Arizona: A former school teacher criticizes the state superintendent of public instruction for his support of Common Core and school choice (East Valley Tribune). The Sierra Vista Herald editorial board says the state superintendent's support of ESAs hurts public schools. Applications for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts doubles (Heartlander). The Arizona Republic editorial board opposes allowing public funding to go to private schools, especially now that the state support for ESAs exceeds the state support for public schools (note: the editorial board's calculation excludes local support for public schools). A consultant at a scholarship organization is indicted for stealing $529,000 in scholarship money (Arizona Republic).
California: Vanila Singh, a professor and physician at Stanford University and congressional candidate, says school choice is the key to student success (Mercury News). The California Charter Schools Association has sued the West Contra Costa School District for withholding tax revenue intended to fund charter schools (Contra Costa Times). Charter schools struggle with online assessments (FSRN Radio).
D.C.: Two charter schools allegedly under federal investigation for possible discrimination say they have never received a complaint from a student or parent (Washington Post). President Obama sends his daughters to Sidwell Friends, an elite private school that refuses to release information on student course completion and graduation rates (Washington Post).
Florida: The tax-credit scholarship expansion will allow the program to serve higher-income families (Education Week, Tampa Tribune, WJHG TV). More low-income families will benefit from the tax-credit scholarship program if the Governor signs the bill into law (Florida Times-Union). The state passes the nation's second education savings account program (Foundation for Excellence in Education). Daphne Cambell (D-Miami-Dade) says she voted to expand the program because giving poor kids more options is the right thing to do (Miami Herald). The Tampa Tribune editorial board says the scholarship expansion is justified because every student deserves to find a school that works well for them. Brian Tilson, owner of a communications firm in Boca Raton, says the scholarships are unpopular and are hurting public schools (Gainesville Sun). Ron Matus, the editor of redefinED, says more progressive Democrats support parental choice (Gainesville Sun). The scholarship program helps families afford Jewish day schools (Chabad News). State Impact talks with Sen. John Legg about the legislative session including the passage of the scholarship bill. Marc Yacht, a retired physician, say charter schools should be more regulated and held to the same standards and rules as traditional public schools (Sun Sentinel).
Georgia: The Southern Education Foundation helps file a suit to overturn the state's tax-credit scholarship program (Watchdog). A former reporter sends her daughter to a charter school and says each school is so different it is difficult to compare them to each other let alone public schools, and that is a good thing (Atlanta Journal Constitution). (more…)
“They’re just children,’’ Principal Eileen Daly says of her students at Morning Star Catholic School in Tampa, Fla. “They come to us to learn what they’re good at and what they can do. … But really we’re teaching them how to do well in school.’’
When Madelyn Tomas was in the third grade, teachers at her public school wanted to retain the speech- impaired student another year. Madelyn’s mom, a school nurse, chose, instead, to move her daughter to Morning Star Catholic School in Tampa, Fla.
Madelyn Tomas says Morning Star helped her fit in at school, and excel.
“It saved my life, to be honest,’’ said Madelyn, now an eighth-grader who earned straight A’s last semester. “The small class sizes helped me focus. I’ve gone from thinking I couldn’t learn anything to knowing I can learn.’’
That’s the goal at Morning Star, one of six private schools and three programs in the Florida Catholic Diocese system that serves 566 children with special needs. The first Morning Star opened in Jacksonville in 1956 to serve boys and girls with physical needs. Through the years, the schools have broadened that focus based on a growing need to provide more educational opportunities for students with learning disabilities.
“They’re just children,’’ said Principal Eileen Daly, who has been with the Tampa school for 23 years, first as a reading teacher. “They come to us to learn what they’re good at and what they can do. … But really we’re teaching them how to do well in school.’’
Morning Star opened in Tampa in 1958 in a small concrete-block building behind Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. Most of the school’s 78 students in grades first through eighth have been diagnosed with a speech, language or learning disability. The rest have a combination of physical impairments and developmental disorders, such as autism or Tourette syndrome.
Sixty students receive McKay Scholarships, state dollars that go to families of children with special needs. Another four receive Florida Tax Credit Scholarships for low-income students, which provides $4,880 of the school’s $10,750 annual tuition. (Step Up For Students is the nonprofit that administers the scholarship program and co-hosts this blog).
The school, a nonprofit that receives funding from the diocese as well as the community, also provides its own scholarships. About half of the student body is Catholic, but Morning Star focuses more on academics, said administrative coordinator Paul Reed.
Students are taught in classes with 10 students per teacher. Sometimes, when the school has extra dollars, there’s an aide. There also are SMART boards, laptops and iPad minis in almost every class. Junior high students are allowed to bring their own devices, such as a tablet.
