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Florida
8th February 2023
 
NATIONAL NEWS
Much for education in Biden's State of the Union speech
President Joe Biden emphasized schools' role in supporting student mental health during his State of the Union address in Washington on February 7. Rising rates of anxiety and depression among children and teens should be a top concern for the nation, he asserted. The president used his speech to call for more funding to support preschool for three- and four-year-olds and provide two years of community college for free for all students, to call on Congress to restore an expansion of the Child Tax Credit that was in effect for a year under the American Rescue Plan and provided support to families struggling to afford childcare during the pandemic with monthly payments of $300 per child younger than six and $250 for each older child, and to champion the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. That law is the most comprehensive gun safety legislation in 30 years and provided $1bn for schools to support student mental health and well-being. The president also called for bipartisan support from Congress to ban online advertising targeted at young people and children and enact strong protections for youth and children's privacy, health, and safety online. In advance of Biden's speech, the White House announced a number of steps to help support children's mental health. The White House directed the U.S. Department of Education to establish a $280m grant program to increase the number of mental health care professionals in high-need districts and strengthen the school-based mental health professional pipeline. The Education Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will issue guidance and propose a rule to “remove red tape” so schools can more easily provide health care to students and bill Medicaid. The health and human services department will also launch a Children and Youth Resilience Prize Challenge, awarding $750,000 to a pilot program that promotes resilience among young people.
DISTRICTS
Broward Schools names interim leader
The Broward County School Board on Tuesday voted unanimously to amend the severance deal for Superintendent Dr. Vickie Cartwright, agreeing to end her relationship with the district. Board members agreed to a payout to Cartwright that is about $100,000 less than her original deal because a 60-day consulting agreement with the district was scuttled. School board members voted to a $266,000 payout for the embattled schools chief, down from the $365,646 payment for severance, vacation, sick time and benefits that the board had agreed to just last week. Under the terms of the separation agreement, Cartwright won't be able to sue the district. Both sides are working on a non-disparagement agreement. The board voted to appoint Dr. Earlean Smiley as the interim superintendent, noting that she cannot apply for the job permanently. The board also opted to place Dr. Valerie Wanza in charge of the district until Smiley can assume her role.
Sarasota County Schools names interim superintendent
The Sarasota County School Board announced Dr. Allison Foster as interim superintendent. She was up against Dr. Ron Dipillo for the role.
CLASSROOM
The complexities of setting and marking homework
Education consultant Rick Wormeli, author of “Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Assessment and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom” and a former teacher in Virginia, explores the historical controversy over grading homework. Wormeli asserts that school districts are increasingly considering proposals to revise their policies for reporting homework completion and students’ timely adherence to deadlines so that these reports do not count in final, academic grades of subject content, and he supports this. "We study the role of homework in student learning, and we don’t undermine its positive effects by conflating what should be practice with high stakes, final designations of competence. In this, our students are well served," Wormeli concludes.
FINANCE
Lottery jackpot for education in Florida
Scratch-off tickets accounted for 75% of sales, helping The Florida Lottery to an 11th consecutive year of breaking records and sending $2.3bn into public education. Total sales for the fiscal year ending June 30 were $9.32bn, says the recently released annual comprehensive financial report. Prizes paid to winners totaled $6.3bn in 2022. After operating costs, the remaining balance went to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund. The population in Florida is projected to increase by at least 1.4% in 2023 and another 1.3% in 2024. Lottery officials want to capitalize, a release says, with plans for initiatives to increase the player base using new products, technology and diversifying retailers.
LEGISLATION
Florida Senate Education Committee passes TikTok ban
Two bills proposed by Florida lawmakers on banning TikTok in K-12 schools were passed on Tuesday by the state's Senate Education Pre-K-12 Committee. The bills will require state school districts to prevent and not allow students from using social media through the internet access provided by each district, the Department of Financial Services said.
STUDENTS
U.S. Attorney’s Office tackling high school hate crime
The United States Attorney’s Office has launched a series of presentations in Vermont high schools aimed at educating students on identifying, reporting, and preventing hate crimes and other civil rights violations. This effort is part of the Department of Justice’s United Against Hate Program, developed by its Hate Crimes Enforcement and Prevention Initiative.
HEALTH
Flagler County Schools considers stocking Narcan
The Flagler County School District may become the second district in the state to give Narcan to its staff and nurses to administer to students. The spray is used to treat someone suspected of experiencing an opioid overdose and on Tuesday, the school board met in a workshop to create a policy for it. The school resource deputies already carry Narcan from the sheriff's office, but school leaders want more of it on campuses. They're looking to give It to staff at all nine locations, including elementary schools.
INTERNATIONAL
PISA's global testing reach challenged
Former secretary of state for education in Spain, Montse Gomendio, now deputy director for education at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and co-author of "Dire Straits: Education Reforms, Ideology, Vested Interests and Evidence," underlines what she sees are the failings of the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which has tested 15-years-olds throughout the world in reading, math, and science since 2020. Developed by the OECD and administered every three years, PISA is designed to yield evidence for governments on which education policies deliver better learning outcomes as students approach the end of secondary school, yet, she notes, according to PISA’s own data, after almost two decades of testing, student outcomes have not improved overall in OECD nations or most other participating countries. PISA’s two assumptions, Gomendio suggests, that its policy recommendations are right and that the evidence provided by PISA data is enough to minimize the political costs of attempting education reform, are flawed. Most policy recommendations are strongly context-dependent, she claims, and PISA’s recommendations may be difficult for policymakers to interpret correctly if they lack precise knowledge of their education system’s state of maturity. Making universal policy recommendations has dire consequences for many countries, particularly those most in need, Gomendio adds, so it would be much more helpful for PISA to look at countries that have achieved gains and try to extract lessons for other countries that had similar starting points when they joined PISA but have not improved.

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