Devyn LeBlanc
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Governor Ron DeSantis announced a legislative proposal to eliminate the common-core based, end-of-year, high-stakes Florida Statewide Assessment and replace it with the new Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (F.A.S.T) plan, which will monitor student progress and foster individual growth. With the creation of F.A.S.T, Florida will become the first state in the nation to fully implement progress monitoring instead of end-of-year standardized testing, and fully eliminate common core.
Progress monitoring will minimize the stress of testing and change to three much shorter tests in the Fall, Winter and Spring. These tests will provide real-time data that will inform students, teachers and parents about individual student growth. Progress monitoring will allow for these tests to be customizable and unique to each student as well as reducing testing time by 75 percent, thus allowing more time for learning.
F.A.S.T is not only changing the way students are tested on their knowledge and growth, it is also redefining instruction and learning within the classroom and at home.
With the elimination of common core learning, comes the elimination of the difficult math with which students and parents have been struggling. F.A.S.T focuses on the correct answer, not just the method that was used. There has also been movement that financial literacy be added throughout high school education. F.A.S.T is not only changing math, literacy is being updated as well. There will now be benchmarks specifically created for secondary students that are reading below grade level. Civic literacy will be embedded in every grade, and students will learn from every major literary period.
High Point Elementary School, located in Clearwater Fla., used progress monitoring tools throughout the 2020-2021 school year to make actionable decisions in real time. During the Winter progress monitoring, the data reflected that High Point was on track to earn a D. After reviewing the data, the leadership team and coaches pivoted their priorities as teachers, and coaches used progress monitoring for each standard to track the students' growth. After working tirelessly throughout the school year to support the most vulnerable students, High Point Elementary was able to improve their grade from a D to a C.
It is estimated that Florida's education system can expect F.A.S.T to be fully implemented by the 2023 school year. For more information about the F.A.S.T plan, visit fldoe.org/standardsreview.