Yesterday was a very bad day for education in Florida.

First the State Supreme Court said district's could fail children for not taking the Florida Standardized test. So much for parental choice right?

From the Orlando Sentinel:

The Florida Supreme Court has declined to take up a lawsuit brought by parents who told their children not to answer questions on the state third-grade reading test and then sued when the students were barred from fourth grade.

The top court’s decision leaves in place an earlier ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal. Judges on that panel, overturning an earlier favorable ruling by a circuit judge, decided against the parents and ruled that the school districts, including those in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, had been improperly sued in Tallahassee.

The court case filed in August was an effort by Florida’s “opt-out” movement — a group opposed to high-stakes testing — to challenge state laws in place for more than a decade. Those laws say that testing is mandatory for public school students, and that students who fail Florida’s third-grade language arts exam can be kept from fourth grade.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-opt-out-third-grade-state-tests-20170717-story.html

So a student can get straight As, show mastery of the material and just because they and their family don't want them to participate in a testing system gone amok, at least in third grade anyways they can be failed and forced to repeat the year. That is the up is down and black is white logic that permeates Florida.

If that wasn't bad enough, the FLDOE published it's rules on recess and I warn you get ready to SMH.

from the Palm Beach Post: 

Daily recess in Florida’s public elementary schools is now law. What will that look like when the first bell rings in August? It’s still unclear – but it doesn’t have to be outside, according to a one-page memo to superintendents that went out last week.

“This law does not specify the location where recess must be provided. The recess minutes could be provided indoors or outdoors,” the memo from the State Department of Education reads.

http://extracredit.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2017/07/19/state-recess-required-but-it-doesnt-have-to-be-outdoors/

Now I get it, sometimes it may be raining and you don't want schools to weasel out of having recess, that's reasonable and even laudable, unfortunately we live in Florida and the laudable often turns out to be a disaster, charter schools and using the lotto money on education anyone?

I can just see to many schools and to may classrooms being forced to use this loophole to cut back on recess in exchange for more test prep which has been the problem for years now.

Why put a memo out at all? Does the FLDOE think teachers wouldn't have been able to figure it out when it was raining? Or did they do so winking at those superintendents who fought against recess, to give them an out, my bet it is the latter. Also just a reminder, charters are exempt from the recess rules, what a selling point, come to our charters we are exempt from letting kids be kids.

To read more, click the link:
http://stoneeggs.blogspot.com/2017/07/recess.html?spref=fb

Yesterday was another dark day for education, sadly I haven't seen a bright one  in a while.