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Webinar on New Teacher Evaluation Model for Florida on Monday, January 23, 2012 at 1:00 p.m.
New Teacher Evaluations in Florida are being implemented with the 2011-12 school year and must be fully in place by the 2014-15 school year. State law requires that fifty percent of the evaluations must be based on student performance, and all districts must adopt the State of Florida's FCAT Value-Added Model for teacher evaluations. The other fifty percent of the evaluations must be based on "instructional practice" and "professional and job responsibilities." Districts MAY adopt the State of Florida's Model, which is Dr. Marzano's Causal Teacher Evaluation Model, for the second half of evaluations or they may create their own model. There is a webinar on January 23, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. The subject of the webinar is a "Presentation on Dr. Marzano's Causal Teacher Evaluation Model. Will also provide an overview of the iObservation tool that makes it all possible."
Also, PEN of Florida will be posting articles explaining both the FCAT Value-Added Model and the Marzano Causal Model in the very near future.
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Florida scores average grade on annual education report
By Emily Blackwood
Education Week and the EPE Research Center published their yearly Quality Counts report, ranking the United States based on educational systems.
For 2011, Florida ranked 11 out of 50 and received an overall grade of C+; the U.S. as a whole earned a C. Grading was based these factors: Chance for Success; K-12 Achievement; School Finance; Teaching Profession; Transitions and Alignment; Standard, Assessments and Accountability.
Sterling Lloyd, senior research associate at the EPE Research Center, said that the annual report card is based on original survey data and analysis from the research center itself. They also conduct an annual policy survey of state education agency representatives to look at a scope of state-level programs that are related to the key factors in Quality Counts.
"Quality Counts 2012 is the 16th edition of our annual report card on state education policies and outcomes. It's designed to grade states on both policy efforts and student performance," Lloyd said. "This year's Quality Counts report, like previous editions of our annual report card, features state-by-state grades on education policy and performance along with data on more than 100 key education indicators."Read the rest of this Central Florida Future Article here. |
Thousands of pre-K providers face probation
By Leslie Postal
Orlando Sentinel
About 2,100 of Florida's pre-kindergarten providers - 35 percent of the total - likely will be on probation this year because not enough of their graduates tested ready for kindergarten this past fall, state data shows.
The state last year passed new, tough standards for its providers - mostly private day cares and preschools, though some public schools, too - that offer Florida's Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten program.
The standards require at least 70 percent of pre-K graduates to test "ready" on two kindergarten assessments.Last year, under less-stringent standards, fewer than 800 providers ended up on probation.
Those on probation have to follow state improvement plans and could lose their contract to run the program.
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House Budget Matches Gov. Scott's $1 Billion School Request
The Florida House is proposing a budget that would match Gov. Rick Scott's goal of adding $1 billion for K-12 education, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, said adding the money won't be easy, but the state's economy is improving. From Cannon's press release:
We have endeavored to prioritize the most essential functions of state government. I want to specifically draw your attention to public school funding. Enrollment in our public schools has increased while local school revenues have sharply decreased. These two factors alone create a shortfall of nearly half a billion dollars.
Our analysis and prioritization with respect to K-12 education funding mirror those of Governor Scott. We have funded K-12 with an allocation exceeding $1 billion in new state funding to the Florida Education Finance Program. This addresses all of the shortfalls in K-12 education and also provides an increase in per student funding of 2.27 percent.
The Senate is now on the clock for their proposal. The body has floated the idea of recessing for several weeks to see if the state's budget situation changes.
Read more of this State Impact article here.
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