Two University of Florida researchers say Florida should join other states which have outlawed corporal punishment to discipline students. Florida is one of 20 states which allows schools to spank or paddle misbehaving students. Twenty-six of the state’s 67 districts allow corporal punishment. Some districts require a parent’s approval, others do not. UF education professors […]
Maybe a charter school in New York City has discovered “The Answer” to Florida’s K-12 education challenges? If so, the school has done so by setting aside Florida’s focus on keeping class sizes small and by instead adopting a strategy that our state has so far ignored – recruiting star teachers with high salaries and […]
Hillsborough Community College students who were paid cash bonuses were more likely to complete remedial math courses and meet with math tutors, according to a new study from social science research firm MDRC. The study looked at students in Hillsborough Community College’s Mathematics Access Performance Scholarship program, which pays students $600 per semester for three […]
More than two-thirds of Duval County teachers were “frequently absent” or worse during the 2012-2013 school year, according to a new study by the National Center for Teaching Quality. Nearly half of teachers in Orange County schools missed at least 11 days of school — which NCTQ says is “frequently absent” — while 30 percent […]
The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging single-gender schools and classes in Hillsborough County. The ACLU claims the programs reinforce gender stereotypes and that the evidence supporting single-gender schooling is based on “junk science.” So what does the science say? The results are mixed, as is often the case in education research. Two large reviews […]
UPDATE: Matthew Ladner, director of policy research for the Foundation for Excellence in Education, responds. The takeaway: “There are very clear signs of aggregate level improvement in Florida, and also a large number of studies at the individual level showing positive results from individual policies.” At the Shanker Blog researcher Matthew Di Carlo reviews the […]
The finance professor who found Florida charter schools are not on a par with traditional schools is back with more research. Dr. Stanley Smith with the University of Central Florida analyzed the high school grades that were released last month. Like last time, he looked at the effect of poverty and minority status on a […]
A University of Central Florida business professor and the Florida Department of Education have been swapping research the past week in a debate about whether charter schools perform better than district schools. UCF professor Stanley Smith opened the debate with his analysis of student achievement at traditional and charter schools. His general assessment is that […]
Here’s more fuel for the fire in the charter school debate. Student achievement data compiled by the Florida Department of Education suggests charter students are performing better than their peers in traditional schools. That goes against research by Dr. Stanley Smith, a University of Central Florida business professor. He found that charters perform worse than […]
While charter schools are an increasingly popular option for Florida students, a University of Central Florida researcher says they don’t perform as well as district schools. Dr. Stanley Smith, a professor at the University of Central Florida’s business school, analyzed school grades of Florida elementary schools last summer, examining the effect of poverty and minority […]
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