Sunshine Sentinel

Florida will be the first state in the nation in which schools will switch from end-of-the-year standardized testing to state standards-aligned progress monitoring according to an announcement by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis on Sept. 14 announced a legislative proposal to eliminate “the common-core based, end-of-year, high-stakes Florida Statewide Assessment and create the new Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (F.A.S.T) plan,” a press release said.

“In this final step to eradicate Common Core from our assessments, our administration is implementing the lessons learned from progress monitoring both during the state’s recovery and from our districts and schools that were already showing how we can better support students reaching their own unique growth goals,” DeSantis said in the press release.

Common Core is composed of academic standards in English language arts and literacy and in mathematics, the Common Core State Standards Initiative website said. 

The Florida Standards Assessment will be eliminated in the 2022-2023 school year, DeSantis said in a video of the press conference announcing the change. The progress monitoring will give teachers more time for learning and give them information in real time during the school year to better help students, DeSantis said.

“These progress monitoring tools will be customizable and will even be unique to each student. It gives the ability to have timely data during the school year so you can make the necessary corrections,” DeSantis said in the video. “... We also think that the FSA is outmoded at this point and that we need to move forward with the more, I’d say, nimble and effective approach.”