Florida Standards Listening Tour Coming to a Location (somewhat) Near You

The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) wants to know what you think about the state’s new draft of public education standards. Beginning Monday, October 7th in Highlands County, representatives from the FLDOE will travel to 9 separate locations where the public will have the opportunity to offer input regarding the proposed new standard. All meetings will be held at 5:30-6:30 pm. That’s right, the public will have exactly one hour at each location. Let’s make every minute count.

The “Florida Standards Listening tour” will stop at the following locations:

• October 7 – Highlands County, Sebring Middle School
• October 8 – Seminole County, Winter Springs High School
• October 10 – Alachua County, Alachua County School District Office
• October 14 – Palm Beach County, John I. Leonard High School
• October 16 – Collier County, Collier County School District Office
• October 17 – Hillsborough County, Jefferson High School
• October 21 – St. Johns County, Liberty Pines Academy
• October 22 – Hamilton County, Hamilton County High School
• October 23 – Walton County, Walton High School

How were these locations chosen? Of note, there will be no “listening” in Miami-Dade, the state’s largest district. Stakeholders from Miami or south will need to drive 4-5 hours+ in rush hour traffic to participate in person. If the closest location is hours away from you, the FLDOE says you can still submit your feedback on each of the second draft standards individually at www.floridastandardsreview.org or by email at standardsreview@fldoe.org. Please let them know your concerns. At a minimum, Miami-Dade residents should be calling for an additional stop on the “Listening Tour.”

In January 2019, Governor DeSantis issued Executive Order 19-32 calling on Commissioner of Education, Richard Corcoran, to comprehensively review the academic standards for Florida’s K-12 students and provide recommended revisions to the Governor by January 1, 2020. The Governor called for the elimination of Common Core (Florida Standards) and a return to “the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.” The EO asked for recommendations for increasing the quality of instructional curriculum and streamlining testing. The Governor, also, asked for “a roadmap to make Florida’s standards number one in the nation” and called for “a pathway for Florida to be the most literate state in the nation.”

All in less than a year’s time? How long does it take to re-write education standards? Who has been involved in the process? Who will be making the final decisions on these standards? There must be transparency in the process.

To date, it appears the FLDOE intends to provide transparency to the process by crowdsourcing the standards. Stakeholders have been asked to provide feedback on each existing standard individually at www.floridastandardsreview.org. The department has partnered with EdCredible, a Texas technology corporation, to collect and instantly analyze widespread public opinion on the individual education standards. Their most recent report can be seen here. EdCredible describes itself as “the “big data” platform that empowers educators, vendors and other key stakeholders to make better decisions and reduce overall cost.”  This is believed to be the first time that any state has crowdsourced standards development. What could go wrong? Should education standards be developed by popular demand? What if the majority elects to keep the Common Core? Who will make the final decisions?

Parents and educators are well aware that Governor Scott’s previous “elimination of Common Core” was simply a charade. There must be real transparency in the current process if Governor DeSantis is going to convince a large number of skeptical stakeholders that he REALLY intends to eliminate Common Core from Florida’s K-12 Standards this time.

When DeSantis issued his Executive Order in January 2019, we warned him:

Common Core State Standards do not mandate “teaching to the test;” however, many of Florida’s own education policies incentivize it. When everything from teacher employment to promotion to 4th grade are tied to state test scores in Math and Reading, the system will do what it can to improve those scores, in those subjects, almost to the exclusion of everything else.

As we have been writing since Day One, unless Florida detaches the high stakes attached to the state mandated standardized tests, a change of test or standards will not put an end to “teaching to the test.”

We must remind everyone that without a review of the high stakes attached to state tests, another standards change may result in little more than disruption. Any standards change is going to be stressful and disruptive to our students and their classrooms.

Completely overhauling all of Florida’s K-12 standards in less than a year is reminiscent of a popular saying among service providers: there are three kinds of service: good, fast and cheap; but you can only pick two at a time. If you want a result that is good and cheap, it won’t be fast. If you want it good and fast, the result won’t be cheap. And, if you want it fast and cheap, it won’t be good. We all want the resulting standards to be good.

For parents of elementary students, who are tired of “Common Core Math” already: we are NOT suggesting continuing with the same standards and testing regimen but, as parents whose children’s education has already been disrupted once (or twice) by new standards adoptions, we are pleading with the FLDOE to convince us they are spending the necessary resources to do it right this time.

The first question that everyone should ask is: Why not go back to Florida’s pre-common Core Sunshine State Standards? The only reason Florida ditched the old standards and adopted Common Core was because of political pressure and incentives to qualify for Obama’s Race To The Top funding. There is nothing stopping Florida from returning to its pre-Common Core standards, at least as a baseline. Has this been considered?

If Sunshine State Standards aren’t good enough, why not adopt existing  high quality, respected pre-Common Core Standards from other states, like Massachusetts of California? Are we unnecessarily re-inventing the wheel?

If the FLDOE is considering adopting pre-Common Core standards, again, they should be more transparent in their efforts.

The elephant in the room, of course, is the testing. Florida’s current FSA is Florida Standards/Common Core aligned. So are the ACT and the SAT. Florida’s A-F Accountability system relies on standards-aligned test scores to grade its schools. What is the plan for new assessment development? Will the new standards and assessments be piloted? What will the impact be on the accountability system during the transition? What will be the cost of new assessments and curriculum?

These are all questions that stakeholders should be asking. The FLDOE says it will be listening October 7th- 23rd, at a school (somewhat) near you. Make sure your concerns are heard.

Find more information on the Standards Review Process: http://www.fldoe.org/standardsreview/

Links to the standards and suggested areas of concern can be found here:

Speak Up: FL Standards Listening Tour