Escambia Suspends Computer Based Testing Another Day; Statewide Fallout Continues

March 4, 2015

The fallout continued Tuesday from the troubled rollout of the state’s online school-testing platform, with a pair of Senate Democrats asking Gov. Rick Scott to suspend the exams as the House released a first draft of its plan to deal with politically combustible testing issues.

For a second day, some school districts reportedly suspended at least some testing after technology problems roiled the first outing of the Florida Standards Assessment, a test meant to measure how well students are learning the state’s new education benchmarks.

The problems prompted Escambia School Superintendent Malcolm Thomas to suspend testing again Wednesday for all middle and high schools ,with hopes that computer-based testing can resume Thursday.

The exams were being closely watched as lawmakers grapple with how to overhaul a school accountability system that some educators and parents argue has become too overbearing.

In an update to districts that Education Commissioner Pam Stewart sent out Tuesday evening, she said that more than 150,000 eighth-, ninth- and 10th-grade students had been able to take the Florida Standards Assessment writing test — about a quarter of the students registered for that exam.

Stewart said American Institutes for Research, a non-profit group that signed a six-year, $220 million deal to design the tests, had already managed to make some fixes and boost performance.

“I assure you we are working with AIR around the clock to resolve reported technical difficulties,” Stewart wrote. “AIR has taken full responsibility for the issues and has dedicated all available resources to fixing the problem.”

The Department of Education has pointed out that students have up to two weeks, plus time for makeup tests, to take the 90-minute exam.

In a letter to Scott on Tuesday, Sens. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, and Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, blasted Monday’s troubles as “nothing less than a disaster for school districts and students across the state.”

“We are calling on you to immediately suspend the administration of these tests and allow time for educators to work out the problems, instead of using our children as guinea pigs for a flawed system,” the two senators wrote.

Scott has already halted a language arts test supposed to be taken by high school juniors, though that was to give lawmakers time to eliminate that exam entirely during the legislative session that began Tuesday.

House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said after the House and Senate adjourned Tuesday that he was unaware of the letter from the two senators. Crisafulli largely brushed off a question about whether he was upset with the rollout.
“We understand that there (were) a few bumps yesterday,” he said. “Anytime you roll out a new program, you’re going to have something like that.”

The speaker said he was waiting to hear more from Stewart about the problems.

But even Democrats who have been critical of this week’s problems were not united around the idea of stopping testing entirely. Sen. Bill Montford, a Tallahassee Democrat who doubles as chief executive officer of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, said he didn’t think a pause was necessary.

Montford has filed legislation (SB 774) that would suspend most of the state’s accountability system for two years to give officials time to assess how the exam is working.

“We need to go ahead and give the test, but let’s don’t use it for punitive purposes. Let’s don’t use it for diagnostic purposes,” Montford said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the House Education Committee unveiled a draft proposal to deal with parents’ and educators’ complaints that students are tested too much. Many of the bill’s provisions would track with recommendations Stewart made to curb over-testing.

The proposal would eliminate the 11th-grade test that Scott has suspended. It would also bar final exams in classes for which the state or a local school district has end-of-course tests, and make a college-readiness test given to some students optional.

The measure would reduce how much of a teacher’s evaluation is tied to student performance, from 50 percent to a third. And it would require the Department of Education to publish a testing calendar that districts can use, along with their own schedule, to inform parents about when students will be tested.

The House Education Committee is set to hear the bill on Thursday.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

Comments

2 Responses to “Escambia Suspends Computer Based Testing Another Day; Statewide Fallout Continues”

  1. Mike on March 5th, 2015 10:55 am

    $220 million…wow! I bet our state could find more productive ways of spending that money in our schools that would be WAY more beneficial to students.

  2. BT on March 4th, 2015 9:55 am

    My biggest problem in all of this is the quote by the chief executive officer of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents.

    “Let’s don’t use it.”

    I’m beginning to see why little Johnny is struggling with language arts .

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