School safety: Across Florida and the nation, schools open with more armed security following the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. Associated Press.

Common Core: StateImpact Florida listens to what readers have to say about the new education standards. The Badass Teachers Association represents a new wave of liberal opposition to the standards with teachers joining forces with tea party groups and libertarians, who want states to slow down efforts to adopt the new benchmarks and corresponding tests. Times-Herald.

Lunch line: Every elementary student in Lake Wales gets a free lunch thanks to a new federal program. The Ledger. New federal lunch rules result in healthier meals for children, more costs for schools. Florida Today.

Summer Slide: Treasure Coast teachers assess students during the first days of school to see if they kept up with learning and reading during the summer. TC Palm.

Reading tests: Most Duval County public school students will take new reading tests this week to pinpoint deficiencies. Florida Times-Union.

Online requirement: Few high school juniors have completed the online course they need to graduate. Fort Myers News-Press.

Charter schools: Nine charter groups have applied to open schools in Sarasota and Manatee counties next fall. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Visible Men Academy finishes its first week in Manatee County with 74 kindergarten through second-grade students enrolled. Bradenton Herald.

(more…)

The latest Florida Department of Education report on the tax credit scholarship program, and my summer discussions with scholarship parents, students and teachers, have led me to some conclusions. These thoughts are not new, but sometimes it’s important to remind ourselves of things we know but occasionally forget.

• On average, scholarship students are achieving a year’s worth of learning gains in a year’s time, but this is not enough. We are attracting the state’s most disadvantaged students, and many of them are several years behind when they enter the program. These students need to be making 1.5-to-2 years of learning gains annually if they’re to catch up with their more advantaged peers.

• We will not achieve these accelerated learning gains if we don’t provide scholarship students with more time to learn. Six-to-seven hours per day and 180 days per year are not enough for these students to achieve parity. Programs that are successfully reducing the achievement gap, such as many of the KIPP charter schools, are providing more learning time for disadvantaged students via longer school days and school years.

• More time in school is still insufficient. Much of the achievement gap is created by large disparities in out-of-school learning opportunities. Many scholarship families can’t afford private music lessons, summer camps, equipment fees for Pop Warner football, or gymnastic lessons. While most of these experiences are not academic, the development they nurture contributes to success in a variety of settings, including school.

• The new Common Core State Standards, because they are more rigorous, will exacerbate the achievement gap in the short-term. This greater disparity will become permanent if we don’t provide disadvantaged students with more access to in-school and out-of-school learning opportunities, and provide private school teachers with the training, technology and other support they need to successfully teach these new academic standards.

• The concentration of high-poverty students in Florida private schools is growing as the number of tax credit scholarship students increases and more middle class families transfer from private schools to magnet and charter schools. This fall, more than 30 percent of Florida’s private school students will be paying tuition using McKay scholarships for disabled students or tax credit scholarships for low-income students. These changing student demographics will put greater stress on already meager private school resources. (more…)

Twenty years ago, Dennis DiNoia taught middle school math in typical classrooms, in typical Florida public schools. Now his classroom is a local church, or bookstore, or online. Students come from public schools, private schools, and homeschooling co-ops. Lessons are based on a curriculum he designed and put on video.

DiNoia even has a toehold in the growing market of charter school consulting, explaining math and test-taking skills to students and teachers at a conversion charter school in Hawaii.

School choice has opened up a whole new career track for DiNoia, allowing the business school graduate to earn enough money to remain in a profession he loves while giving him the satisfaction of helping students master his favorite subject.

“A lot of people don’t go into teaching because they don’t think they can make a living at it,’’ said DiNoia, a father of three who lives in Sarasota, Fla. “If you go into it with that mindset, you’ll be right.’’

DiNoia went into the field thinking that one day he would have a successful business. Apparently, he was right, eventually figuring out how to grow his tutoring company from a sideline that supplemented his district paycheck to a full-time endeavor to support his family.

It serves as yet another example of how having more education options not only meets the different needs of children, but can benefit educators, as well.

“Everybody has different vehicles to educate students,’’ said Clayton Snare, a former principal who worked with DiNoia in the Pinellas County, Fla., school district. “Some people are good in a classroom. Some people are better online. Others are better one on one.’’

DiNoia “defined what I thought a successful teacher was all about and it truly starts with developing a rapport with your students,’’ Snare said. (more…)

Tutoring: A Tampa Bay Times investigation finds that one in four public educators made money from a taxpayer-funded program by tutoring children from their own schools.

Education crisis: Nothing less than a community-wide commitment and expectation of excellence can turn the tide for children in St.Petersburg, writes the Tampa Bay Times editorial board.

Single-gendered: Hillsborough County's two single-gendered middle schools find success, see state grades rise. The Tampa Tribune.

Tony Bennett: Before resigning as Florida's Education Commissioner, Bennett emails former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, and describes his last few days on the job as a "living hell.'' The Buzz.

GEDs: South Florida is seeing a spike in applicants rushing to earn their GEDs before tougher new standards kick in. Sun Sentinel.

