Senator Diaz Files Student Assessment Bill: SB1048

On September 14, 2021, Governor Ron DeSantis held a press conference in which he announced a legislative proposal that “will eliminate the common-core based, end-of-year, high-stakes Florida Statewide Assessment and create the new Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (F.A.S.T) plan, which will monitor student progress and foster individual growth. By creating the F.A.S.T. Plan, Florida will become the first state in the nation to fully implement progress monitoring instead of end-of-year standardized testing, and fully eliminate common core.”

In a press release DeSantis claimed:

“With this transition to statewide progress monitoring for school accountability, Florida will restore the ability for parents and teachers to have impactful conversations about students’ growth and inform parents’ ability to help their children grow by:

• Becoming the 1st State in the Nation to switch from end of the year assessments to state standards-aligned progress monitoring for accountability;
• Minimizing the stress of testing to three much shorter tests in the Fall, Winter and Spring that will inform students, teachers and parents about students’ growth, rather than a single lengthy end-of-year assessment that halts learning and leaves zero opportunity for improvement; and
• Reducing testing time an average of 75% through progress monitoring, increasing time for teaching and providing more timely, usable feedback to help students reach their unique goals.”

Almost immediately, Commissioner Richard Corcoran “reassured” Floridians that that the high stakes accountability measures, like school grades, teacher evaluations, “turnaround,” third grade retention, etc., would remain even if the testing regimen changed. As regular readers know, from day one this blog has insisted that “The primary problem with high stakes, standardized tests is the “high stakes”, not that the test is standardized. The right tests, when used appropriately, can be used to inform instruction. Currently, in Florida, these tests are being used for almost everything but informing instruction (retention, graduation, remediation, merit pay, school grade, etc).” Since the Governor’s announcement, we have been waiting because, as always, the devil is in the details.

On 11/24/2021 (the day before Thanksgiving), State Senator Manny Diaz Jr filed Senate Bill 1048, entitled “Student Assessments.” This bill appears to contain the devilish details. Currently, the bill has no House companion.

Here are the main components of the bill, as I read it:

Changes to testing in VPK-grade 2:

SB1048 amends 1008.2125: Coordinated screening and progress monitoring program for students in the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education. This was a major component of last year’s VPK bill, HB419. HB419 required “coordinated screening and progress monitoring program” for students in the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education from VPK-3rd grade.

• SB1048 reduces that to VPK-2nd grade. (In 3rd grade the new state progress monitoring tests will take over for these students.)
• SB1048 allows the use of results from the new grade 3 process monitoring tool (created later in 1048) as a performance metric for the VPK program.
• SB1048 requires that the coordinated VPK-2nd testing (like the new state testing system) be “a valid, reliable, and developmentally appropriate computer-based direct instrument that provides screening and diagnostic capabilities for monitoring student progress.” 

Changes to English Language Arts (ELA) assessments:

SB1048 amends 1008.22 Student assessment program for public schools. Beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, the statewide, standardized comprehensive assessments and coordinated screening and progress monitoring system must include the following:

• Statewide, standardized English Language Arts (ELA) assessments with screening and progress monitoring administered to students in grades 3 through 10 three times a year.
• The ELA assessments will include two progress monitoring assessments, administered at the beginning of the school year and the middle of the school year.
• The ELA progress monitoring assessments must:
  • Measure student progress in grades 3 through 10 in meeting expectations in state English Language Arts standards.
  • “Be a valid, reliable, and developmentally appropriate computer-based direct instrument that provides screening and diagnostic capabilities for monitoring student progress, identifies students who have a substantial deficiency in reading, including identifying students with characteristics of dyslexia, and informs instruction.”
  • Provide results to a student’s teacher within 1 week and to parents within 2 weeks.
  • Provide students, teachers, and parents with “actionable feedback during the school year to tailor instruction aimed at improved student outcomes in ELA.”
  • Provide information to the department to aid in the development of educational programs, policies, and supports for districts and schools.
• In the Spring, there will continue (for now) to be a big test at the end of the year which will be used for accountability purposes:
• The results of the end-of-year comprehensive assessment of student progress must be used for accountability purposes as required by:
  • f.s. 1008.34 (School and District Grades),
  • f.s. 1008.341 (School improvement rating for alternative schools),
  • f.s. 1008.3415 (School grade or school improvement rating for exceptional student education centers)
  • and for assessment graduation requirements in f.s. 1003.4282(3)(a) (Requirements for a standard high school diploma). 
• Opportunities must be provided to retake the grade 10 ELA end-of-year comprehensive assessment of student progress. 
• Reading passages and writing prompts must incorporate grade-level core curricula content from social studies. 
• In order to earn a standard high school diploma, a student who has not earned a passing score on the grade 10 ELA end-of-year comprehensive assessment of student progress must earn a passing score on the assessment retake or earn a concordant score.

Similar changes for Math Assessments

Statewide, standardized mathematics assessments with screening and progress monitoring will be administered to students, in grades 3 through 8, three times a year, with 2 computer based progress monitoring assessments, providing results to teachers within a week and parents within 2 week, and a comprehensive year end assessment to be used to Accountability calculations (like school grades, etc.) 

No change in Science Assessments, End of Course (EOC) exams, Administration of SAT/ACT to all 11th graders, or Florida Alternate Assessment

Statewide, standardized science assessments will continue to be administered annually at least once at the elementary and middle grades (currently this happened in 5th and 8th grade).

There appear to be no changes to End of Course Exam (EOCs) which are currently administered for Civics, Algebra I, Geometry, Biology I and United States History. Scores from the EOCs make up the bulk of the School Grade calculation for high schools. With the exception of ELA progress monitoring for ELA in 9th and 10th grade, SB1048 appear to have little impact on high school students.

