Florida education officials recently posted a frank internal report about what led to the standardized testing flop that has consumed the ed reform debate for the past two months and sparked the biggest backlash yet against the state’s accountability system. Unfortunately, it received virtually no media coverage (one exception here), which is a[Read More…]
Testing and Accountability
Choice nuggets: Islamophobia, a Jeb Bush endorsement and testing mania in Florida
Editor’s note: Today, we introduce a new feature (even if we’re not sure the name will last) – an occasional compilation of bite-sized nuggets about school choice and education reform that are worth noting but may not be worth a post by themselves. More anti-Muslim bigotry in school choice debates It’s nearly impossible[Read More…]
New report finds many academic trend lines rising in Florida’s public schools
Florida’s public schools were handed another solid but overlooked report card this week from another respected, independent source. The 27-page, data-stuffed, “Decade of Progress” progress report from the Southern Regional Education Board is yet more evidence that Florida’s public schools are making steady progress despite the claims of some critics. The trend[Read More…]
More customization in public education can ease tensions over testing, accountability
Discussions about how best to improve student learning often get contentious, so at redefinED we try to make a positive contribution by identifying areas of possible common ground and clarifying the historical record when we see errors or omissions. Rita M. Solnet’s recent Huffington Post column on how Florida might[Read More…]
Accountability testing doesn’t make sense for McKay Scholarship students
Editor’s note: The McKay Scholarship Program for students with disabilities has on occasion been criticized because it does not require that student progress be measured with a standardized test. Robyn Rennick with the Coalition of McKay Scholarship Schools argues that such a policy would be ineffective and counterproductive. The McKay Scholarship[Read More…]
Florida’s public school “defenders” should stop bashing public schools
In Florida, we love the bizarre. We cultivate gator-eating pythons and face-eating zombies and transvestites who inject women’s derrieres with Fix-a-Flat. So maybe it makes complete sense that our education debates are so often detached from reality, too. It’s strange but true: Some of the same people who say Jeb[Read More…]
Did they really say that (about education reform in Florida)?
As you know, we keep tabs on what’s written and said about school choice and ed reform, particularly in Florida. This week has been a doozy when it comes to head-scratching statements. Today we highlight a few and offer a quick response … In just a few years, Orlando-based Fund[Read More…]
This time, Florida education reformers hand ammo to critics
The last thing you want to give people waging a scorched-earth campaign against you is a gas can and a match. Though well intended, the hard-charging Florida Board of Education moved too far, too fast last year when it raised the bar on academic standards. The short-term result for the state’s standardized[Read More…]