Overcrowding: West Boynton Beach is growing - too much and too fast for some parents in the Palm Beach County school district. Palm Beach Post.

Back to school: Palm Beach County hands out backpacks and other school supplies at six free community events. Palm Beach Post. Seminole County's nearly 64,000 public school students head back to classes this morning. Orlando Sentinel. Churches and community agencies help outfit students with new supplies. Florida Today. Lincoln Park Elementary, the turnaround school in Escambia County, starts the new year with new teachers. Pensacola News-Journal.

Special needs: A teacher's emails to Hillsborough County district administrators reveal problems months before a special needs student dies. Tampa Bay Times.

Jeb Bush: Bush backs Common Core State Standards while speaking at the ALEC conference in Chicago. Associated Press.Educational scandals cast a cloud over the former Florida governor's presidential prospects, writes the Miami Herald.

School grades: A Miami Herald analysis of A-F grades shows the wealthiest schools never get Fs, and schools with high populations of poor students face an uphill battle to get even a C. Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho lauds student achievement while criticizing the state’s A-to-F school grading system as “dysfunctional.” Miami Herald. Clay County kindergarteners through second-graders no longer get A-F grades. Florida Times-Union.

Student conduct: St. Lucie County public schools have more than 100 arrests a year, reports the TCPalm.

New super: The St. Lucie County School Board continues its search for the district's next superintendent. TCPalm.

Principal conduct: Four years after Journeys Academy shut down in Lee County due to its principal embezzling more than $360,000, the school’s owner is waging a legal battle for reimbursement from two banks. Naples Daily News.

Common Core: Pasco County schools move ahead with preparing for the new education standards. The Tampa Tribune.

Florida's Urban Leagues and education advocates are teaming up for a series of town halls later this month that will include discussions on the growing number of learning options available to minorities.

The attention to education is nothing new and has always been a cornerstone of the Urban League’s mission to help minorities achieve social and economic equality. But the turn toward school choice is.

“We’re just looking at other ways, new options and new solutions for students to be successful in school,’’ said Allie Braswell, president of the Central Florida Urban League that serves a seven-county region. “And as you look at school choice, it’s just become an option to explore.’’

The Florida Consortium of Urban Leagues Affiliates is hosting the town hall meetings in partnership with Black Floridians C.A.R.E., Democrats for Education Reform, Derrick Brooks Charities, StudentsFirst and Step Up For Students, the nonprofit that administers the Florida Tax Credit Scholarships. (And co-hosts this blog.)

One key part of the effort will be looking at charter schools and tax credit scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools. Florida Department of Education figures show that about 43 percent of the state’s 3.4 million students in PreK-12 attend a school of their choosing. And that is what’s driving this conversation.

“It’s the simple market, the proliferation of charter schools and private schools,’’ said Germaine Smith-Baugh, president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Broward County. “Choice has become a market-driven issue.’’ (more…)

Common Core: Protesters gather at a Broward County School Board meeting to show they don't support the new Common Core education standards. Miami Herald. State Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, organizes a panel to talk about education reform and Common Core. Florida Times-Union. Step Up For Students' vice president of student learning talks about why private schools are signing on for the measures. Education Week.

Bennett and school grades: Former Florida Sen. Paula Dockery shares her thoughts about Tony Bennett and school grades, asking "Isn't it time for an honest conversation on doing away with a school-grading system that is costly, divisive and unreliable?'' The Ledger.

Conduct: A Rodgers Middle School assistant principal fights for his job after the Hillsborough County school district fired him following the death of a special-needs student at his school. Tampa Bay Times. More from The Tampa Tribune.

Debit cards: Leon County joins other school districts that won't be offering teacher debit cards issued by Gov. Scott. Tallahassee Democrat.

Extended day: Broward County joins the list of districts where low-performing schools will offer students an additional hour of class time. Sun Sentinel. Palm Beach County will spend $7 million to add an hour to the school day at four low-performing schools. Palm Beach Post.

School funding: The half-cent sales tax is the only funding source the district has for capital projects, writes Shannon Nickinson for the Pensacola News Journal.

Charter schools: Pasco County gets its first virtual charter school, Florida Virtual Academy of Pasco. Tampa Bay Times. (more…)

In today's chat, we talked with Doug Tuthill, president of Step Up For Students in Florida.

Readers asked him about everything from Common Core and private schools, to whether the value of tax credit scholarships should be increased, to the right balance between school choice and government regs when it comes to accountability.

Step Up is the largest private school choice program in the country. It’s expected to serve 60,000 students this fall. And as recent news stories have pointed out, it continues to experience strong growth. (Step Up also co-hosts this blog with the American Center for School Choice. As we noted in the advance post, we strive not to be self-promotional but in this case thought it was appropriate to feature Doug.)

Before joining Step Up in 2008, Doug had been a college professor, a classroom teacher, the president of two teachers unions and a driving force behind the creation of Florida's first International Baccalaureate high school.

