Ron DeSantis Drops End-Of-Year Testing, Institutes Student Progress Reports Instead

(DailyDig.com) – Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis has made education a priority during his time as the state’s leader. The Sunshine State governor has decided it would be best for Florida to drop end-of-the-year testing. Instead, DeSantis wants to implement a different way to track student progress.

The Republican governor recently signed a bill discarding the year-end testing for students in public school grades 3-10. DeSantis plans to replace these tests with a computer-based system that will monitor the progress of students three times per school year.

#Florida's @GovRonDesantis signed a bill into law on that eliminates year-end achievement testing for public school students in grades 3–10, replacing it with a computer-based system to monitor students’ progress 3 times throughout the year. https://t.co/rWgzYPVucy

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) March 16, 2022

Under the governor’s proposal, the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) will no longer be part of schools beginning in the 2022-23 school year. Instead, schools will implement the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST). The Republican noted FAST’s implementation in Florida will make his state the first in the nation to leave behind high-stakes testing and focus on progress monitoring.

DeSantis claims under the current program, teachers have to focus too much on preparing students for the test rather than teaching them. The governor also mentioned the new program will allow teachers to use remedial teaching by allowing teachers, students, and parents access to results before the end of the year. Under the current program, many results don’t come back until after summer vacation has already begun, meaning teachers will have a new set of students in the next year, blocking any remedial teaching.

With FAST in place, teachers and parents will be able to better track the progress of students and learn their needs as the year goes on. For students, this means teachers and parents will be able to create plans to help them learn and offer them a better education.