Finding ways to fix the Florida Standards Assessment


  • November 18, 2015
  • /   Reggie Dogan
  • /   education

In September, school superintendents in Florida delivered a scathing message to education officials about the current accountability system for students and schools.

They said in part: "Florida district school superintendents have lost confidence in the current accountability system for the students of the State of Florida."

The Florida Association of District School Superintendents — of which Escambia’s Malcolm Thomas and Santa Rosa’s Tim Wyrosdick are included — called for a suspension of the statewide exams and a full review.

As the revolt over school tests intensified, many in Florida asked a simple question: What now?

Steve Luikart, chairman of the Pasco County School Board, has offered some fingood suggestions.

In a Washington Post education blog, “School board chief: How to fix the mess we’ve made in Florida’s public school,” Valerie Strauss presents Luikart’s plan of action to find solutions to the state’s exam dilemma.

“The current process for evaluating students, teachers, schools and districts in Florida is severely flawed at best; it lacks credibility and has very little, if any, validity,” Luikart wrote in his proposal. “Our goal is to help and assist student learning and to provide all of those things necessary for good positive learning to take place.”

As Luikart proposes, action must be taken now because students are being hurt by an education system focused on testing instead of critical thinking, as well as a model that is destined to adversely affect the graduation rate for high school students.

Since statewide testing begin in 1998, principals, teachers and parents have vociferously complained about the accountability system and the flawed results of the high-stakes exams.

Few gave notice and the tests became more conflicted and complex.

But eyes and ears opened when the Florida Association of District School Superintendents — representing the state’s 67 district leaders — voiced their concerns after a September meeting in Tampa with state Commissioner Pam Stewart.

“In this high stakes environment students, teachers, and schools should not be impacted by a rushed and flawed administration of new, untried assessments,” the superintendents’ statement said. “While direct negative consequences were avoided for students, the results of a flawed assessment will impact teacher evaluations and be used to judge the quality of schools.”

While the school remained united in support of   accountability, they warned the State Board of Education that teachers and students needed time to adapt.

Since 2008, the state had made more than three dozen changes in the school grading formula.

It raised passing scores for writing in 2012 and then abruptly lowered them after performances looked shaky — and it set up a "safety net" to prevent grades from falling as the board increased passing levels on all its tests.

The state already had concluded that FSA results were too shaky to use them in determining whether students should be held back or promoted. Administration of the test heavily relied on computers and was fraught with glitches.

If the test wasn’t reliable enough be used to evaluate students, there is no way the state should use the scores to evaluate teachers or hand out A-to-F school grades.

The superintendents said in their statement that, "We have witnessed the erosion of public support for an accountability system that was once a model for the nation." But Florida's system was a "model" only in the way it has been imitated in states across the country. It never has been the perfect model too many pretend.

Can anything be done to make a bad situation better before it gets worse?

Some people have proposed discontinuing the FSA for accountability measures and use national exams like the Iowa Test, the SAT and PSAT in different grades in its place.

Others asked for a pause and a realignment, which they said was necessary after years of multiple revisions that left even some past State Board members questioning the system's value.

District chiefs, school board leaders, parents and teachers are united in their opposition to the current state of Florida’s education accountability system.

What will it take for education leaders and lawmakers to finally listen and find ways to fix the mess in Florida’s public schools?

Our students and the quality of their future demand good answers and swift action.

 
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