Education is always a revolving door in Florida and 2016 was another year of high-stakes drama in the Sunshine State's education stratosphere. From fierce courtroom battles to whopping fines for testing failures, this year several stories made big waves in headlines.
Here’s what happened this year in Florida education:
Where Have All the Teachers Gone?
Going into the new school year, Florida faced a big problem: a teacher shortage. Thousands of teacher jobs remained vacant as school districts began the 2016-2017 academic year, with over 500 in Hillsborough County alone.
Many teachers enter into the profession excited about the possibility of working in the classroom but leave their posts due to financial strain due to low wages.
Each year, the State Board of Education identifies “critical” teacher shortages in specific subjects. During the 2015-2016 school year, teacher shortages were most prevalent a wide variety of subjects -- in English, exceptional student education, reading, English for speakers of a second language, science and mathematics.
If districts can’t fill those vacancies, substitute teachers will often take over in place of regular full-time teachers. Often times, teacher vacancies remain unfilled well into the school year, leaving students with fewer teachers to educate them in specific subjects.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, there were nearly 6,000 teacher openings in Florida alone as of August 2016.
Don’t Take the FSA? No Fourth Grade for You, Says FDOE
A group of 14 parents filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Education for retaining third-graders based on their standardized reading test scores in August, saying students should be allowed to pass based on their performance in class instead.
The fourteen parents filed a lawsuit against the FDOE for refusing to pass the students because they opted out of standardized testing for their children.
“The result is that students with no reading deficiency are retained in the third grade solely because they opt-out of standardized testing,” wrote the parents.
A Tallahassee judge sided with the parents over the department’s vague guidelines for promoting students. State law mandates at least 95 percent of students have to participate in standardized testing to receive an individual letter grade and important federal funding, but the plaintiff parents say that poses a problem with how children learn.
All of the students technically took the test, opening the seal of the FSA, but refused to answer any of the questions. The FDOE said those actions did not count as participating in the FSA.
Circuit Court Judge Karen Gievers sided with the parents in a lengthy, 52-page ruling where she criticized the department for retaining 3rd graders with no reading deficiencies just because they had refused to take the Florida Standards Assessment.
The department caused “injury which will continue as long as the children are not in the appropriate grade in the appropriate school," Gievers wrote.
You Can Flop on Testing, But It’ll Cost You
The Florida Department revealed it fined American Institutes for Research nearly $5 million for technical errors which left thousands of students unable to complete their work or log in to the test at all during Florida’s 2015 Florida Standards Assessment.
AIR must reimburse Florida for the damages suffered as a result of the faulty testing, or it will lose payments totaling $4.8 million. The Washington, D.C.-based testing company has large, $220 million six year contract with Florida to administer the annual test.
There were no reports of large testing issues this year.
Critics, however, said that fine wasn’t big enough to address the scope of the problems with the assessment test.
Florida Parents Against Common Core, a statewide anti-Common Core group, called the fine “inconsequential,” saying it paled in comparison to other companies who have been whacked to make reparations for testing errors.
“What is that, [a two percent] fine?” the group asked, calling the fine “egregiously inappropriate.”
Tax Credit Scholarship Program Chugs Ahead...
Nearly 100,000 students enrolled in Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program via Step Up For Students as of 2016. This year’s number of 92,000 students is an increase of nearly 13,500 from the previous year and one of the highest increases in enrollment since the program began.
The majority of students enrolled in the program come from Florida’s largest school districts. Over a quarter of scholarship recipients live in Miami-Dade County.
The program has grown by leaps and bounds throughout the years, with an increase of nearly 80,000 students since the 2005-2006 school year.
Step Up For Students says the increase is a result of two specific causes: parents embracing school choice options for their children and an increase in state-set fundraising for the program.
...While Anti-Tax Credit Scholarship Lawsuit Loses Steam -- and Allies
While the Tax Credit Scholarship saw leaps in its enrollment numbers, the lawsuit against the program still raged on in 2016. But as time has gone on, its list of supporters has begun to dwindle.
One of the lawsuit’s core participants, the Florida PTA, dropped out of the lawsuit against the program in November. The PTA was one of several groups which participated in the lawsuit against Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which provides nearly 100,000 low-income and minority students with vouchers to attend private schools around the state.
The Florida Education Association, which represents nearly 140,000 teachers statewide, has led the charge against the program. The Florida PTA joined the FEA and other groups like the NAACP to fight against the scholarship program, much to the dismay of parent groups, students and lawmakers alike.
Groups against the program say it’s unconstitutional and funnels important taxpayer money away from public schools, even though private companies fund the program in exchange for tax breaks.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
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