Students in Florida will not be required to take the state exams this year.
An emergency order signed Friday outlines how school districts and charter schools can waive state testing requirements if the students have otherwise shown proficiency.
The order also extends the deadline for Bright Futures scholarship qualification and completing community service hours.
Whether a student is ready for graduation, or to move on to the next grade, will be determined by teachers and the schools.
“Teachers have been teaching and providing assessments and quizzes I mean, that's part of their, their options and what they do each and every week and day," explained Superintendent of Pinellas County Schools, Dr. Michael Grego.
For parents, some are grateful that the preparedness for the next year will not come down to one test. However, for moms like Marisa Langford, she worries that her son, who has been online learning all year, could progress without hitting the right benchmarks.
“Some of my son's teachers don’t even know who he is. Like legitimately, they’ve never met my straight-A, very high academically achieving son," said Langford.
Many of Florida's students will still take the exams, they just won't negatively impact a child's grade or education status.
“The emergency order simply states that those end-of-course assessments will not count against the students' grade. And that's it," explained Dr. Grego. "A student cannot be harmed by the results of that or not taking also.”
In Pinellas County, the plan is to use the FSAs as an indication of where the learning gaps are. They will then take that information and apply it directly to their Summer Bridge Program. The expectation is that the program will be longer and more robust this year, to make up for a year of disrupted learning.
“It's an exciting initiative. We're using CAREs funds, we have these federal funds that are coming into our state. This is the time that we have to really take advantage of, not only these funds are non-reoccurring, but what can we do to eliminate any kind of learning gaps that that, that we see that exists?” said Dr. Grego.
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