Gov. Rick Scott is ready to take the federal government to court over testing rules for students learning English. The U.S. Department of Education says Florida must count those students’ results after one year in school. Scott and Florida educators want to give students two years to learn English. Scott said Education Commissioner Pam Stewart […]
A handful of Florida districts are talking about skipping state-required tests this year, including the new Florida Standards Assessment replacing most of the FCAT. Last week, Palm Beach County school board members said they wanted to send a message to state leaders by skipping the new exam. Earlier this month, Lee County school board members […]
Gov. Rick Scott says he wants to review testing in Florida schools and the state’s new Common Core-based standards. It’s part of Scott’s latest campaign trail education proposal, released Monday. Education has been a top issue during the campaign, as Scott and other candidates have used the issue to draw contrasts between themselves and their […]
The more Americans learn about Common Core, the less likely they are to support the math and language arts standards for K-12 public schools. That’s one conclusion to draw from the annual poll from Phi Delta Kappa, a professional group for educators, and polling firm Gallup. Last year, two-thirds of Americans said they had not […]
For the past year The Hechinger Report and StateImpact Florida have taken you into two schools to hear what preparations for Florida’s new Common Core-based standards sound like. The standards outline what students should know in math and language arts. When classes start this fall every grade in every Florida public school will use them. […]
Curtis Lanoue teaches music in a trailer behind Oliver Hoover Elementary School in Miami. His colleagues have interactive smart boards in their classrooms. Those are like 21st-Century chalk boards that can can plug into the school’s network — and the Internet. Elle Moxley / StateImpact Indiana Schools are switching to mobile carts like this, loaded […]
President Barack Obama’s proposal to equip nearly every school with high-speed wireless Internet will cost $800 million per year — $3.2 billion total by the 2018 deadline — according to a new estimate given to the Federal Communications Commission. The initiative is important to Florida schools for two reasons. First, schools are switching to new […]
The percentage of Florida third graders passing the state’s FCAT math and reading exams did not improve this year — remaining largely flat for the past three years — according to initial test results released Friday. Fifty-seven percent of third graders scored at least a 3, the state’s passing score, on the reading test. On […]
Florida students may not advance to fourth grade or earn a high school diploma if they fail a state test, but NPR’s Cory Turner reports the stakes are even higher in other countries. Starting at age 16, students in England take between 15 and 20 big exams each year. If they do well, they’ll get […]
Monday we told you about activists who are educating parents about what their options are when it comes to FCAT exams. While state law doesn’t allow parents to withhold their children from the exam, the law does outline alternatives to required tests. But opting out might still come with some consequences. A parent forwarded us […]
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