News

Hays to Offer Amendments to Cancel AIR Contract & Let Districts Choose Pre-Common Core Standards!

April, 2015

Please contact your senators! Senator Alan Hays (R-Umatilla) plans to offer two amendments to two different bills that will if nothing else make strong statements about the deplorable situation of Florida students and teachers being held to an invalid, technologically error prone test and to allow districts go back to the 2010 pre-Common Core standards that are equivalent or have been rated higher than Common Core.

The standards amendment is available HERE and says:

1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2
    3         Between lines 3499 and 3500
    4 insert:
    5         Section 44. Present subsections (10) and (11) of section
    6 1008.22, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as subsections (11)
    7 and (12), respectively, and a new subsection (10) is added to
    8 that section, to read:
    9         1008.22 Student assessment program for public schools.--
   10         (10) ALTERNATIVE STANDARDS.--Notwithstanding any other
   11 provision of law, a district school board may elect to use the
   12 Florida Sunshine State Standards that were effective in 2010 as
   13 the standards for the schools in its district.
   14         (a)1. The school district shall choose a nationally norm
   15 referenced assessment in use before 2010 from the list required
   16 under s. 1002.395(9)(i) which is designed to measure student
   17 progress for use with the 2010 Florida Sunshine State Standards
   18 to determine school and district grades. This assessment may be
   19 administered in hard copy if the district school board so
   20 chooses.
   21         2. A school district that elects to use the 2010 standards
   22 under this subsection shall use the nationally norm-referenced
   23 assessment tool identified in subparagraph 1. to evaluate
   24 teacher effectiveness. Student progress measurement tools may
   25 not make up more than 15 percent of the teacher effectiveness
   26 score.
   27         (b) A school district may not be penalized in any way for
   28 electing to use the 2010 Florida Sunshine State Standards or a
   29 nationally norm-referenced assessment under this subsection.

The testing amendment is available HERE and says:

1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2
    3         Between lines 4842 and 4843
    4 insert:
    5         Section 64. The contract with the American Institutes for
    6 Research for the statewide, standardized assessments in English
    7 Language Arts and mathematics is terminated. A state agency may
    8 not expend any additional funds to the American Institutes for
    9 Research. Districts shall replace the statewide, standardized
   10 assessments with nationally norm-referenced assessments in
   11 English Language Arts and mathematics which were in use before
   12 2010 from the list maintained by the Commissioner of Education
   13 pursuant to s. 1002.395, Florida Statutes.

These amendments are being offered to SB 948 and SB 1552. Coverage from the Orlando Sentinel is available HERE. Neither the amendments or the underlying bills will go anywhere because the House has adjourned sine die (for the session).

The discussion will continue. Please contact your senators to support these amendments to let them know that these issues are not going away and to create momentum.