Legislators Propose Progress Monitoring For Florida Schools

Miami FL

09 March, 2022

2:01 PM

Description

A Miami Times Staff Report, the Miami Times Mar 8, 2022 With the Florida Legislative session slated to wrap up Friday, lawmakers are leaning in favor of a bill opposed by United Teachers of Dade. The proposed solution would eliminate Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) in public schools, swapping end-of-year state exams with a progress monitoring system that would require students to test at the beginning, middle and end of each school year. State senators unanimously passed SB 1048, sponsored by Hialeah Sen. Manny Diaz Jr., last Thursday, following the House Education & Employment Committee's approval of companion bill HB 1193, in a 13-5 vote. The bill awaits a vote on the House floor with some Democrats already voicing opposition. Supporters of the proposed bill, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, who first announced it last September, argue that the system would be the final step in the elimination of Common Core, measure learning progress in real time, provide a more strategic approach to testing and reduce testing time by 75%. "I think we're moving in the right direction," said Democrat Sen. Shevrin Jones during a Senate discussion of the bill weeks ago. "Those who are against this, I ask that you put yourself in the shoes of an educator who wants to see their child and the children in the classroom succeed." Jones, a former Broward County educator, acknowledged that the measure is not perfect, but said it's something people should be open to. Upon the bill becoming law, students in grades 3-10 would receive English language arts tests three times a year, while those in grades 3-8 would be tested on mathematics at the same frequency. To measure and track student learning, results for the first two tests, administered in the fall and winter, would be available within a week of testing to educators and in two weeks to parents. Teachers are expected to use those results to help struggling students in time for the last test in the spring, which would be used to determine individual school grades. Schools would be spared from accountability for the first testing year. The system could possibly go into effect as soon as July and be implemented for the 2022-2023 academic school year. A spokesperson for the Florida Education Association told Florida Politics that the group is not in support of the bill because it does not provide more learning time for students as parents and teachers have requested, saying it instead places more emphasis on tests than the learning process. United Teachers of Dade (UTD), Miami-Dade County's teachers' labor union, said the overwhelming response from its members and parents concerning the bill was negative. "It's nonsensical to us because it's not real data. It's not real progress monitoring," said Karla Hernández-Mats, UTD president and former special needs educator. "It's unfortunate that this is what [legislators] are making public education, a season of testing. While our children are already dealing with so many mental health issues because of the pandemic." Hernández-Mats explained that teachers are not opposed to testing or accountability, but simply desire a happy medium where testing will not pull away from instruction time or lead students to panic attacks and anxiety. Traditional progress monitoring, she said, would look like chapter tests, midterms or any exams teachers create themselves. "[Legislators] should be ashamed of themselves for doing this," said Hernández-Mats. "They have not listened to educators that are on the frontlines and have been telling them how to fix this (pandemic-caused learning loss/slide), how to modify it in such a way that is equitable and fair and something that is to the benefit of education, not to the detriment of it." She advises opposing parents to consider opting their children out of taking the new tests. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.