At least for the Senate, it is becoming clearer that Florida families are fed up with standardized student tests and the enormous weight they carry on student advancement, teacher evaluation and school letter grades. As Republican Sen. Tom Lee of Brandon said last week, “There is too much damn testing going on in this state. . . . We have lost the public relations war in our communities over testing.”
Yet lawmakers still need to develop a more vigorous response. The Senate is headed in the right direction, passing legislation (HB 7069) that at least would prevent this year’s Florida Standards Assessments from being used for school letter grades and teacher evaluations until there is an independent review. The Legislature should go further and immediately suspend any consequences at least from this year’s exams, which were developed in Utah and were not field-tested in Florida. Yet House Republicans are dragging their feet, unwilling to acknowledge that an accountability system that is so flawed and considered so suspect by families and educators is doomed to collapse. A few more tweaks won’t fix the problem.