Lawmakers examine schools’ test regime

It’s time to ease “overtesting” of students, state lawmakers said Wednesday, and they asked school superintendents for help.

Required testing includes the Florida Standards Assessment and a variety of end-of-course exams. The tests determine whether third-graders can be promoted, high school students can graduate and how much teachers are paid. Schools receive letter grades based on the scores, which affect enrollment and neighborhood property values.

“Is it time to look under the hood to see where we are and can we do it better?” asked Sen. Doug Broxson, R-Pensacola.

The superintendents offered several recommendations to the Senate Education Appropriations Subcommittee. They included:

Schools should return to paper and pencil assessments, because computerized testing has tied up school computers that would otherwise be used for instruction.

The state should eliminate its required end-of-course exams for geometry, Algebra 2, history and civics, allowing the schools to return to locally given final exams.

The PSAT, a national test 10th-graders take to measure their college readiness, should be used as the main 10th-grade test. Right now, 10th-graders also take state tests.

School districts should be allowed to do their own teacher evaluations, instead of using a state system that requires a certain percentage be based on student test scores. Pinellas County Superintendent Michael Grego said this has created an unfair two-tiered evaluation system. Some teachers are measured on how well their own students perform and others, who teach in subjects not assessed by testing, are judged by how all students at the school do.

Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union, said she’s encouraged that the Legislature is considering these ideas.

“I am ecstatic to hear they’re having a really fruitful conversation about this whole testing craziness, and it sounds like they’re listening to parents’ and educators’ concerns,” Fusco said.

Broward County schools supports most of the recommendations, although the school board would prefer end-of-course exams carry less weight but not be dropped, said John Sullivan, legislative liaison for the district.

The state requires the tests make