Florida roundup: Charter school closures, teacher evaluations and more

florida-roundup-logoImpending closures. Charter schools that received a string of F grades may face closure this summer, despite a suspension of school grading consequences during the 2014-15 school year. Gradebook.

District-charter merger? The Leon County School Board backs a plan to merge a district-created charter school with a traditional public school in Woodville. Tallahassee Democrat. WFSU.

Results. Florida’s urban school districts outrank many of their national counterparts in demographic-adjusted NAEP results, according to a new analysis by the Urban Insititute.

Elections. An embattled former administrator dives into the Leon County Schools superintendent’s race. Tallahassee Democrat. WFSU.

Charter schools. A Michigan liberal arts college backs a charter school in Palm Bay, Fla. Urban News Service.

Teacher evaluations. A union-backed challenge of a 2011 teacher merit pay law hits another legal snag. South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

STEM. NASA works with middle school teachers to improve science instruction. Gainesville Sun. The building industry isn’t just a man’s world at architecture camp. Panama City News Herald. Flagler County hosts a STEM camp for students. Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Violence. A teen accused of stabbing a classmate in a bathroom faces $250,000 bail. Sun-Sentinel.

Uniforms. The Alachua County School Board votes to do away with them. Gainesville Sun.

Summer. Gainesville’s Eastside High School prepares to host a summer camp. Gainesville Sun.


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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.