by Gary Beckner Reforming America’s education system has become a top national priority. In an increasingly divided political climate, ensuring that every student has access to a quality education still brings bipartisan coalitions together unlike any other issue. Despite growing consensus among advocates, teachers are often overlooked as allies in the[Read More…]
Teacher Quality
Florida schools roundup: Testing, teacher conduct, campus crime & more
Testing. StateImpact Florida answers questions about the Florida Standards Assessment, the test that will replace the FCAT. Teacher conduct. A jury decides a fired Palm Beach County teacher should get $337,000 in back pay and damages. South Florida Sun Sentinel. A Lee County teacher accused of sexual misconduct lied about[Read More…]
Rural charter school principal aims to create a model for STEM education
The origins of the approach that’s driving one of Florida’s newest and most highly rated rural charter schools can be found 55 miles to the West, in Tallahassee. At Godby High School in Leon County, Demetrius Rice helped transform a dusty wood shop into cutting edge classroom-slash-robotics lab, where he led[Read More…]
Survey: 1 in 5 public school teachers send kids to private schools
School choice will soon be the new normal. According to Education Next’s latest annual poll, 1 in 4 families with school-age children have tried alternatives to district schools such as home schools, charter schools or private schools. Interestingly, 28 percent of public school teachers have tried such alternatives, with 19[Read More…]
How charter schools & open data could spur new marketplace for top teachers
Earlier this year, when a lawsuit by the Florida Times-Union forced the release of evaluation data for thousands of Florida teachers, Daniel Woodring saw an opportunity. The release of value-added model, or VAM, scores meant that for the first time, the public had access to a trove of quantitative data[Read More…]
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A Catholic school network for special-needs students
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. “It saved my life, to be honest,’’ said Madelyn,[Read More…]
Florida roundup: Tax credit scholarships, school spending, teacher evals & more
Tax credit scholarships. The Tampa Tribune comes down in favor of the expansion bill. The testing issue for tax credit scholarships is complicated. Gradebook. As she has many times before, Jacksonville’s Julie Delegal says valid comparisons to public school students can’t be made when tax credit scholarship students take similar but[Read More…]
Florida roundup: VAM, tax credit scholarships, charter schools & more
Tax credit scholarships. The Orlando Sentinel editorializes against the proposed expansion, largely using the editorial written by its sister paper, the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano calls it a continuation of the “systematic decimation of Florida public schools.” The Tampa Tribune gives it a thumbs[Read More…]