State education officials review funding and results for low‑performing schools, advanced‑course partnership and regional literacy teams

The Appropriations Committee on Pre K‑12 Education heard on Monday from the Florida Department of Education about three recurring programs that together account for about $16,000,000 in the preK‑12 budget: assistance to low‑performing schools through the Bureau of School Improvement, the Florida Partnership that funds advanced‑course access, and the regional literacy teams established under the RAISE initiative, officials said.

Dr. Paul Burns, senior chancellor at the Florida Department of Education, told the committee the department uses a mix of state and federal funds — including Title I, federal school improvement grants and targeted state appropriations in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) — to support the most fragile schools and accelerate literacy instruction.

The programs matter, Burns said, because they target schools that receive a first‑time grade of F or a second consecutive D and typically show the largest literacy achievement gaps. “We have decreased from 6% to 4%, representing statewide a 2% decrease in the number of failing schools,” Burns said, citing the most recent school‑grade releases and crediting targeted investments and the Bureau of School Improvement for that progress.

The department described three streams of support. The Bureau of School Improvement maintains five regional teams that visit classrooms, monitor instruction, and provide real‑time feedback and professional learning. The Florida Partnership appropriation has been funded at $4,000,000 annually in the GAA; Palm Beach State College is the 2023‑24 recipient and awarded roughly $2.3 million to subrecipients that included school districts and education consortia to support outreach, teacher development and student advising. The department said Palm Beach State has reached thousands of parents and hundreds of students and is developing a statewide model for advanced‑course enrollment and performance tracking.

The RAISE regional literacy teams — the Reading Achievement Initiative for Scholastic Excellence — were established initially with CARES and ESSER funds and are now supported by a $5,000,000 state appropriation, Burns said. The department reported about 1,165 schools are identified as RAISE schools. The program divides supports into universal, targeted and intensive tiers: universal services (webinars, statewide professional learning and coach‑endorsement pathways), targeted supports (district‑ or school‑level professional learning and train‑the‑trainer models serving nearly 500 schools) and the most intensive on‑site supports for about 207 schools where literacy directors conduct classroom observations and collaborative planning.

Burns said the department measures short‑term progress using the FAST progress‑monitoring cycles (PM1, PM2, PM3) and cautioned that comparisons with earlier systems (the FSA era) are difficult because the statewide assessment structure changed. “When we use our own data from our progress monitoring system, we’re able to actually track those students’ performance,” Burns said, adding that teachers receive immediate feedback from the FAST system and can target interventions quickly.

Committee members pressed Burns about rural participation, monitoring students who fell behind during the pandemic, and whether supports continue after a school leaves improvement status. Burns said regional teams cover all districts across the state and that the Bureau of School Improvement continues to monitor schools after they exit improvement status to reduce recidivism. He also described family resources and the department’s coordination with adult‑education programs, saying parents can contact the department or their district to review real‑time student data and interventions.

Separately, Deputy Commissioner Suzanne Pridgen described the school district education foundation matching grants. “A matching grant is a subgrant from the consortium to a district foundation, and the amount of each matching grant is a minimum of $10,000,” Pridgen told the committee. She said the consortium administers the grants, requires private‑sector matching contributions and distributes funds using the most recent FTE counts; the program is intended to support tutoring, summer learning, STEM and career‑technical education, professional learning, and supplies.

Committee chairpersons asked staff to follow up with additional data and to supply the grading matrix Dr. Burns referenced so legislators could compare metrics across years. Burns said he would provide follow‑up materials and that the department will continue monitoring implementation and outcomes.

The presentation and question-and-answer session ran through a series of committee questions before the meeting moved to the next panel.

Ending

Committee members thanked the department presenters and asked for follow up documents on the school‑grade matrix and program metrics for Palm Beach State’s Florida Partnership model. No formal committee action or vote was taken on these programs during the hearing.