Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorApril 8, 2015

Student privacy has been much in the news lately, given the revelations that Pearson, creator of the new PARCC tests and one time creator of the FCAT, is monitoring social media to look for breaches of test security. (PARCC is the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.) Not surprisingly, there’s a bill […]

Mitch PerryMarch 31, 2015

With his role as the legislative chair of the Florida Sheriffs Association, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri is in Tallahassee a lot these days, arguing for or against bills regarding law enforcement. His agency gets a lot of respect from lawmakers, but the FSA doesn’t always get its way. That happened late Monday afternoon, when St. Petersburg […]

Mitch PerryMarch 31, 2015

With his role as the legislative chair of the Florida Sheriffs Association, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri is in Tallahassee a lot these days, arguing for or against bills regarding law enforcement. His agency gets a lot of respect from lawmakers, but the FSA doesn’t always get its way. That happened late Monday afternoon, when St. Petersburg […]

Guest AuthorMarch 15, 2015

Breaking news: thousands of students took the FSA writing test last week with no glitches or slowdowns. Oh, wait, shouldn’t this be a non-news story? This is only news because of the slowdowns and cyberhacks of the previous week. The Florida Department of Education is not yet ready to release the final number of students […]

Julie DelegalMarch 4, 2015

Rep. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, has been listening to parent complaints about high-stakes testing. Mayfield, like most parents and educators, is so frustrated with the entire standards-based accountability system that she wants to give entire school districts the ability to “opt out” of standards-based tests altogether. Judging from an action alert obtained from a Tea […]

Julie DelegalMarch 3, 2015

And you thought the Obamacare web rollout had problems. Computer malfunctions, brand new curriculum standards and unparalleled stress have characterized the debut of the new Florida Standards Assessments. But could Florida’s testing debacle be alleviated by a stroke of the governor’s pen? On Monday, 36 of Florida’s 67 counties – more than half – experienced […]

Julie DelegalMarch 2, 2015

Part one of this two-part series examines one senator’s move to lower the stakes in Florida’s high-stakes education accountability system, and how the stakes got so high in the first place. For several years, parents and teachers have bristled against the centerpiece of education reform in Florida. “Teacher accountability” is the political term for it, but what […]

Tag: FSA
Image via AP.

Catherine Martinez: Social media, data mining undermine test privacy

Mitch Perry Report for 3.31.15 — Jeff Brandes’ civil forfeiture bill advances

Mitch Perry Report for 3.31.15 — Jeff Brandes' civil forfeiture bill advances

Catherine Martinez: Kids share test info on social media? That's non-news

Julie Delegal: Tweaking the tests – Common Core pushback

Julie Delegal: Gov. Scott, give kids a break from computer-plagued tests

Julie Delegal: Tweaking the tests – what to watch in education legislation