Education Commissioner Pam Stewart says she is largely meeting goals leading Florida schools. The State Department of Education posted Stewart’s self-evaluation of her performance Thursday. The State Board of Education is scheduled to discuss Stewart’s evaluation at a meeting next week. Stewart says she has met the top three goals set out for her by […]
Florida lawmakers’ decision to end mandatory final exams for every class will mean that more teachers’ performance will be judged on subjects they don’t teach. Concerned about the amount of testing in schools — and pressured by activists and educators — this year lawmakers rescinded a state law that requires school districts to have a […]
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.
The chairman of the Senate Education committee says lawmakers aren’t interested in cancelling the six-year, $220 million contract with Florida new statewide test provider despite multiple problems with the new exams already. Twice this year contractor American Institutes for Research made changes to their system which prevented students and administrators from accessing the exam. Some […]
The Miami-Dade School District is taking advantage of a new state law and eliminating more than 300 final tests — also known as end-of-course exams. The law rescinds a requirement that districts give students a final exam in all subjects that don’t already have a required state exam. “Today’s announcement should come as welcomed news […]
Testing experts say the problems Florida’s has had with its new statewide exam so far are likely not serious enough for the state to consider throwing out this year’s test scores on the Florida Standards Assessments. Earlier this month a software problem meant students had trouble logging onto the writing exam for several days, and […]
Yesterday, a Senate committee appeared to suspend for one year Florida’s requirement that the lowest-performing 3rd graders be held back while the state validates results from its new test. But Senate Education committee chairman John Legg says it’s not that simple. What the committee actually did, Legg says, is put the responsibility on school districts […]
This week, PBS is launching a new documentary series “180 Days.” One of the films focuses on Hartsville, South Carolina, a rural and poor district which has managed to become one of the highest rating school districts according to South Carolina’s ranking. Tampa public media station WUSF hosted a town hall meeting at Artz 4 […]
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 […]
Editor’s note: This story has been updated. For the second day in a row, some Florida school districts decided to suspend required testing because of computer problems. The Florida Department of Education told school leaders this morning that test provider American Institutes for Research had found and corrected the problems that shut down testing Monday. […]
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