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 the impact of testing on students’ school lives got lost in the mix.
“Lee County got caught up in the circus,” Graham said last week during a presentation to board members from around Florida. “But now we’re back on track.”
The message is resonating in Tallahassee among lawmakers, the same group that spent the past 15 years gradually building the state’s testing system into what it is today. Now, many of them are looking to pare the system down after a chorus of complaints by local educators in recent months.
“It is one of the most challenging questions we will address this session,” Senate Education Committee chairman John Legg said.