Lessons adhere to the same standards and benchmarks taught at other diocesan schools, but Morning Star students don’t receive grades. Learning gains are measured through the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.
Students also are exposed to classes and clubs found in most any school, like student council, yearbook and show choir – “so they can kind of be top dog, where elsewhere they wouldn’t be,’’ Daly said.
Not surprisingly, leaders from some of Florida’s largest school districts lined up last week against a proposed state House bill that would make it easier for charter schools to open. What was unexpected, though, was one superintendent breaking from the herd.
Superintendent Robert Runcie
Broward County’s Robert Runcie not only supported the measure, he made a plea for everyone to work together.
“We need to move to an era where there is true collaboration going on between school districts and charter schools,’’ Runcie told the Florida House Choice & Innovation Subcommittee. “It’s the only way that we’re ever really going to fulfill the promise of providing every student and providing every school with the type of quality education that they need.’’
Runcie’s comments are noteworthy for all kinds of reasons. The 260,000-student Broward County school district is the second biggest in Florida and the sixth biggest in the nation. Florida, a leading charter state, is experiencing great tension – even animosity – between school districts and charters. And this particular legislative meeting was yet another example, with one lawmaker, Rep. Kionne McGhee, D-Miami, describing the charter school bill as the “wrecking ball of traditional public education.’’
For Runcie, the comments are also part of an emerging pattern.
Last summer, the Harvard graduate and former Chicago Public Schools administrator helped lead a statewide task force of district and charter school administrators. Their objective: to help the Florida Department of Education develop language that both sides can agree upon for the state’s new standard charter school contracts.
While that’s still a work in progress, Runcie most recently stepped up to show equal support for charter school teachers in Broward by agreeing not to withhold an administrative fee from their pay raises.
The money is part of a statewide $480 million allotment for teacher pay hailed by Gov. Rick Scott and approved last session. By law, districts can charge charter schools a 5 percent fee for processing funds that come from the Florida Education Finance Program. In Broward, that fee on the dollars earmarked for charter school teacher raises added up to about $11,000, said Robert Haag, president of the Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools, which made the request.
Runcie not only complied, Haag said, but approved back pay for charter school teachers from July 1, when the raises went into effect.
“That was incredible,’’ Haag told redefinED, adding that he believes Runcie’s gesture will serve as a catalyst for other district leaders. “Listen, we don’t care if they keep 5 percent from our schools. But withholding 5 percent from our teachers? We can’t do that!’’
Vouchers: Jewish leaders speak in support of school choice and the expansion of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. Jewish Journal. Senate President Don Gaetz's call for more accountability through expanded testing is the right call and a good place to start, writes the Sun Sentinel. Taxpayers fund both public and private schools in Florida, and they deserve accountability from each, writes Russ Kesler for the Orlando Sentinel. A lot of parents complain their children aren't getting that high-quality education right now, and lawmakers could be about to give them the opportunity to make a choice. Bay News 9.
Common Core: How can two Sarasota County schools - one for the gifted and the other for disabled students - fit in with the standards that 45 states have approved? Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Ed reform: The 10th annual College Board Report to the Nation ranks Florida once again among the top five states in the percent of high school graduates who have passed an Advanced Placement test with a score of 3 or higher, writes Patricia Levesque. Gainesville Sun.
Teacher evals: Palm Beach teachers score well on the controversial evaluations. Sun Sentinel. The data shows that Broward is among more than three dozen school districts that had lower-than-expected student gains over a one-year period last year, but Miami-Dade and Palm Beach have higher-than-expected student gains. Sun Sentinel. Teachers unions and school districts criticize the release of teacher performance evaluations. Times/Herald. Reactions to the release of Florida's Value-Added Model (VAM) scores for teachers compiled by the Florida Times-Union. School districts reassure teachers. Tampa Bay Times. More from Palm Beach Post, Fort Myers News-Press, Miami Herald, TC Palm and The Tampa Tribune.
Grades: Pinellas school board members consider making honors classes worth less than those in IB and AP. Tampa Bay Times. The student progression plan also could include longer grading periods, and fewer report cards. The Tampa Tribune.
Willow Tufano and her mom, Shannon Moore, say having a choice in Willow's education gave her the freedom and confidence to excel. PHOTO provided by family.
When Willow Tufano left a public school for the gifted three years ago and enrolled in Florida Virtual School, she discovered a doorway to opportunity.
No longer confined to a typical school day, the eighth-grader spent mornings and afternoons combing Craigslist and garage sales for electronics and other items, then sold them for a profit. At night, she studied English and algebra, keeping up her grades and socking away enough cash to buy a house with her mom, a real estate broker.
