Legislators divided on school testing

Senate seeks overhaul, House wants tweaks

Florida lawmakers could overhaul the state’s testing system this year, cutting the number of exams students take and reducing the impact it has on public schools.

Or they could tweak it, shifting testing to later in the school year and studying whether national exams — such as the ACT and SAT — could in a few years be used in place of Florida’s current series of two dozen standardized tests.

The Senate and House each have proposals, but they are far apart in both scope and details. The two testing bills (SB 926 and HB 773) are among many measures the Legislature will try to hash out before their session ends May 5.

The Senate’s measure is more far-reaching and has the backing of many school board members, school superintendents, teachers and parent advocacy groups, all of whom think students take too many standardized tests, which eats up too much time during the school year.

Florida administered more than 3.6 million exams to students in third grade through

high school last year, including the language arts and math tests that make up the Florida Standards Assessments, or FSA, as well as other standardized science and social studies tests.

“For the relief of our students … this bill is critical,” said Linda Kobert, an Orange County School Board member who was in Tallahassee last week to lobby for passage of the Senate measure.

But whether the House will go along with the other chamber’s suggestions remains uncertain. “Everyone is collectively holding their breath,” she said.

Key House leaders say their bill, backed by one of former Gov. Jeb Bush’s influential education foundations, is more prudent, as it avoids major changes until after a study.

“You should not go in there and start plucking away at tests,” said Rep. Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah, sponsor of the House bill. “Once we have the data back … then we can make an educated decision as a body.”

The Foundation for Florida’s Future called the bill “an important first step to moving Florida toward the goal of fewer, better tests,” though the bill doesn’t cut any exams from the testing roster.

The Senate bill requires the same study as the House measure and the same shift of testing to the end of the school year. But it also scraps some state tests; allows school districts to choose whether online or paper-pencil exams are best; and ends a requirement that some teachers be evaluated in part on how their students performed on standardized exams.

The proposal would ditch a controversial piece of the state’s 2011 teacher merit-pay law — the socalled value-added model. or VAM, which is a way of using test-score data to determine whether teachers helped their students made academic gains. Now, districts must use that data in the evaluations of those who teach subjects tied to state tests. If the bill became law, using VAM would be up to each Florida school district.

The bill would do away with end-of-course exams in civics and U.S. history and require students to take only one end-of-course math exam in high school, either algebra 1, geometry or algebra 2. Now students take all three math tests whenever they complete those courses.

Like the House provision, the Senate bill requires a study of whether the ACT or SAT, which students take when applying to college, could be used in place of the FSA, but it would also consider whether passing scores on other exams taken as part of courses, such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate, could exempt students from state tests.

The goal is to “reduce the amount of testing that we have in Florida schools,” said Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon. “One of the best ways to do that is leverage other tests. They’re accepted and trusted by parents, much more than our FSA.”

For the past two years, Seminole County educators have been pushing the state to eliminate tests and use national tests instead of the FSA. They also hope the Senate bill wins approval and becomes law.

“I think we’ve all just gotten too carried away with testing for the sake of testing,” said Superintendent Walt Griffin, who joined other superintendents in Tallahassee in January to testify for changes the Senate is now pushing.

Griffin said getting rid of some exams and allowing districts to use paper-andpencil exams — which take less time to administer in schools with limited computers — would go a long way to addressing testing complaints.

House lawmakers, however, have praised their bill for moving most testing, which now often starts in early February, to the last three weeks of the school year. That will give students more class time before they sit for the exams. The bill also requires that FSA score reports be in what Diaz called an “easy-to-read, parent-friendly” format.

“I think it does a lot of good things,” said Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto, who voted for the bill in committee.

But others said the House bill, despite its “fewer, better tests” name, wouldn’t answer the public’s key concerns about testing.

“Their outcry is, we have to definitely eliminate some of these tests,” said Rep. Kamia Brown, D-Kissimmee, who voted against it..

“This is not fewer tests,” she said. “This is the same tests but definitely at a different time.”