In respite from culture wars, welcome reform from DeSantis on high-stakes testing regime
Like a lot of things, Florida’s end-of-year testing for public school students was a good idea that spun out of control.
Test prep began to chew up vast amounts of class time, and the stakes became so high that students, teachers and parents would agonize over them for months at a time. Schools held pep rallies and ice-cream socials to get students pumped up.
So while we still have an abundance of questions, give Gov. Ron DeSantis credit for seizing the initiative to end the state’s big year-end standardized test and replace it with several shorter tests administered throughout the year.
It’s a smart change that had the extraordinary effect of uniting DeSantis, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran and Florida’s largest teachers’ union in common purpose.
“We appreciate that Commissioner Corcoran and the Florida Department of Education are listening on this issue and are reducing the amount of standardized testing in Florida’s schools,” Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said in a statement.
It reminded us of that brief time in 2019 when DeSantis first took office and seemed focused on finding unity among Floridians rather than fostering division.
With this announcement, DeSantis is finally fulfilling a pledge other state politicians have made over the years to lower the temperature of Florida’s testing regime.
DeSantis’ proposal, which has to get legislative approval next year, appears to do a better job of monitoring student progress during the school year, which gives teachers and administrators an opportunity to respond during the school year. That seems to make more sense than relying on results that don’t get posted until after the year is done.
Not to break up the group hug, but we would urge the governor, lawmakers and union reps to remember the value of testing, and accountability for those test results.
It may seem like ancient history now, but Florida used to be in the same league as states like Mississippi, academically speaking. That is, we were awful.
As many things as Republican Legislatures and governors have screwed up over the last 20 years, the quality of education in Florida has improved under their watch.
The state’s graduation rate used to be around 60%. Now it’s about 90%. The latest Quality Counts report by Education Week has Florida ranked in the top 10 states on a variety of measures, and overall as No. 3 in K-12 achievement. U.S. News ranks Florida No. 3 overall in combined K-12 and higher education. The state’s fourth grade reading scores are among the nation’s highest.
Among the reasons for Florida’s improved standing were new school accountability standards imposed under former Gov. Jeb Bush. Love him or hate him, Bush took an intense interest in education and was determined that underperforming schools and school districts would no longer get a free pass at the expense of students.
Even Bush, however, eventually conceded that the testing obsession had gotten out of control.
DeSantis’ proposal was woefully short on detail, so it’s still unclear what, precisely, the new testing regime would look like, and how the periodic tests during the school year would be used to grade schools, promote students and evaluate teachers.
If those tests still carry so many consequences, it seems that instead of having one test per year that everyone stresses over, DeSantis’ reforms might just create big-test stress three times per year. We’re not sure how that would count as much of an improvement.
Naturally, no DeSantis announcement would be complete without evoking a boogeyman. This time, it was the governor saying his proposed reform would “eradicate Common Core from our assessments...”
How strange. DeSantis and Corcoran claimed in a February 2020 news release to have “officially eliminated” Common Core — the uniform standards adopted voluntarily by states — and replaced it with new standards. But hey, why not slay that dragon one last time?
Political opportunism aside, we were glad to see the governor momentarily move on from fighting culture wars to addressing a real policy issue that has real implications for Floridians.
Florida’s high-stakes testing has needed an overhaul for a number of years, but until now no one’s been willing to take the lead. This is an opportunity to get it right.
Editorials are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board and are written by one of our members or a designee. The editorial board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio, Jay Reddick and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Send emails to insight@orlando sentinel.com.