TALLAHASSEE | Student testing is at the center of Florida’s public education system. It serves as a way to assess student learning, evaluate teachers and grade schools.
But as the public schools transition to the new Florida Standards Assessment, which replaces the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test this spring, lawmakers, educators, teachers and parents are calling for major changes in a testing system that they say has become overly burdensome for the schools, teachers and students.
The chairman of the Senate education committee that oversees the K-12 system filed a bill last week that would limit testing to no more than 5 percent of a student’s time in the classroom. Other senators are waiting for an answer from the Department of Education on how many tests are being given, how much time they take up and how much they cost.
