High stakes testing has existed in our state for over a decade. It’s part of an education reform movement created and implemented by politicians and corporations who have little or no education experience or credentials. In seeing that there are problems with our public school system, these decision-makers showed their inexperience by mistakenly implementing high stakes … More Call to Action: Stop Over-testing Florida’s Children

Retired educator Susan Bowles shares her perspective on two bills currently moving through the Florida legislature: SB1048 and HB1193. These bills would increase state-mandated standardized testing to three times per year, add computer-based testing requirements for students in pre-K through 2nd grade, and keep the punitive and inappropriate high stakes currently associated with the statewide … More An educator’s thoughts on SB1048/HB1193

We agree with the Governor’s acknowledgement that the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) is too lengthy, unnecessarily halts learning, does not support student growth, and leaves no opportunity for improvement, thereby proposing that the test be removed. However, we are concerned that the revised progress monitoring plan, or the F.A.S.T. (Florida Assessment of Student Thinking), may … More Testing Reform? We have Questions!

Written and compiled by Tammy Jaycox Kaplan, admin for Pinellas Parents Advocating for Improvements A copy of this letter to Dr. Fauci, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Network for Public Education Dear Dr. Fauci, First of all, I want to thank you for your service … More Open letter from Pinellas County parents

The delta variant is causing a significant rise in COVID cases across our state, and children are more vulnerable to the variant than the previous strain. The number of children contracting COVID has increased in both quantity and in severity, with those under 12 having even less protection because they are not eligible for a … More Call to Action: Protect our kids and schools

It goes without saying that 2020 was a tough year for education, and 2021 is turning out to be no different so far. Many students across the state are dealing with the disruption that comes with learning in a virtual environment. Even kids who are attending brick and mortar schools are in a state of … More Call to Action: Cancel High Stakes Testing in 2021

The Florida Council of 100 (C100), a statewide organization of business leaders, recently released a study showing a “rigor gap” between student grades and standardized test scores (specifically in Algebra I and English Language Arts) for high school students. It seems students are scoring low or failing standardized tests while passing classes for those same … More The “Rigor Gap” and Pandemic Schooling

Will the Covid pandemic be used to fundamentally alter public education in Florida? That’s a great question, asked recently by blogger Sue Woltanski of Accountabaloney. While nobody saw COVID coming, our education commissioner Richard Corcoran has not been quiet about his desire to privatize our public school system. Given that, it doesn’t seem too out … More Back to school 2020 and the long view for public education

K-12 schools, universities and businesses across the nation are using an online app called Zoom for video meetings to help facilitate connections while working/learning remote. Every day, new information is coming out regarding the privacy concerns of this well-known app. Below is a compilation of the issues we have come across that we think everyone … More Not worried about Zoom?  We think you should be. Here’s why.

A new bill titled HB 7079 was introduced in the Florida House last week. This bill has already passed through one subcommittee, and is expected to continue to move through the committee process very quickly. All parents of children in Florida public schools should be concerned about this bill. It has the potential to disrupt … More HB 7079 – Closing Schools Hurts the Community