Pledge problems: After some parents protested when their children brought home a waiver to opt out of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at school, the Leon County School District is removing the form from the student handbook. The district apologized for the confusion, and now will simply ask parents to sign a form confirming they have read the handbook, which describes the process to opt out of saying the Pledge. WTXL. WTVT. Tallahassee Democrat. WFSU. WCTV.
School testing: Scores on the most recent ACT tests show that many graduating seniors are unprepared for college-level classes. The average test score dipped from 21.0 to 20.8, and only 38 percent of students achieved the benchmark in at least three of the four core subjects tested - reading, English, math and science. In Florida, 81 percent of graduating students took the ACT, and the average score was 19.9. Associated Press. The Lee County School Board reluctantly passes a testing schedule for the school year. "Is it what we want? Probably not. Is it the best that staff said it could come up with, where it would be approved by the state? Yes, at this time," said board member Jeanne Dozier. Fort Myers News-Press.
Defining participant: The act of participating in the Florida Standards Assessments testing is defined by the state as answering a single question, deputy education commissioner Juan Copa said this week in a court hearing over the state's third-grade retention policies. Answering one question allows a school to count that student in the participation rate, which is important because schools must have a rate of 95 percent or lose money from the state. Copa also said the definition of participating may change from year to year. Gradebook. Both sides are awaiting a ruling by a Leon County judge on the retention case that is narrow in focus but could have a huge impact on the state's accountability system. Orlando Sentinel.
Education poll: Support for charter schools, school testing and merit pay for teachers is rising among Americans, but declining for Common Core standards, school vouchers and teacher tenure, according to an annual survey by the journal Education Next. Orlando Sentinel. Politico. (more…)
Florida's charter schools received a bigger proportion of both A and F grades than their district-run counterparts for the 2013-14 school year.
It's a pattern that's held for the past few years, and it's no different in the the elementary and middle school grades released this morning by the state Department of Education.
More than 41 percent of the state's charter schools earned preliminary A's for the 2013-14 school year, compared to about 34 percent of district schools.
Of the 420 charter schools that were graded, 42, or 10 percent, received F's. Less than 6 percent of the more than 2,300 district schools received the lowest possible letter grade.
Overall, the state accountability report, the last for middle and elementary schools before the state moves to a new grading formula, presents a mixed bag for Florida's public schools. Across the board, they earned A's and F's in larger proportions this year than a year ago.
Juan Copa, the states deputy education commissioner in charge of accountability, said schools' ratings rose on average, meaning compared to a year ago, "more students are performing on grade level or better - including our most struggling students."
Next year, the grading formula will be simplified as the state prepares to replace the FCAT with new assessments tied to the Florida Standards. The grades released today are considered preliminary because the calculations can be appealed to the state. Grades for high schools will be released later this year.
For charter schools across the state, this year's results carry some good news, and some bad.
KIPP Impact Middle School in Jacksonville, where more than 70 percent of students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches and 99 percent are minorities, improved its grade from a C to a B. Five schools, including two charters - the bilingual BridgePrep Academy Interamerican Campus in Miami-Dade and Orlando's Renaissance Charter School at Chickasaw Trail - climbed all the way from F's to B's.
On the other hand, eight charter schools face closure after receiving F's for two consecutive years.
As expected, K12, Inc. received a grade of incomplete for its statewide program. But five Florida Virtual Academies it operates did receive grades. Three received D's. One, in Duval, received a C and the fifth, in Osceola, received an F. None of the virtual charters had received letter grades previously.
Copa noted that 2013 legislation lowered the minimum number of tested students a school would need to receive a grade. He said that may help explain the increased number of F schools in a year when schools raised their average scores. More than two dozen charters that did not receive a letter grade last year did receive one this year.
"There are now more schools graded this year, and many of those are high-performing schools but some of those are low-performing schools," Copa said.
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