Shouldn’t Florida know if its tests are VALID before they give them to kids?

Or make retention and pay decisions for teachers too? There are after all incredibly high stakes at play here.

An amendment picking up steam in the state senate says the results of the Florida State standards shouldn’t be counted for school grades until a third party certifies them valid.

Former senate president Don Geatz said, "We will rely upon this year's assessments if and only if they have been deemed valid and reliable."

Isn’t this like waiting till the horse is out if the gate to find out if it can run? It seems inexplicable that we have gotten to this point where kids are taking the tests and we don’t know if they are valid.

At least the senate is willing to take this up, while house Speaker Steve Crisafulli a Jeb Bush backer seems adamant that the tests count and that even a one year pause to make sure we get things right is too much to ask. This makes me wonder is he looking out for the interests of the states children and teachers or for Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign. Either way, why is it so hard for Tallahassee to insist we do things the right way? Could you imagine the state we would be in if teachers taught like legislators legislate?

There are problems in education but without a doubt the biggest is the often myopic and self-serving leadership that comes out of Tallahassee.