The Florida House approved legislation this afternoon that would expand a state initiative to give students choice and help them learn at their own pace.
The bill would open a personalized learning pilot program to every district in the state and give participating school districts more flexibility to decide how they award course credit to middle and high schoolers.
Rep. Jennifer Sullivan, R-Mount Dora and sponsor of HB 1035, said previously it is intended to promote a shift toward “mastery-based learning” in public schools. The idea is that students should advance to higher levels of learning based on their mastery of a topic, rather than the amount of time they spend in class. And instruction should cater to individual students’ needs.
The bill passed 101-13, with opposition from some Democrats.
HB 1035 also includes a new education savings account program that parents could use to support struggling readers who attend public schools. Parents could use the accounts, worth $500 per student in the first year, to pay for books, tutoring or summer programs.
It would allocate $9.7 million for Reading Scholarship Accounts if HB 7055 does not become law. The wide-ranging education bill now ready for a vote on the Senate floor, and also includes language creating the reading scholarship accounts.
Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg filed similar legislation to Sullivan’s in the Senate. But it faces an uncertain path with eight days remaining in the legislative session. The Senate Education Committee did not take up his bill, and he withdrew an amendment to HB 7055 that would have mimicked Sullivan’s bill.
P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School is leading Florida’s foray into personalized learning. School districts in Palm Beach, Seminole and Pinellas Counties are also taking part in the state pilot program. Representatives from those districts spoke in favor of the bill. Lake County, however, backed out of the program earlier this year.
*Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog, would help administer the reading scholarship program if lawmakers create it.
