Florida teachers focus on their ‘why’ as they head back to school

The big story: Teachers across Florida are preparing for the new school year, which starts in two weeks. Several are attending professional learning sessions to get updates on new requirements and fresh ideas for ways to reach their students.

Available seminars have included topics as broad ranging as the state’s new civics standards and how to create engaging lessons without using cell phones and other technology.

In Pasco County, the district also addressed the growing concern of teachers who might have grown disenchanted with their profession amid the mounting pressures from the state, parents and other outside forces. The district’s four-day Together We Learn event focused on that existential question, Why Does It All Matter? Read more here.

Hot topics

African American history: Did enslaved individuals learn skills that benefited them personally? See what some freed Floridians said in oral histories recorded in the 1930s. • The standards are causing intra-party disputes among Republicans, the Tallahassee Democrat reports. More from CNN and BET. • Representatives of Gov. Ron DeSantis compared the standard about skills to one from the College Board’s AP course on African American studies, which the state has rejected. They did so to criticize people who blasted Florida’s standards while applauding the AP course. College Board said that’s not what its course teaches: “We resolutely disagree with the notion that enslavement was in any way a beneficial, productive, or useful experience for African Americans. Unequivocally, slavery was an atrocity that cannot be justified by examples of African Americans’ agency and resistance during their enslavement.” More from USA Today. • The Congressional Black Caucus is pressing the federal government to investigate whether the standards violate discrimination laws, Associated Press reports.

Board politics: The Florida Department of Education created a new office to facilitate relationships with local school boards. Headed by a right-wing education policy analyst, the office so far appears to have reached out almost exclusively to board members affiliated with Moms for Liberty and Florida Citizens Alliance, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Budgets: Leon County officials said they need to find about $7 million in their budget to fund 90 positions that had been paid for with COVID relief money, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

Student attendance: The Marion County school district is tightening up its requirements for excused absences. Some parents say the rule is too invasive, WOFL reports.

Teacher pay: Miami-Dade County teachers will get raises of 7% to 10% under a tentative contract deal, the Miami Herald reports. • Florida private schools are increasing pay and highlighting other perks they can offer as they seek to fill teacher vacancies, reimaginED reports.

University leadership: Bethune-Cookman University has its third leader in as many years after its interim president departed, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.

From the court docket … The Florida Supreme Court agreed to hear a case on whether the University of Florida should return student fees collected during the pandemic, when the campus was closed, News Service of Florida reports. • The Broward County School Board voted not to reinstate a teacher who was fired in connection with sexual abuse charges that were later dropped. The teacher plans to ask a court to intervene, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

Don’t miss a story. Here’s a link to yesterday’s roundup.

Before you go … Nothing Compares 2U. Prince wrote it. Sinéad defined it. RIP.

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