Florida Eliminates Standard Assessments. Teachers Don’t See Much Difference 

Now the state will have a “progress monitoring” system in which students will be given smaller tests, likely in the fall, winter, and spring.

This spring will be the last public-school students will take Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) Tests, after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law on Tuesday to end them.

With the new law, Florida became the first state in the nation to switch from year-end assessments to a “progress monitoring” system in which students will be given smaller tests, likely in the fall, winter, and spring.

The goal is to give the parents the results of those tests quicker than the FSA, allowing them to track their child’s performance as the school year progresses.

DeSantis said this bill will minimize the stress of testing by moving to shorter tests throughout the year, instead of one test at the end.

But, the Florida Education Association, the largest state’s teachers’ union, says the new law will likely increase the standardized testing load that teachers and students already have, and that “fails to meet expectations.”
“This bill does not reduce testing but increases it. The bill does not focus on student learning or on providing teachers time to monitor and assess children’s progress. In fact, it probably will add more work for already overwhelmed teachers. Most basically, the bill fails students,” said Andrew Spar, president of the Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union.