{"id":23150,"date":"2015-01-12T02:00:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T07:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=23150"},"modified":"2015-01-11T22:24:47","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T03:24:47","slug":"fewer-and-better-how-lawmakers-want-to-change-state-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2015\/01\/12\/fewer-and-better-how-lawmakers-want-to-change-state-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"Fewer And Better: How Lawmakers Want To Change State Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Students<\/a>

Extra Ketchup\/flickr<\/p>

Most students will take the Florida Standards Assessments online.<\/p><\/div>\n

When lawmakers return to Tallahassee in March for the annual legislative session, they have a lot of questions they need to answer about public school testing.<\/p>\n

Senators laid out their concerns about the state testing system last week at a series of meetings.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t know how many tests the state requires, or how long it takes to complete those exams.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t know how much the state and school districts spend on testing.<\/p>\n

And they\u2019re not convinced they can depend on all the results of those exams.<\/p>\n

Sen. David Simmons \u2013 and his colleagues — wants to change that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got the chance here this spring to do a re-write of this so that we can, in fact, assure that we\u2019re not over-testing our children,” Simmons said.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

Rome wasn\u2019t built in a day, and neither was Florida\u2019s system for judging school performance — like another European capital, at least according to Simmons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe our testing has sort of been like Paris, ” the Orlando-area Republican said, “built up over a period time and it\u2019s just a jumbled group of roads that our school districts are now trying to navigate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida was a pioneer in using state test results to give out grades to public schools.<\/p>\n

The test scores are also used to hold back third graders and evaluate how well teachers are doing their job.<\/p>\n

\"Republican<\/a>

Florida State Senate<\/p>

Republican state Sen. David Simmons.<\/p><\/div>\n

But opposition to these tests has spiked as lawmakers tacked on more uses for the scores.<\/p>\n

Across the state, school boards, parents and other critics have offered both symbolic and substantive protests against the sheer number of tests — and how the results are used.<\/p>\n

Simmons and other senators say they support \u201caccountability\u201d \u2013 keeping track of student, school and teacher performance.<\/p>\n

Accountability also means the consequences that come with low state test scores, like teachers and principals losing their jobs, closing schools or letting students choose a new school.<\/p>\n

Right now, lawmakers aren\u2019t talking about changing how the test results are used.<\/p>\n

But lawmakers are concerned about the spreading patchwork of tests required by state law.<\/p>\n

Republican Sen. John Legg is chairman of the Senate education committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that fewer tests are better and if we have fewer, better tests, that may be a good direction to go,” said Legg, R-Trinity.<\/p>\n

The state requires students to take annual math, reading and writing exams, known as the Florida Standards Assessment. On the top of that, school districts also have to give end-of-course assessments, which could be a test, a project or another way to measure how much a student has learned.<\/p>\n

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