Local parents are speaking out against another state driven standardized test. They say it’s unnecessary and causing communication problems.
The Florida State Board of Education approved the Florida Standards in Mathematics and Language Arts in February of last year and fully implemented them for K-12 for the 2014-2015 school year, according to a pamphlet for parents and students from the FSBE. While assessments are designed to gauge how well students are learning the standards, parents are becoming increasingly unhappy with the amount of testing their children undergo. Parents Joyce Perkins and Dawn Stone both spoke about the stress of standardized testing and the rules related to the Florida Standardized Assessment.
Joyce Perkins sent a letter to the Bagdad Elementary School where her daughter attends fifth grade saying she refused to have her daughter participate in FSA testing. Part of it read, “My child was told by a teacher that she was not to talk to me about anything to do with this, what is on it or any of the questions or answers. This is in violation of our rights.”
Perkins said she asked her daughter about her day and her daughter told her, “I can’t talk about it.” Perkins said it left her daughter afraid of getting into trouble if she talked to her mother about the test. After her daughter relented and talked about the test with her, Perkins said she began looking into the test and found out other parents had the same concerns and found groups dedicated to opting out of the FSA.
Perkins also had a problem with the electronic data collected as part of the computerized testing process. While her letter says she understands teachers and schools may do so under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, she requested the type of information collected with the opportunity to have it deleted.
Stone said she heard the same thing about not talking about the test. She said she understands the department of education doesn’t want kids to cheat, “but if I ask my kid about a question or about what they did at school, it shouldn’t be ‘I can’t' tell you.’”
Stone reiterated the tests come from the state and ultimately the federal government. She laid no blame on the district. She said if she didn’t trust the department whole heartedly, she wouldn’t send her children to county schools.
Perkins said the school board informed her, her daughter could sit out the test, although Stone said she was told the test was necessary to graduate. “There is no opt out in Florida,” she said. However, she said she had heard her child could bypass the FSA if she scored a 19 or higher on the ACT.
Stone said the test she took in high school in California she didn’t take seriously, like a lot of other teenagers. Now, she says, children are so stressed she regularly hears of third graders throwing up the morning of the test. “We’ve gone from one extreme to the other.”
If colleges don’t make any acceptance determinations based on the FSA, Stone asks “Why are we pushing kids if it means nothing for their future?”
A quick Facebook search revealed the following groups against standardized testing: Opt out of state standardized tests – Florida, stop standardized testing in Florida, and stand up against standardized testing.
While parents decide how they’ll handle the new FSA and other standardized testing, the state has shown its concern over the amount of tests students have to take. At the end of February, Governor Rick Scott issued Executive Order 15-31 to suspend the grade 11 Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) for English language arts until the Florida Legislature has an opportunity to consider legislation to eliminate the mandate. The elimination of the test follows an investigation conducted by Commissioner Pam Stewart that recommended a reduction in the number of tests Florida students in public schools are required to take, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Parents question necessity of standardized test