

Why School Leaders Say There’s Nothing Sexual About Paddling Students

Our story on Florida schools that paddle students was picked up by NPR and we’ve gotten some comments from folks who wondered about a sexual element to spanking. John Shelley (JackinVosburg) wrote: Why do they hit the kids in the butt? Is this a sexual thing? Conky Swayze (Conky) wrote: There’s so much sexual connotation with […]

Hillsborough Wins Principal Development Grant

Hillsborough County has won another national education grant, this time to improve principal training. The Wallace Foundation announced Hillsborough was one of six districts to share a $75 million, six-year grant. Districts will receive $7.5 million to $12.5 million to develop programs in four areas: rigorous job requirements, high-quality training, selective hiring, and on-the-job evaluation […]

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