What is important to the Florida State Board of Education (SBE) this year? According to this report, the SBE is focusing on capital outlay funding, charter expansion priorities, streamlining teacher preparation programs, and online education. As priorities from different stake holders emerge, the negotiation with the legislature will intensify.
Category Archives: Florida
Bright Futures not so Bright
I knew that the qualifications for Bright Futures scholarships had gone up. Now I understand the impact. In order for the State to save money, the rich get richer. The Florida lottery supports these scholarships. While the revenue for the lottery is still increasing, the percentage allocated to education is decreasing. It would be interesting to know why and how much.
3rd Grade Retention and Ability Grouping Tradeoffs
The Florida School Board Association (FSBA) is shifting ground on third grade student retention criteria. Such issues make me think about ability grouping in general. Are we going overboard?
Are we putting huge pressure on kids not only to ‘get to grade level’ but also to be ‘gifted’ or ‘highly gifted’? Do all children feel like they have a FSA proficiency level painted on their T-shirts? This is an age old issue of grouping and tracking vs. diverse ability classrooms where children have different strengths and weaknesses regardless of “I.Q.” as measured by a test?
The FSBA wants more evidence than a single test score to determine student achievement. Fair enough, but there is more to think about! In a newly adopted platform, the FSBA calls for three revisions to current practice in retaining third graders:
Florida House Education Chair: More of the Same
Richard Corcoran, Speaker of the Florida House, has named his Education Chair. It is Miami’s Representative, attorney Michael Bileca. According to the Tampa Bay Tribune, we can expect more of the same.
Some Good News for Public Education
Sometimes it helps to hold on to hope! Yesterday, the value of public education was affirmed in at least four states.
More Time in School: Some Districts Manage It
There are solutions to complex problems. Take for example the issue of not enough time. We all experience this concern but for children, it can impact their entire lives. Over and over again we hear that children need more time in school. Parents too have concerns about child care while they are working.
School time and work time do not match. Everyone knows something should be done, but time costs money. Here’s an example from the Christian Science Monitor that describes how a school was able to solve the time problem. They managed it differently. Read the story here. This is a fundamental change but a feasible one. IT COULD SOLVE MANY FRUSTRATIONS IN OUR DAILY LIVES and help children learn.
K-12 Education Projected to Lose in Florida Funding Battle
The Ocala Star Banner reports that funding priorities are changing. PreK 12 has received small increases in per student funding for the past couple of years. Florida is almost back to 2008 levels, if you do not count the increase in costs due to inflation. (The Consumer Price Index during that period rose 12.72%.) In the next legislative session, incoming Senate President Joe Negron has already announced his plan to increase budgets for colleges and universities, but not for K12. Richard Corcoran, incoming Speaker of the House has made his priorities clear.
Schools Treading Water
Have you looked closely at schools in your district? After the comment by the attorney for the State in the Citizens for Strong Schools lawsuit, we looked at Alachua County schools. Were the citizens in our district doing their part to support our schools? Was the State doing its part? Here’s an overview of what we found.
Speculation about Legislative Education Chairmanships
Florida’s legislative leaders for the 2017 session are choosing chairs for key education committees.
New Florida Charters: How do they fare? Not so well!
A five year study (2011-2016) of federal startup charters in Florida, conducted by the Collaborative Assessment and Program Evaluation Services (CAPES) at the University of Florida, makes one wonder why Florida was given so much more federal money this year to launch new charter schools.
It may be a bitter pill for the federal government to swallow, but this study reinforces the NAACP’s decision to call for a moratorium on the expansion of charters.