MARY ESTHER, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday highlighted CS/SB 1048, legislation replacing Florida Standards Assessment testing with “progress monitoring,” at an elementary school in Okaloosa County.
The bill, titled “Student Assessments,” will take effect July 1 and provides that end-of-year FSA testing is removed in favor of progress-monitoring tests for English-language arts (grades 3-8) and math (grades 3-10) at the beginning, middle and end of a school year. The governor prefaced the bill-signing Thursday by referring to a roundtable he attended in Okaloosa County in September 2021, where he discussed Florida’s transition away from FSA testing.
Recommended Videos
“We’re also excited to be here, back in Okaloosa County. The bill we’ll sign today, we came here saying we needed to do this change and so we’re coming full circle,” DeSantis said.
[TRENDING: New Smyrna Beach issues curfew to address ‘spring break invasion’ | 2 accused of trying to steal fuel at Central Florida gas station | Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]
DeSantis said “this year will be the last year of the FSA in Florida,” yet a full transition to progress monitoring may not be completed until 2023 or later.
“Students will take it (FSA) at the end of this school year, then we’re going to transition into the progress monitoring, the legislature fully funded that transition, and so next year will be kind of where we reset so you’ll kind of get a baseline, and then you’ll have the grades commence in the following year,” DeSantis said. “So you know, we’re looking at a couple years now for a transition, but I really think this is going to be something that’s going to be really, really exciting.”
An important aspect of the legislation comes in its purported effectiveness in helping parents better follow their child’s progress as a way to get them on track before the end of a school year, according to DeSantis.
“There’s not much you can do if you get the results after the school year ends and you’re over on summer vacation. But if you get results in the fall two weeks after an assessment, then you can go in, talk to the teacher, talk to your kid and help,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis did sign a bill at the news conference, but it was the same legislation he signed in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, and Thursday’s event was meant to only “highlight” it, according to a news release on the governor’s website.
Read CB/SB 1048 by clicking here.