Florida School Boards Association
Former Senate President and education appropriations committee chairman Don Gaetz wants to know how much the state spends on standardized testing. That’s a question which doesn’t have an easy answer, as captured in this exchange between Gaetz and the Department of Education’s Vince Burgess: Gaetz: “You’re telling me the total cost of all assessments and…
After a year that saw parents rise up against standardized testing, Florida lawmakers on Wednesday said they are prepared to improve the state’s assessment program. “We have a chance to do a rewrite so we can ensure that we are not over-testing our children, and ensure that we provide a road map to the districts…
When the Lee County School Board voted in August to rid its classrooms of state-mandated tests, superintendent Nancy Graham says the district lost sight of a key factor: Children. Adults with political agendas on testing, accountability, Common Core and other issues held sway with passionate pleas, and board members took the bait. The conversation about…
We’re taking this week to help parents and students understand the new Florida Standards Assessments, which students will take for the first time beginning in March. The math, reading and writing exam (reading and writing are combined as English language arts) is intended to measure how well students in third through eleventh grades understand Florida’s…
This spring, Florida students will take a brand new test tied to the state’s new math, reading and writing standards. This is the test that replaces the FCAT. It’s known as the Florida Standards Assessment, and it’ll be online. What’s on the test won’t be the only thing different about the exam. Students will also…
Students in grades 4 to 7 will take Florida’s new standardized writing test using old-fashioned paper and pencil to quell educators’ fears that younger students don’t have the typing skills needed to take an online writing exam. Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said Tuesday the state will revisit the issue next year, before deciding whether the…
uring his recent campaign for re-election, Gov. Rick Scott called for a “thorough investigation” of standardized testing in Florida’s public schools. “That work has begun,” Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said this morning at the State Board of Education meeting in Seminole County. The Florida Department of Education, Stewart said, has begun the review that Scott,…
“In some places, tests — and preparation for them — are dominating the calendar and culture of schools and causing undue stress for students and educators.” The quote comes not from an angry parent or firebrand school leader but from Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Of course, he’s the guy currently in charge of a big…
Apparently, the new buzz word in education is customization. Jeb Bush used it the other day. So did state Sen. John Legg, who was the education committee chairman the past two years. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio wrote about customization, and so did Patricia Levesque, CEO of Foundation for Excellence in Education. It is part of…
If Florida stays its current course on standardized testing, Kim Johnson believes her son will become a casualty of the system when he starts third grade next year. He learns differently than other kids his age, but he’ll have to take a test that doesn’t account for those differences. And if he fails it, Johnson’s…