Florida Schools Improve Dramatically!

When I began paying attention to the rankings of Florida schools a few years ago, we were at a disgraceful 48 out of 50 - third from the worst.

When I checked again, I believe 2 years ago, we were at 35. Incredible improvement, yet still abysmal.

Now we're 14, improved from 31 just last year! At this rate, we'll be able to be proud of our public schools in just another year or two. To be fair, though, I am proud of the state's strides already. That's an amazing clean-up job in a short period of time.

If every state in the union competed to be in the top 3 every year, I think we'd have nothing to complain about in our schools in a very short time. Just getting educators, voters, and legislators to set top-ranking as a goal... that is the challenge.

If someone can be the best, why not you? And when it comes to educating our children, what is more important?

The News-Press (Fort Myers, FL) ... June 16, 2008
Guest Opinion: Eric J. Smith: Student achievement rises in Florida
By Eric J. Smith

With the help of Florida's hard-working teachers, a decade ago we began building the nation's leading accountability system. Improving student achievement was difficult, because no indicator of student performance existed. However, the results are clear. Florida has improved 17 places to 14th in the nation, according to Education Week's Quality Counts report. Florida's ability to improve student achievement each year rests on the... [click for full story] http://iw.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_theme=aggdocs&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=LNNB&p_docid=121695451B2BD750&p_text_direct-0=document_id=(%20121695451B2BD750%20)&p_multi=FMNB&p_nbid=O55H4CVEMTIxNjIyOTgzNC40MjEzNDoxOjU6andlc3Q