Florida roundup: FCAT, McKay Scholarships, reading and more

Testing. Statewide FCAT scores show slight improvement, with variation around the state. Tampa Bay Times. Miami HeraldTampa Tribune. Pensacola News-Journal. Ocala Star-Banner. Tallahassee Democrat. Palm Beach Post. WJCT. WFSU. Florida Times-Union. Orlando Sentinel.

florida-roundup-logoMcKay Scholarships. The Sun-Sentinel airs criticism of the program for special needs students.

Career academies. Polk middle-school students earn professional-grade engineering credentials. Lakeland Ledger.

Charter schools. A Hillsborough charter school prepares to close amid falling enrollment. Gradebook.

Graduation. South Florida schools once seen as “dropout factories” see graduation rates soar. Miami Herald. A Bay County charter school is the last high school in the district to continue recognizing valedictorians. Panama City News Herald.

Books. Author Cory Doctorow takes to YouTube to call out administrators who pulled his book from a summer reading program. Pensacola News-Journal.

Summer slide. School officials hope to keep students from forgetting what they’ve learned during the school year, a problem especially pronounced among low-income students. Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Early learning. Funding delays pose problems for the Head Start program. Orlando Sentinel.

Budgets. There’s no room for employee raises in the Palm Beach County schools budget. Palm Beach Post. The Okaloosa County school system may give the central office greater control over spending. Northwest Florida Daily News. A 5k helps the district raise money. Daily News.

Seniors. Prom, senior trips and class rings can make senior year expensive for families. Scripps.

Nutrition. A bus converted into a food truck will help make a summer meal program accessible to students. Bradenton Herald.

Administration. The Lee County school district seeks public input on coming policy changes. Fort Myers News-Press. Manatee County’s handling of a sexual abuse case involving an administrator may run afoul of federal Title IX rules. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. A longtime Hernando administrator is given a choice to either take a pay cut or lose his job. Tampa Bay Times.

School boards. Five Pinellas school board seats are open to challenge. Tampa Bay Times. Every Manatee County incumbent up for re-election will face a challenger. Bradenton Herald.

Teachers. The Gainesville Sun talks to first year teachers at the end of the school year.


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BY Travis Pillow

Travis Pillow is Director of Thought Leadership at Step Up For Students and editor of NextSteps. He lives in Sanford, Fla. with his wife and two children. A former Tallahassee statehouse reporter, he most recently worked at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a research organization at Arizona State University, where he studied community-led learning innovation and school systems' responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. He can be reached at tpillow (at) sufs.org.