Okay before you continue reading, make sure you have swallowed all your milk.
Florida's tests are only going to count if they are valid. This is because of tons of problems that resulted from rushing head long into something the state wasn't prepared for. Florida has received one bid to see if the test are valid, and the company will do it for a cool half million dollars, and yes that is a problem too, but I will address it later.
According to the Tampa Times: The group would submit its project plan by June 19, preliminary reports by July 31 and final report by Aug. 28.
August 28th by the way is after every school district in the state is back to school.
That might be all well in good but third graders have to make plans because the state of Florida plans to fail a fifth of them no matter what.
Also from the Tampa Times: ...it gives schools the responsibility to prove that children scoring in the lowest 20 percent ("bottom quintile") on the state reading test deserve promotion according to existing law. That law sets forth seven acceptable good cause exemptions for promotion, such as a portfolio demonstrating the student's abilities.
"If they can't prove promotion, they won't be promoted," bill sponsor Sen. John Legg explained.
Florida's tests are only going to count if they are valid. This is because of tons of problems that resulted from rushing head long into something the state wasn't prepared for. Florida has received one bid to see if the test are valid, and the company will do it for a cool half million dollars, and yes that is a problem too, but I will address it later.
According to the Tampa Times: The group would submit its project plan by June 19, preliminary reports by July 31 and final report by Aug. 28.
August 28th by the way is after every school district in the state is back to school.
That might be all well in good but third graders have to make plans because the state of Florida plans to fail a fifth of them no matter what.
Also from the Tampa Times: ...it gives schools the responsibility to prove that children scoring in the lowest 20 percent ("bottom quintile") on the state reading test deserve promotion according to existing law. That law sets forth seven acceptable good cause exemptions for promotion, such as a portfolio demonstrating the student's abilities.
"If they can't prove promotion, they won't be promoted," bill sponsor Sen. John Legg explained.
But this brings us back to the problem, families have to start making plans and the results of the validity study won't be back until late August and hey what if they say the test wasn't valid?
According to a letter sent to the parents of third graders where he asks families to put their lives on hold, Superintendent Vitti of Jacksonville said the state will let the district know sometime in June what third graders will be retained, and yes that is some two months before the company offering to validate the tests say they will be done,
Aren't you glad you finished your milk?
So let me sum up, the tests will only count if they are valid, we won't know if they are valid for months, but that's not going to stop the state from telling districts which fifth of kids to fail in the next couple weeks, apparently whether the tests are valid or not and for all of this we are paying a half million dollars. At this point I don't know whether to be more confused or outraged.
Commissioner Pam Stewart because of her insistence that everything was fine and districts were ready has created this convoluted mess and she received a good evaluation from the state board for it too.
Ugh!
More students will leave for the charter and voucher schools where these rules don't apply so maybe all this mess is part of the privatization plan.
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