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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

High Stakes Testing? It’s all about the power and the money – again. | Reclaim Reform

High Stakes Testing? It’s all about the power and the money – again. | Reclaim Reform:



High Stakes Testing? It’s all about the power and the money – again.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott and the state legislature continue to play power games with high stakes testing while pretending to save the children and all of public education from testing harm.
This political posturing is similar to the man who murdered his parents and then claimed that he should not be jailed because he was an orphan.
Rick Scott plays for controlSince present Florida Gov. Rick Scott plans to run for the U.S. Senate, he is posturing as being better than former Florida governor and presidential candidate Jeb Bush – or tougher, or smarter, or anti-establishment, or whatever his PR department can claim. He is also planning to spend even more education funding to pay a private company to write some kind of review.
Gov. Scott Signs Bill to Limit Standardized Tests: The changes represent a departure for the Republican-controlled Legislature because it a step back from some of the reforms championed by former Gov. Jeb Bush.The new law caps statewide standardized testing at 45 hours a year. It would let school districts move up the start of the school year to Aug. 10.
The legislation would delay the release of this year’s school grades until an independent review of the new test can be performed. Other sanctions associated with annual testing would also be put on hold while the review is underway.– CBS Miami
Senate passes testing bill: The train wreck that is Florida’s accountability system was lambasted by Republican and Democratic senators, even by those who admitted to having voted for the ‘reforms’ over the years. “This is kind of backwards. What we’re doing is giving kids the test and then deciding afterwards whether or not we’re going validate the test,” said Sen. Jeff Clemens, (D-Lake Worth). Sen. Lee called out Bush’s foundation for pushingto maintain the current level of testing for all the wrong reasons…
There are some provisions from the old version of the House bill included in this new improved Senate version and some new language for which we all lobbied. The new version includes: • Reduced impact of test scores on 
High Stakes Testing? It’s all about the power and the money – again. | Reclaim Reform: