As Florida’s Education Commissioner Pam Stewart recommended scoring guidelines for the Florida Standards Assessment tests, scores of parents and students, along with the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, the Florida Education Association, and the Florida PTA, have joined forces to voice outrage and opposition to FSA and the outlined scoring guidelines.

These assessments, given to Florida students for the first time this spring, are aligned to the Florida Standards, adopted in 2014 to replace Common Core Standards, but still bearing a strong resemblance to Common Core. The exams were marred with technical problems and software glitches, upsetting teachers, students and school superintendents across the State. So upset was the FADSS, they called for the State to suspend the accountability system for one year, and a full review. Their statement read in part, “In this high stakes environment students, teachers and schools should not be impacted by a rushed and flawed administration of new, untried assessments”. They also declared, “We have witnessed the erosion of public support for an accountability system that was once a model for the nation”. They themselves admitted a loss of confidence in the accountability system. Accusations coming from all these groups indicate that the FSA, and FCAT before, were not so much about students and education, but these “high stakes tests” were tangled up in politics and for a variety of high-stakes purposes.

Many parents are frustrated because they see the FSA as nothing more than the implementation of Common Core Standards, which many abhor. They also talk about how this test, developed for Utah students, was never validated for use in Florida before being given to Florida children. They see the stress levels and stakes of these tests at an all-time high, while morale declines, and teachers “teaching to the test”.

The Florida Education Association, representing Florida teachers, had this to say, “Let’s be honest, the collapse of the testing system this spring proved that Florida’s accountability system is a house of cards”. In a column written for The Apopka Chief, Orange County School Board Member Christine Moore stated, “It is a cruel thing to increase standards, change testing platforms, raise ‘cut scores’ for students, teachers and schools to get passing grades and then tell folks the schools are failing. To me, the State Board of Education is the failure, not our children”.

While releasing these guidelines, Commissioner Stewart had this to say, “These recommendations are in line with the performance we should expect from our state’s students at each grade level of each subject in order to prepare today’s students for future success”. The State Board of Education will meet in January to take action on the cut score recommendations.