At 14, Willow became a landlord. Then she saved enough for another house. Two years later, the Palm Island, Fla., teen has sold both houses and is finishing her sophomore year online with Florida Virtual School, earning mostly A’s and B’s, while fielding offers from Hollywood for a reality TV show.
None of those feats likely would have happened, say Willow and her mother, if she couldn’t pick the best learning option for her.
“I’m doing my school work at 2 in the morning instead of 9 a.m.,’’ Willow said. “I really like that flexibility.’’
The story of Willow’s ingenuity has circulated far and wide, from NPR to the Huffington Post to the Ellen DeGeneres Show. What remains largely untold is how education’s fast-changing landscape and, more specifically, the expansion of online learning, helped propel her success.
When Willow needs an afternoon free to show a house or sell something – or meet with an entertainment attorney, like she did recently - she can take it.
“She came home at 6 p.m. and did school work until 1 in the morning,’’ recalled Willow’s mom, Shannon Moore. “That’s what works for us.’’ (more…)
Vouchers: Standardized testing would threaten private-school appeal, writes the Orlando Sentinel. The president of the League of Women Voters of Florida says expanding private scholarships is a further abdication of the state's responsibility to provide a high quality education to Florida's children. Orlando Advocate.
Fundamental schools: Is St. Petersburg's fundamental school within a school working? Tampa Bay Times.
District schools: Escambia County's Warrington Middle School continues to fail its students - and improving the school will take a community-wide effort that must begin this week, writes the Pensacola News-Journal. Hillsborough County's Brandon High celebrates 100 years. The Tampa Tribune. A Duval County high school hosts a conversation about volunteerism, bridging disparities and the community roll of a historic African-American school. StateImpact Florida.
Teachers: Hundreds of thousands of Florida teacher evaluation scores that measure effectiveness on student learning are released after the Florida Times-Union wins lengthy legal battle. The Department of Education sends teachers a message about the release of records. Florida Times-Union. This Duval County teacher's class is all about goals. Florida Times-Union.
Ed leg: If the Legislature adjourns after its upcoming session without passing a single education-related bill, there will still be big changes coming to Florida classrooms this fall. Tallahassee Democrat. Pop-Tarts law is gun lobbying we don't need at school, writes Sue Carlton for the Tampa Bay Times.
State testing: Florida's students are getting ready to write the final chapter in a 17-year saga known as the FCAT. Sun Sentinel. FCAT season begins this week with a low-stakes writing assessment that over the years has seemed to have little purpose. TC Palm. Sen. John Legg aims to address over-testing in Florida public schools. Tampa Bay Times. This coming week marks the beginning of the end for the four most hated letters in Florida education: FCAT. Palm Beach Post.
Common Core: Why less is more for a rural Florida school preparing students for the new education standards. StateImpact Florida.
School boards: Hillsborough County School Board member April Griffin decides to seek a third term after all, citing issues within the school district’s transportation and special education departments that she believes have not been resolved. The Tampa Tribune. The Black Educators Caucus of Palm Beach County still backs the district superintendent, but wants progress report. Palm Beach Post. For Polk County's assistant superintendent, it's all about the kids. The Ledger.
Vouchers: Three weeks after Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford promised a “massive increase” in school choice scholarships for underprivileged schoolchildren, his chamber releases a 40-page bill. redefinED. The proposal is expected to be one of the most-contentious education battles of the 2014 legislative session. The News Service of Florida. More from CBS Miami.
Charter schools: Hillsborough County charter school operators organize their first school choice fair for parents and students to learn about nontraditional public school offerings. The Tampa Tribune.
Technology: Leon County and other school districts across the state begin to realize the potential of putting a computer in every student’s hands, and the obstacles they will have to clear to make that happen. Tallahassee Democrat. Pasco classrooms are opening up to new technology coaches. Tampa Bay Times.
Rick Scott: As a Florida governor, Rick Scott will never be confused with Jeb Bush. Tampa Bay Times.
School boards: Palm Beach school board members should be careful bypassing the superintendent to deal with district personnel issues, writes the Palm Beach Post.
2014 session: Senate Education Committee Chairman John Legg tells the Gradebook there is no must-pass bill this year. House Democrats say session will be 'class warfare.' The Florida News Current.
Charter schools: Three Broward County charter schools could owe the state as much as $1.5 million for failing to provide sufficient instructional hours and receiving funds for ineligible students, and the district is worried it may get stuck with the bill. Sun Sentinel. More from the Miami Herald.
Faith-based schools: The University of Notre Dame and the Alliance for Catholic Education park their national tour bus at Sacred Heart in Pinellas Park to promote Catholic schools. redefinED.
