Orlando Sentinel

If you have dyslexia, it's hard to read, and it's nearly impossible to keep up in school. That's why Nemours Children's Clinic Orlando is unveiling a pilot program aimed at helping preschoolers in Orlando with dyslexia and other reading disabilities — before they head to elementary school.

Florida's popular class-size amendment may be put on ice, thanks to a weakening economy and a statewide budget crisis.

The number of minorities teaching in Central Florida has grown nearly 30 percent in recent years, during a time when school districts statewide boosted their numbers only about half as much. Budget cuts, however, are forcing districts to back off their recruitment efforts and eliminate jobs, opening a debate about the importance of race in teaching.

Despite losing nearly $40 million to recent budget cuts, the University of Central Florida plans to give employees one-time $1,000 bonuses made possible by a tuition windfall, officials announced Thursday.

Teachers in Central Florida public schools are headed back to the classroom this year without a pay raise. Officials in Orange, Seminole, Lake, Osceola and Volusia school districts say they simply cannot afford to provide even the slightest pay increase because school systems are strapped for cash. The state's budget for education has taken a nose dive because of the sour economy.

Students across Central Florida will learn a brutal lesson in economics when the new school year starts next week. For years, school leaders juggled their budgets to prevent the state's chronic money woes from creeping into the classroom. But they're out of options now and scaling back popular programs for gifted students and troubled kids.

A proposed state constitutional amendment offers what sounds like a simple and painless remedy for improving public education in Florida -- require every school district to spend at least 65 percent of its money on classroom instruction.

Jeremy Rodriguez was a sharpshooting guard on Lake Howell High's basketball team. But when it came to FCAT, he kept bouncing off the rim. Although Rodriguez tried several times throughout his years at Lake Howell, he couldn't pass the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. To get a diploma, students must prove they have at least minimal reading skills.

Tanya Moorehead's task is to keep the algebra lesson in her middle-school class moving along briskly while keeping a close eye on young Marcus in the back row.

High schools across Florida are likely to start getting better marks from the state, thanks to the biggest shake-up in the school-grading system since it was started 10 years ago.

For one week — five days, really — a class of college students was assigned to unplug and live a tech-free life. No cell phones. No iPods. No computers, TVs or video games. It was enough to make a "millennial" weep. What would they do?

There may be a simple reason why many Central Florida high-school students get bad grades and struggle to earn enough credits to graduate.

TALLAHASSEE - In hopes of curbing " FCAT frenzy," as well as easing teacher and student angst, the Legislature is about to approve a major revamp of Florida's public-school testing program — from what students are expected to know to when they take the exam.

Sentinel Series: The Sentinel highlights stories about F-rated Maynard Evans High School, where about 85 percent of the students live in poverty. Today, we focus on senior Eveline Joachim.

TALLAHASSEE - Central Florida schools, already bracing to cut hundreds of teaching jobs, were staggered again Wednesday by a Florida Senate school-funding plan that could force even deeper reductions.