Athletics. Does a Florida sports academy portend the future? New York Times.

Philanthropy. A collaboration with the Gates Foundation sees cost overruns in Hillsborough. Tampa Bay Times.

Budgets. The Hillsborough school board eyes cuts. Tampa Tribune. Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano tees off on education funding proposals.

Digital learning. Bay discusses its digital classrooms plan. Panama City News Herald.

Boundaries. Orange County officials unveil zoning proposals and other changes. Orlando Sentinel.

Drones. Pasco students will have to keep them indoors. Gradebook.

Testing. State board members want a high bar. Orlando Sentinel. State officials release a guide for interpreting test results. Gradebook. What to make of Florida's cut scores? Bridge to Tomorrow. Frustration bubbles up a League of Women Voters forum. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Bradenton Herald. (more…)

Tax credit scholarships. Will the program drain $3 billion from public schools? Mostly false. PolitiFact.

Politics. Orlando Sentinel columnist Beth Kassab chides a local school board candidate who attacked the "toxic culture of education" for over-the-top political rhetoric.

Philanthropy. Teach for America recruits appear to be helping Miami-Dade students in math but not reading, a study shows. Miami Herald. An alumna of the program from Brooksville is now an "education superstar" in DC public schools, a Tampa Bay Times columnist writes. A prep school student raises money for laptops at a nearby Title I school. Tampa Bay Times. A Gates Foundation program aims to help more Jacksonville students receive full scholarships. WJCT.

Testing. Some superintendents question falling FCAT writing scores. Tampa Bay Times.

Administration. Administrators reprimand a Hernando County band director who rallied parents behind his program. Tampa Bay Times. The Palm Beach school baord approves hires. Palm Beach Post.

Labor. Collier County teachers say if they're required to be on annual contracts, their principals should be, too. Naples Daily News.

STEM. A UF project aims to help students improve in algebra. StateImpact.

Facilities. Escambia County school district sells off the last of its vacant property. Pensacola News-Journal.

Summer. The City of Jacksonville runs camps for at-risk kids. Florida Times-Union. Libraries in the city aim to help students over the summer. Florida Times-Union.

Employee conduct. A Hillsborough teacher faces criminal charges after leaving the scene of a car wreck. Tampa Bay Times.

Kansas: Lawmakers are pushing for two new bills, which include recommendations from the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, to bring the school choice movement to a  state with only 15 charter schools (The Topeka Capital-Journal).

Georgia: Proposed legislation looks to cap the state's private-school tax credit program and limit it to students with a financial need (Atlanta Journal Constitution). A parent-trigger bill that paves the way for traditional  public schools to convert to charters also gets a nod from legislators (Atlanta Journal Constitution).

New Hampshire: The House is set to vote on a measure that could end a Board of Education moratorium on charter schools (New Hampshire Union Leader). More from The Telegraph of  Nashua.

Tennessee: A $4 million Mathematica study finds KIPP students show significant learning gains in reading, math, science and social studies in the first four years (The Commercial Appeal).

Alabama: State school board members offer mixed reactions following the surprise passage of the Alabama Accountability Act, which gives tax credit scholarships to parents who want to remove their children from failing public schools and enroll them in private schools or a non-failing public school (AL.com). Also, a circuit judge blocked the signing of a controversial bill that created tax credit scholarships (The Anniston Star). (more…)

Florida's status. Matt Reed, Florida Today's editorial page editor, takes a look at NAEP data and the most recent Education Week Quality Counts report and concludes: "We obviously have room to improve. But our system is neither starving, as educators always say. Nor is it “broken” or “failing,” as reformers keep telling us."

Florida's status, Part II. Diane Ravitch's latest take, after quoting a Florida teacher at length: "There is no Florida miracle. Education has only gotten worse over the past few years, no matter how schools, districts and the state itself game the system. And, contrary to what the media will tell you, it is NOT teachers’ fault, unions’ fault, and I won’t even blame it on the kids or their parents this time. It is the fault of education “reform” led by Jeb Bush et al."

Charter schools. The South Florida Sun Sentinel writes up the bill that would require school districts to share unused or underused facilities with charter schools. Bad idea, editorializes the Palm Beach Post.

Gays and lesbians. The Lake County School Board considers rules that would keep a Gay-Straight Alliance from forming at a middle school. Orlando Sentinel.

Teacher evaluations. Tampa Bay Times on one impact (or not) of the new system in Hillsborough: "After years of planning and training, observation and deliberation, the first wave of firings has begun under a teaching-improvement project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The tally: Three teachers." (more…)

It's National School Choice Week. SchoolZone and StateImpact Florida.

Grade inflation? The Palm Beach Post writes there is less to Florida's No. 6 ranking in the latest Education Week Quality Counts report than education reform supporters suggest, and encourages teachers and politicians "to dig into the details."

Teacher evals. Despite concerns raised by Senate President Don Gaetz, the Shanker Blog says it wouldn't make sense if school grades and the new teacher ratings were too closely associated. The Tampa Bay Times interviews David Steele, who's in charge of the Gates-funded teacher evaluation project in Hillsborough.

Teacher pay. More on Democratic bills to raise teacher pay to the national average. Palm Beach Post.

School security. Bills are filed to use taxes from gun sales for guidance services, and to expand gun-free zones around schools, reports SchoolZone. The superintendents association releases a district-by-district SRO survey, reports the Northwest Florida Daily News.

Technology. StateImpact Florida writes up what to expect at the Florida Educational Technology Conference, where 10,000 educators will gather. Senate Education Committee Chairman John Legg says he's putting together a proposal that aggressively invests in new technology, reports Gradebook.