School districts will continue to be required  (subject to appropriation) to administer either the SAT or ACT to all public school students in 11th grade.

There appear to be no changes to the Florida Alternate Assessment for students with disabilities.

The Definition  Of Passing Scores And Achievement Levels Will Be Changed

The definition of passing scores and achievement levels on the state assessments WILL be changed, with a Level 3 passing score now indicating “grade-level” (rather than “satisfactory”) performance.

This is something that will need to be watched closely. When the state switched from FCAT 2.0 to the FSA, there were attempts to align the passing scores to NAEP Proficiency Labels, which would have raised the passing scores well beyond grade level standards. You can read more about that here.

SB1048 includes language stating “the state board shall adopt by rule the passing score for the revised assessment that is statistically equivalent to the passing score on the discontinued assessment.”

Assessment Schedules and Reporting of Results Will Change.

-Assessment results for the statewide, standardized ELA and mathematics assessments and all statewide, standardized EOC assessments must be made available no later than May 31. (Currently the deadline is June 30).

With the exception of the writing components of the grade 3-10 assessments and the 3rd grade comprehensive ELA assessment (which can be administered beginning April 1st), all other statewide, standardized assessments must be administered within a 4-week assessment window that opens no earlier than May 1 each year.

NOTE: Just 4 or 5 years ago, stakeholders successfully advocated for the return of paper-based testing (rather than computer based testing) for students grades 3-6. At the time, districts argued that, the entire student body could test at the same time with paper-based testing while, with computer testing, districts had to test students in shifts. I believe then-Representative Manny Diaz Jr was the sponsor of that bill. SB1048 clearly states that the new progress monitoring assessments must be computer based but does not seem to require the year end Big Test to be so, yet.

 

There Is a New Section of Statute: 1008.22(8) PARENTAL RIGHT TO KNOW STUDENT PERFORMANCE

This section is reminiscent of the recently passed Parents Bill of Rights, this section lists Parents Rights about testing and performance. Among other things, it:

• Requires school districts to provide a student’s performance results on district-required local assessments to the student’s parents within 1 week after administering the assessments;
• Authorizes school districts to report the results of statewide, standardized assessments in a personalized video format;
• Requires school districts to provide a written report from the coordinated screening and progress monitoring system in a printed or electronic format and to include a web-based portal for parents to securely access student assessment data and review their student’s individual student reports.
• Require school districts to annually provide an update to the Department of Education on strategies deployed to comply with parental reporting requirements.

Sadly, the section DOES NOT give parents the right to opt their children out of meaningless assessments.

A Study Will Be Done to Determine Whether Progress Monitoring Could Ultimately Replace the Big, Year End Test.

“By January 31, 2025, the commissioner shall provide recommendations to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives on additional innovative ways to streamline testing. At a minimum, the report must include an analysis of the correlation between the first two administrations of progress monitoring and the third end-of-year assessment to determine if results from those administrations may be used in lieu of the end-of-year assessment.”

Accountability Pause During the Transition to the New Assessments:

These subsections will be automatically repealed on July 1, 2025.

“To assist in the transition to 2022-2023 school grades and district grades calculated based on newstatewide, standardized assessments administered, the 2022-2023 school grades and district grades shall serve as an informational baseline for schools and districts to work toward improved performance in future years.”

• Due to the absence of learning gains data in 2022-2023, the initial school grading scale for the 2022-2023 informational baseline grades must be set so that the percentage of schools that earn a grade of “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” and “F” is statistically equivalent to the 2021-2022 school grade results.
• When learning gains data becomes available in the 2023-2024 school year, the State Board of Education shall review the school grading scale and determine if the scale should be adjusted.
• A school may not be required to select and implement a turnaround option in the 2023-2024 school year based on the school’s 2022-2023 grade.
• If a school in turnaround improves to a grade of “C” or higher during the 2022-2023 school year, it will be released from turnaround implementation.
• A school or approved provider which receives the same or lower school grade for the 2022-2023 school year compared to the 2021-2022 school year will not be subject to sanctions or penalties that would otherwise occur as a result of the 2022-2023 school grade or rating.
• A charter school system or school district designated as high performing may not lose the designation based on the 2022-2023 school grades of any of the schools within the charter school system or school district or based on the 2022-2023 district grade, as applicable.
• A Third Grade student may be promoted to grade 4 in the 2023-2024 school year, following the 2022-2023 school year’s assessment reporting, if the district is able to determine a student’s performance based on either the good cause exemption process provided in statute or other means reasonably calculated to provide reliable evidence of a student’s performance.
• Due to the absence of learning gains data for the 2022-2023 school year, school improvement ratings for alternative schools will not be calculated for that school year. Upon the availability of learning gains data for the 2023-2024 school year, the State Board of Education shall set the scale for the “commendable,” “maintaining,” and “unsatisfactory” ratings.

The requirement for the additional hour of instruction for the so-called Lowest 300 schools extra hour is NOT amended.

Almost certainly, changes to this legislation will be made as it moves through the legislative process. Parents and other stakeholders should pay attention. The move back to computer based testing should cause alarm. The sheer amount of data collection from state mandated assessments multiple times a year should concern parents and data privacy advocates. The switch towards state standards-aligned progress monitoring for accountability is a step towards Competency Based Education system, which we have written about before.

Pay close attention to attempts to change the definition of passing scores and the “Parental Right To Know” section.

There will be little impact on high schools and there appear to be no adjustments to the current high stakes accountability system beyond pausing the impacts during the transition period.

SB1048 has yet to be assigned to its first committee. Stay tuned.