Now’s your chance to give the Florida Department of Education your opinion on all things education, including testing and the current accountability system. As the state begins to tackle the implementation of the new national education law (Every Student Succeeds Act) they have set up a website to collect feedback from stakeholders.
As the Tampa Bay Times reported, “The goal is to have enough feedback that the State Board of Education can adopt a legislative platform detailing needed statutory changes by September.
Some of the issues they’ll need to tackle include adopting student success measures other than testing, and determining how to use money set aside for the lowest performing 5 percent of schools. The achievement of English-language learners also will receive higher priority.”
The FDOE website, according to the Times, “has broken up the input into seven areas specified in the Every Student Succeeds Act, as well as areas to comment on the federal draft regulations and on the law generally. People can respond to as many, or as few, as they wish. The deadline is July 22.
“It is important to note that, as we continue through this process, there will be additional opportunities for stakeholders to offer suggestions,” commissioner Pam Stewart noted in an advisory to superintendents. “Once FDOE develops Florida’s draft state plan, we will again ask you and all of our state’s education stakeholders to provide feedback before the state plan is submitted to the U.S. Department of Education.”
You can also email general comments to ESSA@fldoe.org. We suggest you request that the Department of Education host collaborative meetings with stakeholders to discuss the current challenges our schools face and potential solutions to help improve Florida’s public education system. To participate in any or all of the feedback sections, click below:
