This year, the nation watched as teachers in numerous states began to walk out of schools and storm state capitals demanding better working conditions for themselves and better learning conditions for their students. Many of these states offered no collective bargaining rights yet educators were organized and angry. West Virginia teachers ended their strike after…
My experience with Parent Teacher Home Visit Project was truly eye-opening. I have always known that there is so much more to teaching than simply what goes on in the classroom. We all know the old adage “it all starts at home” but the child’s home life is a very important part of their school…
As the new school year begins, many counties are looking at ways to keep students in class and out of jail by employing the use of civil citations instead of arrests for minor, non-violent offenses. Orange County is one central Florida district pledging to increase their use of civil citations in an intentional effort to…
Governor Scott signed HB 7069 into law at a private, voucher school in Orlando. It was a fitting setting for a bill that funnels billions of taxpayer dollars into private voucher and charter entities with little to no public oversight. This bill was created by jamming 55 different education bills into one unwieldy, 278 page…
A showdown is occurring over the issue of mandatory 3rd grade retention. Third grade students whose parents opted them out of the Florida Standards Assessment this spring are now faced with possible retention regardless of their classroom performance or grades. Manatee County was refusing to promote children without test scores to the fourth grade citing…
In an eleventh hour move, Senator Don Gaetz (R-Niceville) added over a hundred pages of policy changes to two unrelated bills. The amendments attach numerous bills together in what is commonly referred to as a “train.” Some bills, thought to be long dead, now comprise two runaway “trains” moving through the Florida Senate. The controversial…
We had so much fun on Saturday! We helped give away over 40,000 books to children in a one day event called “Home Library for the Holidays.” The event was presented by First Book and sponsored by Molina Healthcare, American Federation of Teachers, Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, United Way Suncoast. and us! People starting lining…
Today, President Obama will sign the Every Student Succeeds Act into law. Earlier this week, the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill which is the replacement for No Child Left Behind. The new policy will hand much more control for education decisions to the states. The bill, known as the Every Student Succeeds Act, replaces…
6 Things you need to know about the end of No Child Left Behind In 2007, Congress was supposed to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act (No Child Left Behind). Eight years later, it looks like they will finally get around to it. Yesterday, the Senate Education Committee, joined by more than a dozen House…
The 47th annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public Attitudes Toward the Public Schools is out. The poll, called “Testing Doesn’t Measure Up for Americans,” is the longest continuously running survey of Americans’ attitudes toward public education. Not surprisingly, this year’s survey shows that Americans want less testing for students and teachers and more funding for…