{"id":15865,"date":"2013-01-07T11:16:31","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T16:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=15865"},"modified":"2013-01-07T11:16:32","modified_gmt":"2013-01-07T16:16:32","slug":"why-florida-earned-a-b-on-a-national-education-policy-report-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/01\/07\/why-florida-earned-a-b-on-a-national-education-policy-report-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Florida Earned A B- On A National Education Policy Report Card"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_15868\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/01\/07\/why-florida-earned-a-b-on-a-national-education-policy-report-card\/new-florida-governor-rick-scott-visits-charter-school-5\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15868\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15868\" title=\"New Florida Governor Rick Scott  Visits Charter School\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/01\/1-7-RheeScott-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/01\/1-7-RheeScott-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/01\/1-7-RheeScott.jpg 594w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Raedle \/ Getty Images News<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee has advised Florida Gov. Rick Scott. Her group is recommending changes to Florida education policies.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>California-based StudentsFirst has released a <a href=\"http:\/\/reportcard.studentsfirst.org\/\">report card grading states on their education policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Florida earned the <a href=\"http:\/\/reportcard.studentsfirst.org\/state-detail?state=Florida\">second-highest grade in the country, a B-<\/a>, behind only Louisiana. No state earned an A.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest reason Florida scored well? The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2011\/0736\">2011 Students Success Act<\/a>, which requires teacher evaluations partially based on test scores, eliminates long-term contracts for new teachers and requires districts to set up pay systems based on teacher performance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Florida mandates that performance drive all district personnel decisions, including placement, layoff, and tenure decisions,&#8221; the StudentsFirst analysis says. &#8220;The state has already made progress in its implementation as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Florida scored lower on the &#8220;empowering parents&#8221; and &#8220;spend wisely&#8221; categories.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>StudentsFirst wants <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/tag\/parent-trigger\/\">parent trigger legislation<\/a>, and lobbied for an unsuccessful Florida bill last year. The bill failed on a tie vote on the final day of the legislative session.<\/p>\n<p>The bill would allow parents in chronically failing schools to choose how to restructure the schools, including firing the principal or staff, converting to a charter school or closing the school. StudentsFirst also wants school districts to notify parents if their child is placed with a <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/tag\/parent-trigger\/\">teacher earning a poor evaluation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The group also says the state should approve a law <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/11\/16\/charter-school-groups-wish-list-independent-review\/\">creating a statewide panel to approve charter schools<\/a>. The state should also change its law allowing school districts which approve charter schools to keep 5 percent of the funding as an administrative fee, StudentsFirst recommends.<\/p>\n<p>StudentsFirst says Florida should approve a law requiring teachers to enroll in the state&#8217;s defined contribution retirement plan, rather than a traditional pension. The group says the state should also <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/tag\/class-sizes\/\">repeal its constitutional class size limits<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California-based StudentsFirst has released a report card grading states on their education policy. Florida earned the second-highest grade in the country, a B-, behind only Louisiana. No state earned an A. The biggest reason Florida scored well? The 2011 Students Success Act, which requires teacher evaluations partially based on test scores, eliminates long-term contracts for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":15868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1109,1059,1108,604],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15865"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15871,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15865\/revisions\/15871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}