Florida roundup: Testing, school choice, charter schools and more

florida-roundup-logoTesting. Miami-Dade dramatically scales back required assessments. Miami Herald. WPLGStateImpact. Answer Sheet. Sunshine State News. Marion County considers seeking a state waiver from testing. Ocala Star-Banner.

School choice. Opportunity scholarships, one of Florida’s least-used school forms of school choice, won’t be available to new students next year. Gradebook. Charter school provisions are added to school choice legislation. redefinED. Gradebook. Scripps/Tribune.

Charter schools. Two Palm Beach charter schools, including one that is well-regarded, get bad marks from auditors. Palm Beach Post. Sun-Sentinel. The district could place strict requirements on new charter schools. Palm Beach Post. The County Commission there makes way for a new charter on farmland. Sun-Sentinel. Southwest Florida’s WBBH investigates Lee County charter school bus inspection records and finds not every school keeps them.

Elections. A Hillsborough school board member plans to seek re-election. Tampa Tribune. A Tallahassee city commissioner announces plans to run to lead a district in turmoil. Tallahassee Democrat.

Boundaries. The Santa Rosa school board rejects a contentious rezoning plan. Pensacola News-Journal.

Administration. Turmoil returns to a Pasco campus with a history of leadership issues. Tampa Bay Times.

Safety. A suspicious car drives near a school campus, with the driver asking teenagers to get in, prompting a warning to parents. Sun-Sentinel. Students learn how to protect themselves against sexual predators. Bradenton Herald.

Career education. A student enjoys a digital cinema program. Northwest Florida Daily News.

Gardens. Students learn about ecology through gardening. Panama City News Herald.


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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.