Legislative Updates from Rep. Kathleen Passidomo
Upon completing a testing investigation requested by Governor Rick Scott, Education Commissioner Pam Stewart recommended a reduction in the number of tests Florida students in public schools are required to take. The investigation conducted by the Commissioner included a comprehensive inspection of district-level assessments to better understand the number, frequency, and purpose and an evaluation to determine whether the local assessment was already assessed by a statewide, standardized assessment. In order for Florida to move forward with fewer, better assessments, the Commissioner recommended enacting the following four measures:
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Issue an Executive Order to suspend the grade 11 Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) for English language arts until legislation is enacted to eliminate the mandate.
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Enact legislation to eliminate the Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT) as a state mandate for grade 11 and make it optional.
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Enact legislation to eliminate the current progress monitoring requirements.
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Enact legislation to eliminate local final exams in courses/subjects where there is also a statewide standardized end-of-course exam.
Further, the Commissioner urged districts to consider the following recommendations:
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Give no more than one school-wide or district-wide interim assessment per course/subject per grading period.
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Don’t test students for the sole purpose of evaluating teachers.
Provide teachers, parents, and students with information about how students are doing on each assessment used to monitor student progress.