You can replay the chat here:

Jeb Bush on Tony Bennett: "Tony will be sorely missed in Florida at a time when we need his leadership the most,'' writes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Miami Herald.

School grades: The fall of Tony Bennett might bring a new level of scrutiny to grading systems across the country. Education Week. There must be total transparency in any school accountability process, writes Nina Rees, executive director of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, in U.S. News & World Report.

More fallout: Dale Chu, chief of staff to Tony Bennett, resigns. Associated Press.

PARCC: Top Florida lawmakers will continue their push to abandon the PARCC testing consortium. Tampa Bay Times.

Teen work: Lauderdale Middle School students have received more than $500,000 in grants to spruce up an overpass behind their school. Sun Sentinel.

Charter schools: Even as 11 new charters open this fall in Palm Beach County, the district has another 31 applications in the pipeline. Palm Beach Post.

Magnet schools: The Pinellas County school district looks to bolster career and technical education and help low-performing schools by offering new magnet programs at middle schools. The Tampa Tribune. (more…)

The Cato Institute’s Jason Bedrick was unimpressed with my explanation for why I expect a growing embrace of Common Core State Standards by parents in Florida’s tax credit scholarship program and the private schools that serve them – and why I think that’s a good thing. Jason is a school choice stalwart with whom I often agree, so let me try again.

Common Core standards in math and English/language arts are widely adopted, high quality and transparent. They’re obviously not a silver bullet. But if implemented properly, they can help parents and teachers better educate the low-income children that are part of the tax credit scholarship program.

The reason? Academic stability and continuity are essential for these kids. When they apply for scholarships, they tend to be the lowest-performing students in the lowest-performing district schools. They face extraordinary personal and academic obstacles. Within the scholarship program, they tend to change private schools frequently.

And all too often, here’s what happens: They’re told by their current school that they’re excelling in Algebra, for instance, only to be told when they transfer to another school that they’re a year behind. We hear this complaint regularly from parents. We know this discontinuity is an issue for them.

My guess is, as more of them learn about these new multi-state standards, they will increasingly choose private schools that are using them. This consumer pressure, in turn, will spur more private schools to adopt the common standards, so they can successfully compete in Florida’s robust school choice market.

Private schools that adopt all or parts of these new standards will not sacrifice independence, flexibility or creativity, although assessments do guide curriculum and instruction. There are many ways to teach students how to, for instance, understand and solve polynomial expressions employing multiplication and division. Students who move from a New Age Montessori school to a fundamentalist Southern Baptist school will still be exposed to different curricula, teaching methods and school cultures, even if both schools are using the same content and performance standards in math and reading.

It’s true Florida’s private schools are being pressured to adopt these new standards. But the pressure is coming from the market, not the state or federal government. (more…)

What they're saying about Tony Bennett in Florida: Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Jeb Bush offered praise for Florida's education commissioner. The Buzz. Sen. Dwight Bullard calls for more input on the state's next education chief. Sun Sentinel.  Orange County schools Superintendent Barbara Jenkins' name is coming up as a possible replacement. Orlando Sentinel. Despite a national reputation in education reform, Florida hasn’t found it easy to attract — or keep — a leader since Gov. Rick Scott took office. Miami Herald. StateImpact Florida shares Bennett's resignation letter. Florida long has allowed political donations to influence education policy, the very allegation that forced Bennett to quit, writes the Palm Beach Post. The result of Bennett's abrupt departure is more turmoil for Florida's education system. Tampa Bay Times. More from the Post, Florida Times-Union, News Service of Florida, Tampa Bay Times, Tallahassee Democrat and The Tampa Tribune.

What others are saying: Two Indianapolis public schools might never have been taken over by the state if Bennett had offered the same flexibility he granted a year later to the Christel House Academy charter school. Indianapolis Star. Indiana's state grading system now faces uncertainty. Associated Press.  Bennett's rising star in school reform is fading. Indianapolis Star. "This is, in my view, very sad news, as Bennett is widely regarded as one of the country’s smartest, savviest, and most effective education reformers,'' writes Reihan Salam for the National Review. In less than a year, Bennett has been ousted from two leading education positions, writes Valerie Strauss for the Washington Post. "Tony didn’t need the hassle.  He took on these fights because they were the right ones,'' writes Neil Ruddock for the EdFly blog. More from the National Review, Hugh Hewitt, Politico, and several top education policy analysts weigh in on the Flypaper blog.

School transfers: Fewer than 300 students will be transferring out of overcrowded schools under a new Orange County transfer rule. School Zone.

Longer day: St. Lucie Elementary students will attend school for an extra hour each day to help improve their reading scores. TCPalm.

New posts: Daryl Ward will move up from assistant principal to principal at the Polk County Harrison Center for the Visual and Performing Arts. The Ledger. Manatee County Schools Superintendent Rick Mills has selected Scott Boyes to be executive director of elementary schools. Bradenton Herald.

Dual enrollment: Pasco Hernando Community College and school districts squabble over administrative fees following legislative changes that shifted program funding from colleges to the districts. Tampa Bay Times. (more…)