Today, Governor Ron DeSantis was joined by Speaker Chris Sprowls, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, and legislative leaders to sign Senate Bill 1048, which officially replaces the Florida Standards Assessment with progress monitoring to measure students’ growth.
The legislation, sponsored by Senator Manny Diaz, Jr. and Representative Rene Plasencia, makes Florida the first state in the nation to transition fully to progress-monitoring for school accountability. Beginning in the 2022-2023 school year, Florida students will have three short check-ins instead of multi-day, end-of-year, high-stakes tests for English Language Arts and Mathematics.
Progress monitoring will benefit students, teachers, and parents by allowing for informed instruction in a timely manner, helping instruction to be tailored to each student’s individual needs.
“While much of the country has struggled to even open schools, Florida’s education leaders are continuing to push ahead and better help students, parents, and teachers to close achievement gaps,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “In three years, we have eliminated Common Core, invested approximately $2 billion to increase teacher pay, focused on literacy, and created civic standards that empower our students to become great citizens. By signing this bill, we are setting an example for the nation.”
“This great legislation addresses concerns we have heard from parents and teachers about the kinds of high-stakes testing we have in our schools,” said President Wilton Simpson. “Testing is an important accountability tool for schools, teachers, and students, but it doesn’t do much good to wait until the end of the year to find out a student has been having trouble. Transitioning to progress monitoring will provide more timely information about how students are doing throughout the school year so that any struggles can be addressed quickly.”
“Even while Florida is ranked third in the nation in student achievement, we refuse to stop there and simply maintain status quo because Florida kids and families deserve the best,” said Speaker Chris Sprowls. “This bill is about parents and kids — taking away the stress of a one-size-fits-all test, giving each student a chance to succeed as an individual, and empowering parents with the knowledge they need to help their kids reach their greatest potential.”
In accordance with Senate Bill 1048, this school year will be the last year for the FSA. Next year, Florida will become the first state in the nation to fully transition to progress monitoring-based school accountability.
The 2022-2023 school year will serve as the new baseline for school accountability, and school grades will resume the following year.
This change maintains the proven, successful components of Florida’s school accountability that has seen Florida’s students grow over the last two decades, with a focus on students’ readiness and growth, especially in closing achievement gaps but provides that information to students, parents, and teachers in a more timely and actionable manner.
Today’s announcement builds on a lengthy list of achievements in education that Florida has made since 2019:
- Florida has already risen to third in the nation for K-12 education according to Education Week. Florida eradicated Common Core and did so by elevating the quality and alignment of learning opportunities through creating Florida’s B.E.S.T. (Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking) Standards.
- Governor DeSantis, Commissioner Corcoran and the Legislature have continually secured the highest ever K-12 public school and per-pupil spending totals in Florida’s history.
- Marking the last few years as “The Year of the Teacher,” Governor DeSantis has elevated Florida as one of the top states in the nation in terms of starting teacher pay by securing approximately $2 billion in pay increases for teachers.
- With Commissioner Corcoran, Governor DeSantis provided a roadmap to make Florida’s standards number one in the nation, streamlined testing and massively invested in early learning, literacy and civics education like no other state in the nation.
- Florida was the first state in the nation to reopen schools in August 2020 and guarantee families had an in-person instructional option five days a week.
“Governor DeSantis’ leadership has been instrumental in many ways. This is just one of those many ways,” said Dr. Tonjua Williams, President, St. Petersburg College. “What he has done has been extremely focused on K-12, because he knew that our K-12 students are our future. If we are going to make Florida the number one workforce state, we have to build the workers, and to do that, they must finish high school and finish high school on-time and prepared for the work we have laid upon us.”
“January 31, 2019, via EO 19-32, Governor DeSantis gave me clear direction to eliminate Common Core, create the best standards in the nation, elevate the quality of our curriculum, streamline testing, make Florida #1 in civics education, identify pathways to become the most literate state in the nation and most importantly in all things reflect on how students, parents, and teachers interact,” said Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran. “As a father of six, I know education will reach its pinnacle when we inform and empower those conversations between students, parents, and teachers, and with this legislation we hit a home run. Hands down, we have the most pro-student, pro-parent, and pro-teacher governor in the nation.”
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