Better Ed: Let's remove the hurdles, reduce the bureaucracy, and empower teachers with the resources and autonomy to allow them to do their jobs, writes former Florida Sen. Paula Dockery for The Ledger. Florida students of all races Continue to meet higher standards in education. Sunshine State News.
Common Core: Florida Parents Against Common Core co-founder Laura Zorc says she is undaunted by the Florida State Board of Education’s vote pushing forward the Common Core State Standards and will continue to fight to stop implementation of the new measures. TC Palm. An Orlando mom explains why Florida's testing policy needs to change. StateImpact Florida.
School boards: Palm Beach County School Board members warn the superintendent that if he doesn't hire a chief of staff soon - they will. Palm Beach Post. Charles Brink, the businessman-turned-education advocate, is not running for the Hillsborough County School Board after all. Tampa Bay Times.
School spending: The Manatee County School District Audit Committee calls the internal information technology department "outdated and inflexible." Bradenton Herald. Rising prescription drug costs and coverage plans for retirees may add up to higher health insurance costs for Pinellas County school employees next year. The Tampa Tribune.
Teachers: Hillsborough County's top teacher of the year finalists welcome the challenges of modern education. The Tampa Tribune.
Bullying: Harlem Globetrotter Shane “Scooter” Christensen talks to Pensacola elementary students about bullying and its impact on schools. Pensacola News-Journal.
Conduct: The Broward School Board dismisses its complaint against a Weston teacher accused of sleeping at his desk after an administrative law judge says it's impossible to prove the educator dozed off. Sun Sentinel.
Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg helps celebrate the growth of Sacred Heart Catholic School in Florida, and other Catholic schools across the state during the University of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education bus tour that made a stop in the Tampa Bay area.
Nearly two decades ago, Sacred Heart Catholic School in Pinellas Park, Fla. was on the “death watch list,’’ said Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg. Families struggled to afford private school tuition, enrollment dwindled and tough decisions loomed for school leaders.
But instead of closing the school, Lynch forged a partnership with the University of Notre Dame and the Alliance for Catholic Education, a graduate program that trains future Catholic teachers and leaders.
Nearly 17 years later, Sacred Heart has more than 200 students and, like other Tampa Bay area Catholic schools, is expecting more growth in the years to come. It’s a success story that owes a lot to ACE.
“It saved these … schools,’’ Lynch told redefinED Wednesday, during a celebration that brought a giant blue RV emblazoned with the University of Notre Dame and ACE logos onto the grounds of Sacred Heart.
The stop was part of a national 50-city tour called Fighting for Our Children’s Future. It’s designed to raise awareness about the value of Catholic education and the profound impact it can have on children’s lives. It also stresses the need to keep Catholic schools relevant, active – and open. More than 1,300 U.S. Catholic schools have closed in the past 20 years.
“I just knew ACE coming to our diocese would be a blessing,’’ Lynch told an audience of students, parents, school donors and ACE leaders. “ACE is grace. It is the catalyst. It’s been the yeast that has raised the leaven – and the Catholic education.”
Vouchers: Sen. President Don Gaetz says he supports private school vouchers, but that students who participate in the program should be subject to the same or similar standardized tests that public school students take. Miami Herald. More from Orlando Sentinel. School choice is becoming more valuable for parents, who are turning to Step Up For Students and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for help in finding the right fit for their children. WEAR TV Channel 3.
Private schools: St. Thomas Episcopal in Miami gets on loan from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration a display of lunar rocks, soil and meteorites. Miami Herald.
Charter schools: Oasis High School, part of the Cape Coral charter school system, win 14 awards at the International Model UN conference hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. Fort Myers News-Press. In Hillsborough County, more than half of the existing charter schools have banded together to create a choice fair for families to learn about their offerings. Tampa Bay Times. Palm Beach County School District officials are working with two local legislators to introduce a bill that would require new charter schools to put up a $250,000 performance bond before they can open. Palm Beach Post.
Magnet schools: Public school leaders in Miami and elsewhere are refocusing on magnet schools as traditional public schools come under increasing pressure from charter schools and vouchers for private schools. The New York Times.
District schools: Polk County principals work to bring improvement to local schools. The Ledger. With a new writing coach and weekly boot camps, Hernando schools hope to pull up state test scores. Tampa Bay Times.
Collegiate high schools: Sen. John Legg proposes a bill to expand collegiate high schools, and spur community and state colleges to make more of an effort to engage high-schoolers in college-level courses. The Tampa Tribune.
Eric Cantor: GOP House Majority Leader Eric Cantor visits Academy Prep Center of Tampa to stump for school choice. redefinED. The Republican congressman from Virginia said the private middle school, which serves children in low-income families, is an example of how school choice can succeed. The Tampa Tribune. More from the Tampa Bay Times.
