Senate, House Leaders Want Out Of School Testing Consortium

July 18, 2013

Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford said Wednesday they want to pull out of a multi-state educational consortium that has been developing new tests, saying they want a “Florida Plan.”

The legislative leaders sent a letter to Education Commissioner Tony Bennett that said they are “troubled by serious issues” connected to the consortium known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC. The consortium is developing tests that are part of the national move to Common Core Standards.

But Gaetz, R-Niceville, and Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, pointed to issues such as the PARCC assessments increasing the amount of testing time for students, while reducing instructional time.

“Florida has a rich history of student-centered education reform,” the letter to Bennett said. “Florida’s strong education policies have made us a model for the nation and have resulted in extraordinary gains in student achievement. Too many questions remain unanswered with PARCC regarding implementation, administration, technology readiness, timeliness and utility of results, security infrastructure, data collection and undetermined cost.”

Bennett issued a statement that said, in part, Gaetz and Weatherford “raise critical issues that deserve serious consideration as I make a decision in the coming days.”

Department spokeswoman Cheryl Etters said Bennett remains committed to carrying out Common Core during the 2014-15 school year, as scheduled.

Comments

One Response to “Senate, House Leaders Want Out Of School Testing Consortium”

  1. Dave S on July 18th, 2013 6:23 am

    Why would he want to mess with a good thing. We are ranked 6th in the nation in education. Maybe he knows someone who knows someone who develops testing…He needs to base his push on data…not because he thinks so.

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