Testing conflict: The Florida Association of District School Superintendents is objecting to the state's plan to dump the Postsecondary Education Readiness Test for high school students as an alternative to the algebra I end-of course exam. The Department of Education says the PERT standard is too low, and is recommending the PSAT as the alternative. Superintendents say both the PSAT and PERT should be options until the state has studied the relative value of each. The group also opposes the state's plan to increase the SAT score required to use as an alternative to the 10th grade language arts test, arguing the state's proposal raises the level to college readiness. Gradebook.

Late report cards: A provision of the new state education law will delay the issuing of end-of-year report cards by several weeks in 2018. The law pushes back all state standardized testing into the final three weeks of the school year, which means the Department of Education now has until June 30 to deliver test results to districts. The districts then factor in the test results and issue report cards. The only exception will be for 3rd-graders' language arts test results, which must be delivered to districts by May 31. Gradebook.

Lawsuit issues: The education bill, H.B. 7069, was written to allow specific provisions to be found unconstitutional without the whole law being invalidated. But a threatened lawsuit against the law could challenge it on the grounds that it violates the state constitution's rule requiring laws to address a single subject. If that happens and is successful, it would threaten everything else in the bill, from an expansion of the Gardiner scholarships for students with special needs to mandatory daily recess for elementary students. Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, helps administer the Gardiner scholarships for the state. redefinED.

Top teachers: Florida's teacher of the year will be named Thursday night by the Florida Department of Education. The finalists are Katelyn Fiori, an elementary school teacher from Indian River County; Diego Fuentes, who teaches children with disabilities in Marion County; Tammy Jerkins, who teaches pre-calculus in Lake County; Vanessa Ko, a middle school math teacher in Pinellas County; and Michael Miller, a 5th grade teacher in Osceola County. The winner gets $25,000, a trip for four to New York City for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and a year out of the classroom to be an education ambassador for the state. Orlando Sentinel. (more…)