Lawmakers debate value of Florida’s school testing

Florida’s system of high stakes testing, long the subject of criticism from parents and teachers, is now receiving extra scrutiny from state lawmakers

Some members of a House committee on school quality questioned Wednesday whether the downsides to frequent testing and school grades outweigh the benefits, particularly after a state education official told legislators that Florida does more testing that is required by federal law.

Required testing includes the Florida Standards Assessment and a variety of end-of-course exams.

“Is there some benefit?” asked Rep. Don Hahnfeldt, R-The Villages. “One of the most common criticisms we receive from teachers and parents is the stress and time taken away from the other academic efforts of the school?”

School grades, which are based mostly on how students perform on standardized tests, were also criticized. These affect home prices and whether industries locate here, experts say.

The tests are also used to determine how much teachers are paid and whether third graders can be promoted and whether high school students can graduate.

The grading system has gone through numerous changes over the years that some have attributed to the same schools getting and A or B one year and a D or F another.

Juan Copa, deputy commissioner for the State Department of Education, said that while the accountability system has gotten more rigorous over the years, this will be the third year of the same tests.

“I think the focus is on keeping that stable, so we can grow from here,” he said.

It’s unclear what, if any changes lawmakers might make to the school accountability system. But there does seem to be more interest this year than in the past. Last month a Senate committee asked a group of schools superintendent to share ideas on how to improve school accountability

The superintendents’ ideas included returning to paper and pencil assessments, because computerized testing ties up school computers; eliminating the required end-of-course exams for geometry, Algebra 2, history and civics, allowing schools to return to locally given final exams; and allowing school districts to do their own teacher evaluations, instead of using a a state system largely based on test scores.

On Wednesday, State Rep. Matt Willhite floated an even more dramatic idea.

“Could we do without school grading?” he asked. “When we have schools with continuous failing grades, are we benefiting the child by telling them they are in a failing school?”

But State Rep. Jake Raburn, R-Lithia, who chairs the policy committee, disagreed.

“Not giving a school an F isn’t going to do a service to the student either,” he said. “Whether we grade them or not, we need to figure out what can be done with habitually low-performing schools.”

State Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said last month she is open to revising the testing requirements but wants to make sure the state keeps high accountability standards.

“We can’t assess ourselves into greatness, “she said. “But we also won’t be great if we don’t know how our students are performing.”