Florida is the latest state to take steps to expand early learning programs and tackle declining literacy rates, two topics that have remained at the forefront of officials’ plans to reopen schools, make up for learning lost to the pandemic, and strategically invest billions of...
As spring testing kicked off across the sunshine state this week, Florida education officials confirmed that typical “high-stakes” consequences of the exams, like grade promotions and school accountability measures, would be paused this school year. Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said the move would alleviate the...
In an effort to keep the flow of academic data flowing while accommodating the concerns parents have in sending their children to test in-person, Florida education officials announced that the state’s English proficiency exams will be optional this year. The state’s public school chancellor, Jacob...
While the Every Student Succeeds Act requires states “to ‘make every effort’ to provide required exams in languages other than English if needed,” Florida’s Department of Education received an exemption in 2017 by arguing that English is Florida’s official language. Now, a bipartisan group of...
A town-hall-style meeting—themed “Lessons from the Past”—held at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale brought together policymakers and stakeholders for a discussion of ESSA and how the law “holds schools accountable for how students learn and achieve, while also providing...
In the Florida Phoenix, Diane Rado reports on the Sunshine State’s release of school-level spending data as required by ESSA. This data, she says, could be “an eye opener,” given the incredible disparity in per-student spending from school to school. For example, “in the Collier...
Jeffrey S. Solochek reports for the Tampa Bay Times that ESSA “placed several new requirements on states, to make it easier for parents to access and understand data about how their schools and districts are performing.” And this week, Florida delivered on part of these...
Jeffrey S. Solochek reports for the Tampa Bay Times that two Miami-area Democrats in the state legislature have introduced companion legislation (SB 1590 / HB 1213) that would allow Florida’s English-language learner students to take state exams in their first language. If approved, “the measure...
Jeffrey Solochek reports for the Tampa Bay Times that the Sunshine State’s latest ESSA plan redraft addresses a number of the issues raised by the U.S. Department of Education. However, according to the Department’s Libby Witt, “some of the revisions that FDOE made in the...
Rosa Castro Feinberg, Former Miami-Dade School Board member and current co-chair of LULAC Florida’s Government and Media Relations Committee, asks a good question in this article: “Why is Florida the only state that’s not in compliance with federal education standards?” The answer is pretty clear...
