FL Education Commissioner: Standardized tests will go on, what happens with results still in the air

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Commissioner of Florida’s Department of Education says he’s taking a “wait and see” approach to deciding how to use standardized test scores this year.

The decision comes despite school districts in Central Florida asking the state not to give district and school grades this year.

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After weeks of requests from Eyewitness News to discuss testing, Commissioner Richard Corcoran agreed to discuss the matter with State Senator Shev Jones, who represents South Florida’s 35th district.

“What we do know, what the President has said, what many of you have said, is we need to test. We need that diagnostic,” Corcoran told Jones during an online town hall meeting Monday.

Corcoran told school districts back in February that standardized testing would happen in 2021.

The tests gauge where kids are in their learning, but they’re also high-stakes tests, determining student grade advancement.

Commissioner Corcoran hasn’t specified just how high the stakes will be this year.

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“We have to confront the brutal facts, and to know the brutal facts, we have to get some sort of measurement,” Corcoran says. “Now what happens with that measurement, that’s the discussion point right now.”

Corcoran says he thinks the test results will give them a better idea of what to do next.

Meanwhile, local school districts say they don’t want a “wait-and-see” approach to test scores.

“We do not believe that it should be used for punitive measures and placing labels on schools and on students and on teachers,” Orange County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Barbara Jenkins told the school board at a meeting last month.

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Other districts sent letters to Corcoran’s office agreeing with Dr. Jenkins.

A bill introduced in the state legislature also aims to prevent test scores from negatively impacting school districts.

In addition to student advancement and school grades, standardized test scores can impact teacher evaluations and pay. They can also be linked to millions of dollars in incentives.

Cox Media Group