News that the state will administer its usual series of standardized tests this spring and wants all students to sit for the exams even those who have avoided being on campus has left many parents puzzled, angry and worried. The testing is set to start Monday.
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St. Johns school board asks education commissioner to lift negative consequences for state tests
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ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – In a letter sent to Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, members of the St. Johns County School Board asked the state not to penalize the school district based on the results of the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) tests.
“We want to give the test because we want to understand where our children are performing. However, given the impacts of the pandemic, we don’t believe that it is in the best interest of children or teachers or schools to hold them accountable for the results,” said board member Beverly Slough during a Tuesday meeting. “We had, as we all know, quite a lot of COVID slide among our kids and it’s taken a while to reveal those skills and to move forward.”
School district encourages Duval County parents to return students to brick-and-mortar classes
Parent describes message from DCPS as ‘bullying’ and ‘a scare tactic’
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As the Florida Standards Assessments loom, Duval County Public Schools emailed families of 17,299 students who are enrolled in the district’s virtual learning platform Duval HomeRoom, encouraging those families to return their students to face-to-face instruction.
“Our Spring Reopening Plan requires that the district contact families of students who are failing to make adequate progress to notify them of their child’s academic status and to require them to return to face-to-face instruction,” the message said. “Your child, listed above, has been identified as being scheduled into at least one Duval Homeroom course and is not making adequate progress.”
The Commissioner of Education, earlier this month, extended the testing period for the Florida Standards Assessment by two weeks to ensure every student is tested safely.
According to the Department of Education Order No. 2021-EO-01 “All 67 county school districts, all state university laboratory schools and the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind opened for in-person instruction, so that nearly 65 percent of Florida’s public school students, approximately 1.85 million, are learning in person.”
The order went on to say that the “disproportionate numbers of educationally disadvantaged students learning off-campus, or not attending school at all, and achievement gaps potentially being exacerbated, the testing that is required by state and federal law is now more critical than ever, so that educators and parents can measure progress and determine what additional services and supports are needed to ensure that each student is given the services and supports they need to s