{"id":19548,"date":"2013-07-17T15:01:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T19:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=19548"},"modified":"2013-07-17T15:07:16","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T19:07:16","slug":"house-and-senate-leaders-want-florida-out-of-parcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/07\/17\/house-and-senate-leaders-want-florida-out-of-parcc\/","title":{"rendered":"House And Senate Leaders Want Florida Out Of PARCC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_17589\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 298px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz have asked education commissioner Tony Bennett to withdraw from PARCC.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/03\/Will-Weatherford.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17589\" alt=\"Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz have asked education commissioner Tony Bennett to withdraw from PARCC.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/03\/Will-Weatherford.jpg\" width=\"298\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/03\/Will-Weatherford.jpg 298w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/03\/Will-Weatherford-60x60.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Meredith Geddings \/ myfloridahouse.gov<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz have asked education commissioner Tony Bennett to withdraw from PARCC.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Both leaders of Florida&#8217;s legislative chambers are asking Education Commissioner Tony Bennett to withdraw from a coalition of states developing a new standardized test.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Tampa Bay Times<\/em> is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/blogs\/gradebook\/gaetz-weatherford-want-out-of-parcc\/2131888\">reporting House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz<\/a>, both Republicans, have sent a letter to Bennett requesting the state withdraw from the <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/tag\/parcc\/\">Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Weatherford and Gaetz are concerned PARCC would <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/03\/06\/florida-students-will-spend-at-least-eight-hours-a-year-taking-new-standardized-test\/\">increase the time Florida school spend testing students<\/a>, that PARCC can&#8217;t say how long it will take to receive results, that many <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/06\/24\/a-q-a-with-senate-education-committee-chairman-john-legg\/\">school districts don&#8217;t have the bandwidth and computers<\/a> needed for the online test and that PARCC still has not said <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/07\/17\/explaining-what-floridas-next-standardized-test-should-cost\/\">how much the test will cost.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Consequently, it is our view that Florida should withdraw immediately from PARCC,&#8221; they wrote, &#8220;in favor of a Florida Plan for valid, reliable and timely testing of student performance, including assessments for the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Too many questions remain unanswered with PARCC regarding implementation, administration, technology readiness, timeliness and utility of results, security infrastructure, data collection and undetermined cost.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Florida is handling the money for the group of states designing the test and is a leader in PARCC&#8217;s development. The test is meant to measure how well students are learning <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/tag\/common-core\/\">new education standards known as Common Core<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Gaetz and Weatherford ask Bennett to consider <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/07\/15\/explaining-floridas-choices-for-its-next-standardized-test\/\">approved end-of-course exams, adopting another state&#8217;s template and exams from established companies like SAT and ACT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Gaetz and Weatherford also do not want to implement this Florida Plan until the 2015-2016 school year &#8212; a year later than PARCC was planned for first use.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett said in a statement he will think about their request.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to thank President Gaetz and Speaker Weatherford for sharing their concerns about PARCC and PARCC assessments,&#8221; Bennett wrote. &#8220;They are valued partners in our mission to help students and they raise critical issues that deserve serious consideration as I make a decision in the coming days. I want to thank them and all lawmakers as we implement Common Core State Standards and improve the future for Florida\u2019s students and our state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Both leaders of Florida&#8217;s legislative chambers are asking Education Commissioner Tony Bennett to withdraw from a coalition of states developing a new standardized test. The Tampa Bay Times is reporting House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz, both Republicans, have sent a letter to Bennett requesting the state withdraw from the Partnership for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[768,643,1050,1006,769],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19548"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19550,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19548\/revisions\/19550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}