Leon County joined several other Florida school districts cracking down on excessive standardized testing, deciding to eliminate end-of-course assessments for many of its 30,000 students.
According to a press release from LCS, Superintendent Jackie Pons was making the announcement at a school board meeting on Tuesday.
"We need to take a time out on testing," said Superintendent Pons. "Our district has fought hard to end overtesting of students and to make sure we focus on what matters most -- classroom instruction. This announcement ensures that we are doing what's best for our teachers and students."
The eliminated end-of-course exams would apply to all students grades K-8 and some high school courses like social studies and mathematics.
Leon Countys decision to get rid of end-of-course assessments comes just days after the Miami-Dade School District made a similar announcement to slash nearly 300 end-of-course assessments for its elementary school students.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the district needed to respect the educational environment and restore teaching time for Miami-Dade students.
Pasco, Orange and Seminole school districts have also eliminated EOC tests.
Just a few weeks ago, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill to reduce high-stakes standardized testing across Florida. The new law gets rid of the 11th-grade English-language arts standardized test and also gives school districts the freedom to make their own decisions on how much testing they want their students to participate in.
Standardized testing has been a hot issue in Florida for nearly two decades as the state has clung to a testing-based accountability system which gives out grades to schools based on their performance on a statewide test.
Academically, Florida made leaps and bounds and climbed in the ranks of national academic achievement under the new accountability system.
But as the years went on, parents, teachers, students and members of the public grew weary of a system oversaturated with tests. They believed there was too much unnecessary testing.
Teachers in particular were affected by test results since half of their annual evaluation came from test results. Under Floridas newest education law, test results will only count for one-third of teacher evaluations.
Even state lawmakers have begun to question the necessity of so many tests to measure academic achievement.
Former Senate president Tom Lee, R-Brandon, spoke fervently against an excess of testing in Florida and criticized the states accountability system when the Senate debated the issue on the floor.
Theres too much damn testing going on in this state, he told his fellow senators earlier this month.
The Florida Department of Education has said it doesnt have any intention of issuing a sweeping elimination of end-of-course exams for districts statewide. That decision, said FDOE Communications Director Meghan Collins, belongs to individual school districts themselves.
"All districts have the flexibility to test their students on the Florida Standards that aren't measured by statewide assessments in a way that best meets the needs of their students," she told Sunshine State News. Flexibility within testing is critical.
