Florida can’t replace state tests with national ones, commissioner says

Earlier this week, Seminole schools superintendent Walt Griffin sent a series of testing recommendations to Florida education commissioner Pam Stewart, including the suggestion that the state scrap its Florida Standards Assessments for a nationally recognized test. FSA administration this spring was plagued with problems, leading to a validity study that’s occurring now. If nothing else,…

Teachers remain wary even as Florida eases its stance on evaluations

In their effort to tie teachers’ job evaluations to student performance, Florida lawmakers acknowledge they initially went too far. “We were trying to prove a point, and we became overprescriptive,” said Senate Education Committee Chairman John Legg, who began pressing the issue five years ago. This spring, comfortable that the idea of increased accountability for…