{"id":20443,"date":"2013-10-18T13:00:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-18T17:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=20443"},"modified":"2013-10-18T12:16:38","modified_gmt":"2013-10-18T16:16:38","slug":"florida-teachers-caught-in-the-middle-of-testing-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/10\/18\/florida-teachers-caught-in-the-middle-of-testing-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Teachers Caught In The Middle Of Testing Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nichole<\/a>

Sarah Carr \/ The Hechinger Report<\/p>

Nichole Dino and Alexandria Martin, both English teachers at Miami's Carol City Senior High School, say they like Common Core's emphasis on critical thinking. But they hope the new tests won't be biased against low-income students.<\/p><\/div>\n

Editor’s note: This post was authored by Sarah Carr and Sarah Butrymowicz for The Hechinger Report.<\/em><\/p>\n

MIAMI\u2014The pushback against the testing component of Common Core here has endangered political support for the controversial national curriculum standards in a linchpin state. But it also has left Florida\u2019s public school teachers in an uncomfortable limbo: Officials expect them to start teaching the new standards over the next year, yet educators remain unsure when, and how, their students will be tested on them.<\/p>\n

At issue is Florida\u2019s participation in a multi-state consortium, known as PARCC, working to develop online standardized tests to be aligned with the standards. Several states expect to start administering the PARCC in the winter of 2015. But in late September, Florida Gov. Rick Scott directed the state Education Board to withdraw from PARCC and instead select a new assessment through a competitive bidding process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the test were settled, people would see more of a sense of urgency,\u201d said Kathy Pham, a veteran Miami English teacher who now works full-time as a \u201cpeer reviewer\u201d (essentially a mentor) for Miami-Dade Schools. She supports much of the Common Core in theory, but worries teachers will have to scramble at the last minute to prepare students for a new, and largely unknown, test.<\/p>\n

Scott is not the first Florida politician to raise concerns about PARCC. In July, Florida state legislative leaders sent a letter to then-Commissioner of Education Tony Bennett requesting that the state exit the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) consortium and develop its own tests for Common Core. PARCC is one of two multi-state coalitions that won federal money in 2010 to develop tests aligned with new standards.<\/p>\n

In their letter to Bennett, Senate President Don Gaetz and House of Representatives Speaker Will Weatherford cited concerns about the cost, quality and amount of testing required under PARCC. \u201cWe cannot jeopardize fifteen years of education accountability reform by relying on PARCC to define a fundamental component of our accountability system,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

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