Education

According to the state, 92.2% of students earned a diploma in 2024-25 – 2.5 points over the previous year and 4.9 points over 2021-22. The progress was celebrated at the district level, including the Tampa area.

A National Council on Teacher Quality report found almost two-thirds of the teacher prep programs need to work on attracting and graduating more diverse teacher candidates.

On "Florida Matters Live & Local," we take a look at how the local Jewish community is responding to the Gaza ceasefire, the charter school takeover debate and the magic of a local theater production.

From navigating school traffic and soaring housing costs to defining Brandon’s spirit and exploring the surreal world of Dalí, have a listen on what shapes daily life across Tampa Bay.

Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas lauded the slain activist as a "champion of open civic discourse" who "reminds us that disagreement can and must remain peaceful, principled and constructive."

The University of Florida held steady at No. 7, Florida State rose to a record No. 19 and USF climbed to No. 36 among public universities.

The arrests were part of a second phase of an investigation. In 2023, 25 people were charged in connection with a similar scheme involving three other Florida schools.

Florida Education commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas says the scores would be higher if the NAEP test included students in the state's school choice program.

The report from SIECUS: Six Ed for Social Change found: "Florida has more laws prohibiting topics from being taught in sex education than laws requiring topics to be taught."

Teachers voice worries that ending vaccine requirements could bring back preventable illnesses, worsen absenteeism, and endanger medically fragile students.

A backdoor plan to hand the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus to New College was revealed in public records last year and eventually dissolved. Observers have anticipated the issue could come up again.

Families can use the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities to pay for three precollege programs at the Leesburg college.