We Owe it to Our Students to be Honest With Them

There is no doubt Florida has been bold with its education policies over the last 15 years, and we can all agree Florida’s students have made tremendous strides in this same time period.  For this, we are all thankful and proud.

Now our state is facing a huge choice with respect to the way it measures and defines student subject-area proficiency.

If handled the wrong way, Florida will veer from its path of progress for all students.  And the time to speak up about this problem is now!

The issue is how to set “cut scores”, which are the scores Florida education officials establish to define student proficiency on state-administered tests.

Currently, there is a troubling disconnect between what Florida defines as proficient and what the Nation’s Report Card and dozens of other states define as proficient.

The State of Florida is saying more students are proficient than what is being reported on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), considered the gold standard.

As a vivid example:  recent comparisons of Florida’s 8^th grade reading scores and these same students’ national test scores showed that  56% of Florida’s 8^th graders scored proficient in reading on the state’s assessment, whereas only 33% of these same students tested proficient in reading upon completing the national assessment (NAEP). 

This gap of 23 percentage points is troubling; it is strong evidence that Florida has had too low a bar on setting of proficiency standards. 

If we don’t raise our proficiency expectations, many will see this as a continuance of widespread social promotion, where students move on from one grade to the next without mastering grade level material…only to find out later – taking remedial courses in college, being unprepared for workplace arithmetic, or not passing military entrance exams – that they were simply shuffled along throughout their public school years.

Entrenched special interests, bureaucrats, administrators, some politicians, and various other guardians of the system want to keep cut scores artificially low so the general public won’t get 

The "Sunshine Solution" to Florida's Standardized Testing Dysfunction

A webinar was held on August 17th 2015 among school board members from around the state. Present on the call were superintendents from several districts as well as state senators and representatives.   The issue--how do we address the disastrous state of the standardized testing boondoggle Florida has created?

A common-sense, one page letter was sent last month to Ed. Chancellor Pam Stewart describing a rational way to use currently available norm-referenced tests to measure student progress in Florida.  The response to this letter from the state did not address the questions put forth in the original letter, leaving many (including me) scratching our heads wondering about Stewart's terse, not-on-point response.

The issues discussed and the potential solution to Florida's problems were discussed, and a solution that makes sense is being forged right now via a collaborative effort among school board members, legislators, and the Florida Coalition of School Board Members.

The solution will address the wasted class time Florida currently enables through faulty, onerous dictates from DOE to districts.  Additionally, this solution will address the costs and slow turnaround time of our current process.

Using SAT, and the Iowa assessment, we can and should have electronic and paper and pencil options for districts to utilize to administer these well known tests.

Turnaround times from these well-established testing firms are between two days and two weeks (compared to the months long delays our current system has created.)

Everyone who is at all interested in solving this problem and advocating for a better way forward should watch this webinar as a jumping off point.  Then, join us as we craft a #Sunshinesolution collaboratively.

Watch the webinar here

The Seminole Solution

Dr. Walt Griffin, Superintendent of Seminole County Schools, has sent an intelligent, common-sense proposal to the Florida Department of Education.  His simple plan/solution to Florida's continuing standardized testing problems is documented in his letter below.

The letter with a very intelligent, common-sense solution, now being coined the "Seminole Solution" was answered within a week by Education Chancellor Pam Stewart, who politely nixes the plan saying the standardized tests Seminole County proposes in the Seminole Solution "do not measure the state specific Florida Standards."  

I think the response was weak, and I think the average Floridian just wants us to use common-sense, previously time-tested and trusted norm referenced tests. We need to be more efficient, more practical, and less parochial, in my opinion.  Otherwise, the "Opt-Out" groups will only continue to grow....and they will be right in wanting to opt out based upon Florida's horrific track-record on test-administration over the last few years!

Pam Stewart's response....

Statewide Test Glitches Add to Student, Teacher Anxieties

Testing statewide since Monday for the new Florida Standards Assessment has been a train-wreck.

Locally, many students logged on, began to complete the test, and then were booted off of the system.  Others could not even log-on to the system in the first place.  Sadly, many students that started the test and then were knocked off the system and then re-logged in--found to their dismay that all their previous work was gone.  Poof!

So anxiety levels among students have been rising, and for teachers and administrators, anxiety and frustration is turning to anger.  At one local high school alone, 28 Substitute teachers were brought in to help proctor the test that "didn't happen" due to a glitch in the testing platform.  Those substitutes, and all substitutes district-wide that were hired as proctors will still have to be paid, and they'll be paid again today as they come again to our schools and we "try again."  A unnecessary WASTE of taxpayer money due to deficient planning by the state.  What more can be said?

DOE BOTCHED this test roll-out, and they are costing local districts time, energy, and money.

More importantly, DOE are making the environment for students taking these tests that much more uncomfortable, and for this alone there is no compensation that can ameliorate this damage.

According to our Superintendent, Malcolm Thomas, we will again try to administer these tests today, Thursday March 5th.  Hopefully the platform will work this time and we can get this battery of tests put behind us.

Meanwhile, national media outlets are weighing in, with the Washington Post calling this "Florida's Testing Disaster"

..just what we needed, more negative press.