Critics of the Florida Standards Assessment came out in full force to voice their distaste for the statewide education standards at the State Board of Education meeting Wednesday in Orlando.
Opponents of the standardized test, which was administered for the first time earlier this year, had strong words for the seven-member board, whose meeting agenda included a lengthy discussion on how exactly the state would dole out scores for the FSA.
Ultimately, the state board said Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart would have to give the board more data to develop “cut scores,” which determine how a school is graded each year. Stewart’s recommendations are slightly more rigorous than past cut scores -- under her guidelines, nearly half of Florida’s 10th graders would fail the English Language Arts section of the FSA.
The commissioner’s passing score breakdown shows whether or not a student scored high enough to be considered “passing” a particular section of the FSA. Scores are ranked on a 1-5 scale and a passing score is usually any score above a Level 3.
According to Stewart’s recommended “cut scores,” a little over half of Florida’s third graders passed the English Language Arts portion of the FSA.
Before state board members discussed the future of the state’s cut scores, they heard from many disgruntled members of the public, most of whom traveled to Wednesday’s meeting to demand change when it comes to the state’s education system.
Teachers and parents descended upon the meeting, recalling encounters where their students and children were upset and in tears because they had been forced to take the FSA.
Teachers said the standardized tests were inhibiting their ability to teach, since they were mostly creating lesson plans and teaching students so they’d be able to pass the test.
Wendy Bradshaw, a former Polk County teacher who resigned last week, said she was frustrated that public schools no longer promoted a “love of learning,” instead opting to reinvent the wheel and take a different path of
“Professional educators have been leaving the [education] field at an alarming rate because of these misguided reforms, and that is a problem for you [board members] because your edicts are not what results in student success,” she said. “Teachers, parents and students working together is what results in student success.”
Bradshaw told board members the reason why there was a teacher shortage is because people are “waking up” and realizing the high-stakes testing system is not fair to students.
Similar concerns have led many to join an “opt out” movement which, if successful, would allow parents to withdraw their students from taking the standardized test. Opting out has gathered significant support
One opt-out parent said Florida was witnessing a “new Jim Crow era” due to high-stakes standardized testing.
“We are the new abolitionists,” she said of her fellow opt-out supporters.
In the end, state board members said they wanted to make cut scores more competitive with assessments like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test, whose results were coincidentally released Wednesday morning, the same day of the state board meeting.
Those cut scores are even higher than Stewart’s original recommendations, which means even more of Florida’s students could end up failing the FSA.
The state board will meet in January for a final vote on the cut scores.