$10,000 degrees. All 23 state colleges accept Gov. Scott's challenge, reports the Associated Press. More from Miami Herald, Lakeland Ledger, Pensacola News Journal, Bradenton Herald, Sarasota Herald Tribune, Gradebook. (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 officials in Palm Beach County don’t feel good about the new, state-mandated system, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Common Core. Reformers have to win the messaging battle, writes Mike Thomas at the EdFly Blog: “Our success in passing school reforms has had more to do with prevailing in legislative bodies than prevailing in the public arena. This has led to a dangerous neglect of the need for marketing. We now are paying the price for that as our opponents vigorously fight back, defining reform as an attack on public schools that is degrading the quality of education. That this isn’t true doesn’t matter. Sound bites often trump data.”

Rezoning retreat. After affluent parents complain, Seminole district officials back away from plans to equalize the number of low-income students at each school. Orlando Sentinel.

Fire them. Hillsborough Superintendent MaryEllen Elia recommends firing two aides and demoting a principal and assistant principal in the aftermath of the drowning of a special needs student. Tampa Bay Times. Tampa Tribune.

More school safety. Tampa Bay Times. StateImpact Florida. Panama City News Herald. (more…)

Florida: Former Indiana education leader Tony Bennett is one of three finalists for the education commissioner job in Florida, with the state Board of Education scheduled to make a decision Wednesday (redefinED). U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., says in a major speech that expanding school choice is a key to revitalizing the middle class and proposes a federal tax credit scholarship (redefinED). Former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist tells the Tampa Tribune he was wrong to support an expansion of vouchers (redefinED), then, in a move many expected as he positions himself for another run at governor, signs paperwork to change his party registration to Democrat (Tampa Bay Times). (Image from healthystate.org)

Louisiana: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan reiterates his opposition to private school vouchers during a visit to New Orleans (Fox 8 New Orleans). A district judge's ruling on the statewide voucher program also threatens an initiative to provide students more choice by course (New Orleans Times Picayune).

Texas: School districts gear up to fight lawmakers on vouchers (Dallas Morning News). Education commissioner Michael Williams urges charter schools to better inform lawmakers about their work (Dallas Morning News).

Arkansas: A crowded education agenda for lawmakers next year is likely to include school choice proposals, including tax credit scholarships and expansion of charter schools (Arkansas Business Online).

Washington: A new parents group forms to fight the formation of charter schools in the wake of the state's recently passed charter school ballot initiative (Seattle Times.)

North Carolina: The state board of education postpones a vote on rules that would make it tougher for virtual charter schools to open (Associated Press).

California: An appeals court overturns a ruling that potentially gave charter school operators in Los Angeles access to more classroom space (Los Angeles Times).

Connecticut: The Hartford school system gets $5 million from the Gates Foundation to strengthen its relationship with two charter school networks (Hartford Courant). The foundation distributed $25 million to seven cities nationwide (Washington Post).

Indiana: Seven more charter schools are coming to Indianapolis, more than half as many as Mayor Greg Ballard approved in his first five years (Indianapolis Business Journal).

Tennessee: High-performing district schools and charter schools in Nashville offer an opportunity for educators to learn what works, what doesn't (The Tennessean).

New York: Black pastors in Buffalo support the conversion of low-performing schools into charter schools (Buffalo News).

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Today on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush singled out Hillsborough County, Fla., as a school district where the teachers union didn't go the Chicago route over teacher evaluations: “In Hillsborough County, which is Tampa, thanks to the Gates Foundation, labor and management’s working together where there is an assessment of teachers based on learning gains of students. And it’s a thoughtful process. There was buy in by the union. I don’t think everybody is happy with it but most people are. And the net result is Hillsborough County has significantly higher achievement levels for kids in poverty for example than what takes place in Chicago." 

We're based in Tampa, and as we've noted before, Hillsborough is different. After Hillsborough teachers union president Jean Clements won re-election this year, Doug Tuthill wrote in part: "Teachers in school districts today are understandably skeptical of reforms given all the change that has occurred in public education over the last three decades.  Before they’re willing to embrace meaningful systemic changes, they want trusted leaders to explain why these changes are truly improvements. But as Jean has shown, once leaders lay out a vision and a believable strategy for accomplishing that vision, public school teachers are willing to roll up their sleeves and give it a try." Read his full post here.

Editor’s note: In one of yesterday’s posts, we noted how often school choice supporters are caricatured. But truth be told, we’re not alone. Teachers unions and their members are sometimes dismissed with unflattering generalizations too. Doug Tuthill, a former teachers union president himself, pauses today to spotlight a union right here in our backyard that defies the stereotype.

Jean Clements is the teachers union president in Hillsborough County, Florida, which is the eighth largest school district in the U.S. And she and her union, the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, are unique in a way that deserves national attention – and national praise. While most teacher unions are resisting efforts to systemically improve public education, Jean and her constituents have partnered with their school district to embrace innovations that are taking on all kinds of sacred cows.

Teacher unions came into being in the early 1960s to protect teachers from management decisions, most notably in the areas of employee evaluations and compensation.  Consequently, teachers’ collective bargaining contracts today prescribe evaluation procedures that render evaluations irrelevant except in the most extreme cases, and standardized pay scales that treat every teacher the same, regardless of their effectiveness.  So, naturally,  eyebrows were raised across the country when Jean and her HCTA colleagues partnered with the Hillsborough school district to win a $100 million Gates Foundation grant to reinvent the district’s employee evaluation and compensation systems.

This wasn’t the only time Jean went out on a limb. (more…)