State Senator Shevrin Jones (D-FL) approved of Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) decision to eliminate FSA (Florida Standards Assessment) in the Sunshine State.
The FSA was a long, drawn-out, once-a-year style of testing.
The intent of the new system that will be put forward is to shorten the length of tests, and to test in a periodical fashion. This way, the test results will be more accurate as they will demonstrate in real time whether students are learning the material, rather than end of the year testing.
When asked about this change, Jones stated, “The Governor and I agree, as vice-chair on the education committee or in the Senate, I agree with the policy when it came to us eliminating the high stakes education…progress monitoring, what that does, it gives the teacher the opportunity to see whether or not the child actually understands the concept. And if we don’t, then we don’t leave the child behind.”
In years past, it seems as though the left and the right have always butted heads on education. But perhaps with the new system that Gov. DeSantis is trying out, there could be some common ground in between the parties.
Jones, a former school teacher, would go on to say, “Ill share here today that with any change, of course, people are going to be up in arms, whether it’s the unions, whether it’s the teachers, whether it’s the school districts, of course, but we have to make some type of change now and then we can move forward and make any changes needed to be necessarily long term.”