At the EdFly Blog today, former Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas asks a reasonable question: Why isn’t the Florida teachers union trumpeting the dramatic gains of Florida teachers? This morning’s Education Week ranking is just the latest in a long string of credible reports that finds Florida making steady academic progress. Shouldn’t Florida[Read More…]
Tag: Education Week
Florida roundup: Quality Counts, Common Core, rezoning retreat & more
Top 10 again. Education Week ranks Florida No. 6 this year in its annual Quality Counts report. redefinED. Orlando Sentinel. Associated Press. Teacher evals. StateImpact Florida writes about the new Gates study on the best way to identify the best teachers. SchoolZone notes it. Jay P. Greene rips it. District[Read More…]
Education Week: Florida public schools rank No. 6 in education quality
For the fifth year in a row, Florida’s public school system ranks among the best in the country, according to the latest annual analysis by Education Week. Released this morning, the highly anticipated “Quality Counts” report puts Florida at No. 6 among states this year, trailing only Maryland, Massachusetts, New[Read More…]
There’s more to the story about education reform in Florida
Tony Bennett has a tough, tough job ahead, and the way education in Florida is covered is not going to make it any easier. The big news last week is a case in point. Besides Bennett’s selection as the state’s new education commissioner, the top story was how Florida fourth-graders[Read More…]
Florida roundup: ALEC, Common Core, teacher evaluations and more
ALEC to remain neutral on Common Core. Report from EdWeek. As we noted last week, Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education weighed in against the ALEC resolution. Thumbs up from Checker Finn. More from EdFly Blog. Speaking of Common Core … Education Week writes about the dispute between the[Read More…]
School choice push revs up in Arkansas
One of Arkansas’s top school choice advocates, Laurie Lee, is on the road this month in her home state, visiting 28 cities in four weeks to spread the gospel of education reform. Arkansas ranked No. 5 among states in an Education Week report that gave it a B- overall. The[Read More…]
Time to compare Florida school districts
As a group, low-income students struggle more than their wealthier peers. But in Florida, poor kids in some districts do a lot better than poor kids in others. In Seminole County, for example, 56 percent of third graders eligible for free- and reduced-price scored at grade level or above on[Read More…]
Down the rabbit hole on Florida’s Amendment 8
It’s concerning enough that Florida education reporters are overlooking basic facts about Amendment 8 – the “religious freedom amendment” – and in many cases simply repeating what the teachers unions and school boards say about it (that it’s really about vouchers voucher vouchers vouchers … ). But an Orlando Sentinel reporter took it a step further yesterday,[Read More…]