A coalition of education groups opposed to the Common Core State Standards has unveiled its list of priorities for the upcoming legislative session in Tallahassee, putting a massive target on the back of the controversial state standards.
Common Ground, a working group of Florida education advocacy organizations, says it’s time for state lawmakers to put up or shut up and get onboard to end Common Core for good.
The coalition is planning a widespread legislative push come March, vowing to back legislation to get rid of the Common Core-aligned Florida Standards in both English and Math.
Florida adopted the Common Core standards in 2010, but it wasn’t long before education activists and parents alike began to voice concerns about federal overreach on state education systems.
In 2014, Florida gave Common Core a makeover, tweaking the standards slightly then rebranding them under a totally different name -- something opponents say has done nothing to fix the problem at the core.
One of the groups involved in the legislation, Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, says the time is now for Florida to start with a clean slate in education and revert back to pre-CCSS sets of standards.
“The Common Core, widely admitted to be rebranded as the Florida standards, have failed,” said FSCC Executive Director Karen Effrem. “Besides being academically inferior, developmentally inappropriate and psychologically manipulative, they have not improved education outcomes in Florida or the nation.”
Opponents of the standards are also pushing lawmakers to choose a different standardized testing company to administer Florida’s statewide assessment.
In 2015, Florida entered in a $220 million contract with American Institutes for Research to develop a test to replace the FCAT.
AIR was not without problems, however -- right out the gate, the Florida Standards Assessment was riddled with technical glitches which left many students unable to finish their test while others were unable to log in at all.
The Florida Department of Education later fined AIR $5 million for the testing malfunctions.
Effrem said it would be in Florida’s best interest not to renew the FSA contract with the company when it runs out this year, and instead urged state lawmakers and education officials to choose from pre-2009 and pre-Common Core assessments for state testing.
FSCC said it will also push to minimize data collection and time spent taking standardized tests. Two years ago, state lawmakers passed a resolution to limit testing time and to get rid of end-of-course assessments.
This year, Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, is sponsoring legislation to scrap some statewide tests and to push for pencil and paper exams.
“There’s a huge waste,” Simmons, who chairs the Senate Education Budget-Writing Panel, said. “What we do know, is you can do too much of a good thing. You can't just test until you have more information than you need, and you’ve wasted a significant amount of time administering those tests.”
Florida administered around 3.6 million tests last year. Most were taken online.
Further legislation to cull back on standardized testing is forthcoming. The legislative session begins in March.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
