Pasco Mom Calls out Testing Madness at School Board Meeting

Wonderful mom, researcher, and activist Deb Herbage gave a great sppech cogently pointing out the problems with Florida's testing system and its lack of validity at the Pasco County School Board meeting on October 20th.  It is reproduced here with permission.


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I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Browning for sending the letter to Governor Scott requesting an executive order to suspend the use of the 2014-2015 FSA data.  While we appreciate your efforts  and the efforts of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents (FADSS) in speaking out against the flawed accountability system here in Florida, we, the parents, teachers, grandparents and students here in Pasco County and across the state of Florida are not asking for a "pause" with an ultimate reinstatement of the FSA.  We are asking that you HALT the FSA.   This test is no longer about our kids.  This test is no longer about a fair and accurate measure of "accountability".  We are not asking for a pause with the FSA because of technical glitches and the failed administration of the FSA last spring.  We are asking for a halt because the test is not a valid measure of ANYTHING.  We are asking for a halt of the FSA because AIR and the FL DOE have been unable to produce ANY validity documents.  In the executed contract the FL DOE has with AIR contract # 14-652 that Commissioner Stewart signed - it specifically stated AIR "must provide empirical evidence of psychometric validity and reliability" AIR failed to do that and worse the FL DOE did NOT hold AIR to the terms of the EXECUTED contract.

A retired psychometrician in CA sent a letter to Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC),  which is developed by AIR and part of the FSA platform,  requesting the validity documents and he was told they don't have them.  The Utah [district school board members] sent a letter to Senator Simmons (Senator Simmons here in FL) stating they do not have validity documents either.  Alpine teamed with EdCount who is a partner to AIR.  That was hardly an independent review of the FSA.  And now today OH stated they are using Florida's test?  This test is about corporate greed, political agendas and control. 

If the FL DOE, the districts and the counties continue down this road with a flawed, invalid test due to the lack of validity documents I fear there will be grave legal dangers and consequences due to the fraudulent test.   There is already a lawsuit that was filed in 2009 and will finally be heard in March 2016 in regards to the "accountability" system in Florida.  The evidence of fraud is mounting.
Janet Adkins stated today "Parents have a right to know whether their child is making adequate progress."  This test is about corporate greed, political agendas and control.  NO parent in this state will know the answer to that.  It's time to stop the education malpractice and focus on our kids.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!

Posted in Testing. Tagged as Alpine, Deb Herbage, Kurt Browning, Pasco County School Board, Utah, validity.

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