Florida Board of Education must give parents honest assessments

One of the most important decisions that will affect whether

Florida students are prepared for successful futures will take place this summer — and most parents probably aren’t aware it’s even happening.

In the coming months, the Florida State Board of Education will set passing scores for the annual statewide assessment that measures student achievement of new academic standards. And as they do so, parents need to ask two important questions:

Are those passing scores going to provide an honest picture of how their children are doing in reading and math?

Will they ensure that parents and teachers have the information they need to know whether their students are as prepared as students in other states?

Those big questions should be on every parent’s mind. The answers will determine whether Florida students enter the world ready to compete with their peers for top jobs or whether they realize too late that they were promoted without the basic academic skills they need to succeed.

Every state draws a line — a passing score — on their annual assessments to determine if a student is on grade level or proficient in the subject. And because academic assessments and standards vary from state to state, so does this proficiency “cut score.”

But there’s one way to determine how Florida is stacking up against other states when it comes to setting academic expectations and passing scores. We can look at the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), considered the gold standard for measuring student proficiency. The difference between NAEP and an individual state’s proficiency expectation is sometimes referred to as a “proficiency” or “honesty gap.”

When I was governor of Illinois, we raised our state proficiency cut scores to reduce that proficiency gap and improve transparency so parents would have an honest view of how their child was performing.

We need to do the same here in Florida. If we don’t, state officials will be doing families an incredible disservice.

Right now, students in Florida public schools are receiving passing grades on state assessments in language arts and math under the false assumption that this means they are proficient in these foundational subjects. That’s happening because the passing scores are set too low.

In 2022, for example, 57% of Florida eighth-graders were scored grade level on the state math test, but just 23% of them were proficient on the NAEP. That’s a 34-point gap in proficiency — tens of thousands of students not measuring up to the national standard — that has real consequences in the classroom.

Instead of parents and educators being able to identify struggling learners and intervene early with additional academic support, we run the risk of sending them to college or into the workforce to make a living unprepared or underprepared.

Thankfully, Florida now has an opportunity to set honest passing scores for the state assessment, reestablish rigorous expectations for its students and raise the bar in education. If Florida’s accountability system has taught us anything, it’s that when we raise expectations for our students, they rise up to meet them.

Requiring more of our students is always going to be harder than requiring less, and there may be those who’d prefer to look the other way when it comes to our proficiency gap. But that’s not in the best interest of students.

New passing scores aligned to NAEP proficiency will tell an honest story. They will ensure students demonstrate a thorough understanding of grade-level content and are ready for college-level coursework, employment and future success.

So, if we’re brave — as Florida leaders have proven to be when it comes to K-12 learning — we won’t opt to hide behind low passing scores. We’ll seize this moment to demonstrate our strong commitment to high expectations and an education system where every child masters the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in today’s classrooms and workforce.