Florida School Boards Association
One week after clearing two education panels, the full state House got its first glimpse at a proposal to reduce the number of tests Florida public school students take each year. House Bill 7069 appears to have broad support, clearing both House education panels unanimously last week. On Tuesday, House members were given a chance…
Florida’s new online testing system lost the writing exams of more than 300 Central Florida students who took the test this month. Most of the essays have since been recovered, but about 50 remain missing. The number of still-lost tests represents a tiny fraction of the writing exams taken by more than 104,000 eighth, ninth…
A proposal to eliminate some testing requirements for Florida schoolchildren won the unanimous support of a second House committee on Thursday. The real debate centered around an amendment proposed by Rep. Mia Jones. Jones, D-Jacksonville, proposed holding off on school grades during the transition to new standards and assessments — something superintendents, school board members…
A Florida House panel gave its unanimous support Monday to a bill that would reduce the amount of testing in public schools. A similar proposal passed out of its first committee in the Senate last week — albeit along party lines. A few members of the public weighed in on the House proposal on Monday,…
As the second week of standardized testing gets underway across Florida, a House committee is expected today to advance its plan to ease back on required assessments. But a Senate panel is on a similar course, but announced it wants to first learn more about the difficulties many counties have faced with administering the new…
Florida’s standardized exams that debuted last week suffered from cyber attacks that led to blank screens throughout the state as students attempted to take the tests, the Department of Education said Monday. Citing testing provider American Institutes for Research, the state education department said the hack, which is being investigated by the Florida Department of…
Last week, dozens of Florida school districts had to postpone state testing because of problems with the new Florida Standards Assessments. Students couldn’t log in to the online writing exam — and some who did were booted out and temporarily lost their answers. The problems seem to have been resolved Thursday. By Friday, more than…
South Florida school districts will resume high-stakes testing on Thursday after three days of delays due to technical problems. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties all decided to administer the computer-based Florida Standards Assessment after reassurances from Education Commissioner Pam Stewart that glitches have been resolved. “There is a window by which we need to…
TALLAHASSEE — A plan to scale back testing in Florida schools cleared its first vote in the Florida Legislature on Wednesday, winning the approval of the Senate Education Committee. Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican and former school superintendent, said the bill would “place a lid on too much testing.” But the vote did little…
The Florida House plans to move quickly on its testing bill, leaders said Thursday. “We’re going to try to get this to the floor as soon as we possibly can so we can alleviate all of the stress and uncertainty in the field,” House Education Committee Chairwoman Marlene O’Toole said. Her goal: to ensure “the teachers can teach,…