TALLAHASSEE, FLA. (WSVN) - A big change will be coming to testing at Florida schools next year.
On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1048 into law that ended the use of Florida Standards Assessments.
“Today, we come not to praise the FSA but to bury it,” said DeSantis.
FSA is used to evaluate students and has been in place since 2015.
“We’re going to collect and deliver information in less time, more frequently,” he said. “There will be more time for learning under this progress monitoring system, and you’ll have much, much more feedback, so this is a huge streamlining of what we’ve been doing. I think it’s teacher-friendly. I think it’s student-friendly, and I think it’s parent-friendly.”
FSA testing replaced the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, better known as FCAT.
FSA will now be replaced by the practice of progress monitoring. Instead of one test, students will have several smaller and more individualized tests throughout the year.
Results of the exams will be made available within a couple of weeks after taking the test, instead of having to wait until the summer.
Though not all teachers feel enthusiastic about the new progress monitoring system.
“This bill falls short on reducing testing. It does not reduce testing. It does not reduce testing. In fact, it increases testing,” said Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association.
“Math is math, more hours of testing equals fewer hours of instructing,” said Karla Hernandez-Mats, president of the United Teachers of Dade.
Ultimately, DeSantis said the change will allow students and teachers to react and adjust their lesson plans based on the results of the tests.
“Instead of having one major test at the end of the year, which provided no feedback to students before the summer came, we would do progress monitoring. That would monitor progress throughout the school year,” said DeSantis.
“This bill does not go far enough to make sure that teachers have time to react to the data,” said Spar.
“Parents and teachers wanted more instructional time, not more time testing,” said Hernandez-Mats.
As school districts await the changes, South Florida educators said it’s all going to come down to the details.
“We’ve got to have details as to what type of impact this is going to be, is this going to be a positive impact, or is this just going to be additional testing,” said Broward County Superintendent Dr. Vickie Cartwright.
FSA tests will still be used for the rest of the current school year.
Progress Monitoring will begin next school year, which begins in August.
The state education commissioner said the change will save Florida millions of dollars in testing fees.
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