Florida is in the midst of testing season, and this year, pubic outcry regarding the amount of standardized testing for Florida students has garnered statewide headlines. In response to some complaints, Gov. Rick Scott (R) suspended 11th grade English Language Arts testing as it was deemed redundant to what students had already learned in 10th grade.
Other groups claim that, in general, Florida students are over-tested. Florida BTA, a teachers' organization, posted a claim online as to the actual amount of time that students spend taking tests. They said this:
Florida students take "an array of standardized high stakes tests which eat up as much as 45 school days per year."
Our partners at PolitiFact took a look at the teachers' association's claim. PolitiFact reporter Joshua Gillin says that their claim rates FALSE on the Truth-O-Meter. Gillin says that the group may be taking their cue from Mr. Spock in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" when, referring to the time needed to make repairs, he said (using a pre-arranged code) that hours could seem like days.
"The main thing that we have to remember here is that there are several different kinds of tests," said Gillin. "By that, I mean we could be talking about statewide assessment tests, district tests, and tests admininstered by individual schools. This means that there are different average times for testing, based on what kind of test the students are taking. However, the statistics we found show that students had the potential to go through around 44 hours of testing, which is a far cry from 45 days of testing."
Gillin stresses that testing durations are different from district to district, and because of individual district choice, there can be no single number of hours that apply uniformly to students across the state. Because the research shows that those testing hours are around the 45 hour mark per year and not 45 days, the Florida BTA claim rates FALSE on the Truth-O-Meter.
SOURCES: Florida students tested for 45 days per year?
- PolitiFact ruling
- Florida House, Senate Bill 616, Filed Feb. 2, 2015
- StateImpact Florida, "Proposed limit might not reduce testing time," Feb. 11, 2015
- Florida BTA, website, Accessed Feb. 17, 2015
- Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times, "Senator leaders propose fix for Florida’s testing troubles," Feb. 2, 2015
- Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times, "School testing changes sought," Jan. 8, 2015
- Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times, "A new challenge to Common Core -- from the left," Aug. 25, 2013
- Florida Today, "Too many tests? Some parents, teachers say yes," SEpt. 2014
- Miami Herald, "What do some students do during FCAT testing? Watch movies and play board games," May 4, 2014
- Interview, Gisela Feild, administrative director of assessment, research and data analysis for Miami-Dade schools, Feb. 13, 2015
- Interview, Sen. John Legg, R-Trinity, Feb. 13, 2015
- Interview, Thomas James, Miami-Dade history teacher and spokesman for the Florida Badass Teachers Association, Feb. 12, 2015
- Interview, Mark Pudlow, Florida Education Association spokesman, Feb. 16, 2015
- Interview, Ruth Haseman Melton, director of government relations Florida School Boards Association, Feb. 16, 2015
- Interview, Linda E. Cobbe, spokeswoman Pasco County schools, Feb. 16, 2015
- Interview, John Schuster, spokesman Miami-Dade school district, Feb. 13, 2015
- Interview, Stephen Hegarty, spokesman Hillsborough school district, Feb. 16, 2015
- Interview, Nadine Drew, spokeswoman Broward school district, Feb. 17, 2015