DeSantis Eliminates FSA Testing in Florida Public Schools

The DeSantis Administration has long prided itself with making Florida, "the Education State."  Now, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has another feather in his cap after officially eliminating FSA testing in Florida public schools.

Today in St. Petersburg Florida, at St. Petersburg College, Governor DeSantis was joined by Speaker Chris Sprowls (R-66) and Rep. Chris Latvala (R-67) where he delivered his remarks before signing the legislation into law.

"Today, we come, not to praise the FSA, but to bury it," said Gov. DeSantis. "We are here today with legislative leaders to officially eliminate the FSA from the state of Florida.  Now 6 months ago, I announced a legislative proposal to replace the FSA with progress monitoring.  Instead of having one major test at the very end of the year, which provided no feedback to students before the Summer came, we would do progress monitoring that would monitor progress throughout the school year.  It would be shorter, it would be more individualized, and it would provide good feedback for students, for teachers, and for parents."

DeSantis then praised Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran (R-FL) and thanked him for, "bringing this to the forefront," and recalled Corcoran briefing the governor on doing away with the FSA as early as, "a couple years ago."

The new law also stays consistent with the growing GOP theme of parental rights, the same playbook that passed the, "Parental Rights in Education," bill and got Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) elected.  The governor stated, "We can get the same information from the FSA in a much shorter period of time, and in a way that provides really quick feedback for parents, teachers, and students.  We want the parent to be able to be involved in this, to get that feedback alongside the teacher, and both can work to help remediate if students in fact need that."

Another criticism of the FSA DeSantis gave was how slow the results came in after the school year had ended, and a lack of feedback to help grow from.  This law will ensure that results are published to teachers within one week and parents within two weeks.  The testing process is also anticipated to be reduced from days to just hours.

The law takes effect next school year, which marks the 2021-22 school year as the last to feature FSA testing.  In the 2022-23 school year, Florida will become the first state in the nation to adopt this practice.