Florida lawmakers have been searching for ways to improve state testing after last year’s incident regarding servers and general dissatisfaction with the tests. Although they won’t eliminate end-of-course testing, they’ve considered an alternative: students choosing between different kinds of standardized tests instead.
The Florida Standards Assessment was implemented to replace the FCAT. A state-hired company constructed the test along with the national Common Core standards meant to prepare students for rigorous college education.
“It’s new standards, it’s a new test–it’s everything coming at them so quickly that it was concerning to teachers,” said Robert Runcie, Broward Superintendent, to the Sun Sentinel. “It’s still concerning. If they’re going to use high-stakes testing, they need to get it right. And we haven’t gotten it right.”
The state-mandated assessment tested students from third grade to twelfth; over 3.2 million FSA tests were completed in March, April, and May.
“The implementation problems associated with FSA have eroded the public’s confidence in the result. The fact that the FSA was developed by an entity that is not well known and is therefore not well-respected by the public has had a negative consequence,” said State Senator Don Gaetz in light of the Florida Standards Assessment testing.
Senator Gaetz filed a plan to let students make use of “rigorous alternative assessment options” as opposed to the FSA, which sparked resistance to state-mandated exams.
The plan would allow students and parents to choose a national name-brand assessment that measure students’ academic understanding based on certain given subjects. He speaks of options like ACT tests up through high school, starting in the third grade. For high-schoolers, they can choose the pre-SAT, SAT, Advanced Placement tests, and industry certification exams, depending on the rigor of the course.
“It is certainly worthwhile, and it is an appropriate step especially in terms of the recent history of the FSA and the difficulties we’ve had,” said Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee. “Florida has embraced the idea of choice, so why not give parents and students a choice?”
Gaetz says he has been speaking to “influential members of the House” to have the plan considered. His bill will call for implementing alternative tests as early as the 2016-2017 school year. School boards throughout the state will choose which options to make available to their district, but the FSA will continue to be the uniform option statewide.
