ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law on Tuesday that will end Florida Standards Assessments Testing.
The law will make Florida the first state in the nation to switch from year-end assessments to state standards-aligned progress monitoring.
Six months ago, DeSantis said he wanted to replace the FSA with progress monitoring, claiming that the FSA did not give students any feedback until the end of the year and he felt it was wrong.
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The governor said this bill will minimize the stress of testing by moving to shorter tests throughout the year, instead of one test at the end.
“Next year Florida will become the first state in the nation to do a full transition to progress monitoring to inform school accountability,” DeSantis said. “The 2022-2023 school year will serve as a new baseline for school accountability and school grades will resume the following year.”
Read: Gov. DeSantis eliminates FSA in all Florida public schools
The Florida Education Association, the largest teacher’s union in the state, wanted FSA to end, but it doesn’t seem to like what it was replaced with.
Instead of one test at the end of the year, there will be three tests throughout the year.
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The FEA said the issue is more testing, not less, and claim this bill not only affects students, but also teachers. “We can’t afford to lose any more teachers,” leaders said.
“There is a lot of concern from educators that the progress monitoring system is not actually going to eliminate the numbers of tests especially here in Orange County,” said State Representative Anna Eskami. “We are very concerned that the governor’s campaign promise is not actually translating into less testing, it’s just a different kind of test.”
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