Instead of scattering K-12 assessment tests throughout the spring months and disrupting teaching time, a reform proposal being unveiled Wednesday morning in the Florida Legislature would require all such exams to take place only in the final three weeks of the school year, starting next year.
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Miami Republican Sen. Anitere Flores, Hialeah Republican Rep. Manny Diaz Jr., and Palm Harbor Republican Rep. Chris Sprowls call their plan the “Fewer, Better Tests” bill — with the goal of reducing the stress and anxiety that teachers, parents and students grapple with during testing time.
The lawmakers are formally announcing their proposal at an 11 a.m. press conference at the Capitol. Their legislation (SB 926/HB 773) was filed within the past week.
“Seeing firsthand the angst and all the scrambling, the biggest impact that can be had is pushing back the calendar,” Diaz told the Herald/Times.
“It’s about really putting some common sense into our whole testing situation overall,” added Diaz, the House’s K-12 education budget chairman this year, who is a former high school teacher and administrator in Miami-Dade Public Schools and now chief operating officer at Doral College.
The legislation would require results from the Florida Standards Assessments to be returned to teachers within one week so teachers can actually have time to act on them. And it would require a more understandable report be sent to parents of what each student’s results mean, so they, too, can take steps to help their child.
The measure also takes action on a big conversation point during the 2016 session: Whether taking the SAT/ACT should be used as an alternative to the FSA high-schoolers take, which might prevent potential duplication and extra testing.
Under the bill, Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart would be required to study this year if it is even feasible — specifically whether the SAT/ACT “align” with the high-school level English and mathematics standards Florida requires under its version of Common Core, which the FSA tests.
“Let’s look at what it really means,” Diaz said. “So if it’s not realistic, we don’t have this mythical conversation and so we have a real discussion about how to improve our accountability system and testing.”
Stewart had opposed last year’s efforts in the Senate to allow the SAT/ACT to be an alternative to the FSA, because she argued that they didn’t necessarily test the same proficiencies.
She told the Herald/Times on Tuesday she had yet to fully review this year’s testing reform legislation, but she supports the component calling for a study on the viability of alternative tests.
“We would need to make that sort of analysis and comparison to be sure,” Stewart said, “because you don’t want to be teaching students one thing and assessing them on something else. You not only don’t want to do that, you shouldn’t do it and legally you can’t do it.”
To implement the scheduling reforms, the legislation — if enacted — would require some re-negotiation with the state’s testing vendor, American Institutes for Research. The state hired AIR in 2014 to develop and administer the FSA, which replaced the FCAT.
AIR’s six-year, $220 million contract is in its third year and then goes into a period of one-year renewals, Diaz said, so the timing works for such talks.
“I wouldn’t want to put them in a bind,” Diaz said. “We need to have real answers before we move on it.”
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