Independent News‘Education’ Archives
Montclair Elementary honored
The Florida Department of Education recognized Montclair Elementary as one of its high performing schools. It improved from a F to an A. Here is the press release: Education Commissioner John L. Winn today recognized some of Florida’s highest performing school districts for either maintaining [...]
Santa Rosa School District slices $21 million from budget
Daily News reports the Santa Rosa County School District is looking at more than $28 million in cuts. The proposed budget puts the district’s overall spending plan at about $271.5 million for the 2011-12 school year based on a property tax rate of 7.96 mills Read more.
UWF named among 2011 “Great Colleges to Work For”
Press release: The University of West Florida is one of the best colleges in the nation to work for, according to rankings by The Chronicle of Higher Education released on Monday. The survey is based on data from nearly 44,000 survey participants at 310 institutions. UWF and Florida [...]
Warrington Middle still waiting for turnaround
The daily newspaper has put a positive spin on Warrington Middle School, which has been on the state's list of schools in danger of being closed or converted into charters because of low academic performance for years. After pumping millions into the school and taking a "hands on" approach to [...]
Top 10 Principles for Change Agents
I came across this article through Twitter. It's by Claude DiDomenica, Co-founder, Columnist and Blogmaster of the website Secretary of Innovation. I thought with change so much of what the City of Pensacola is experiencing now ---strong mayor, city council rooted in past, city staff resistant to [...]
Oops. Camelot failing, too
While the daily newspaper is focusing on the problems with two charter schools, A.A. Dixon and Jacqueline Harris, the Camelot Academy, the middle school that the School District outsourced to a Pennsylvania-based company, also has issues. Here is the report from the Florida Department of [...]
Extortionists call ACLU terrorists
Liberty Counsel is getting paid about $265,000 to leave the Santa Rosa School District alone. It issued today a press release with the title "ACLU's Reign of Terror Comes to an End in Santa Rosa County School District." Amazing! My children have all graduated from Santa Rosa County schools, [...]
Escambia accounts for nearly 20 percent of new A schools
According to the press release from the Florida Department of Education, of Florida's 2,547 graded elementary, middle and non-high-school combination public schools earning "A" through "F" grades this year: * 1,481 earned an "A" (58 percent), an increase of 82 schools compared to last [...]
Most improved elementary schools take different paths
The most improved Escambia County elementary schools are Montclair, Weis and Oakcrest. Montclair jumped 155 points, primarily by huge increases in the percentages meeting high standards in math, writing and science ---79 points. Overall Montclair's math scores improved at all measurement [...]
Low performing Middle Schools slipping further behind
The three lowest performing middle schools in Escambia County are Bellview (447 pts), Warrington (450 pts) and Woodham (453 pts). All three are C schools but their total points have slipped below their 2009 levels, Superintendent Thomas's first semester. All three schools have high percentages of [...]
Escambia District returns to B status
The Florida Department of Education has issued its school grades and the Escambia District has returned B status. Last year the district had fallen to a C, after two consecutive B years. The district had 25 elementary and middle schools that earned A's. The biggest turnarounds are Weis which [...]
More students can get out of failing schools
Gov. Rick Scott signed yesterday a bill into law that expands the Opportunity Scholarship program, which allows students to transfer to better-performing public schools. Under the old rules, parents could transfer their child out of schools graded F two of the previous four years. The new [...]