Lee County (Florida) School District Rejects Mandatory Standardized Testing!

Dear Commons Community,

The Lee County (Florida) School Board voted 3-2 last week to reject state-mandated testing in its district, saying it was acting on behalf  “of administrators, teachers and most importantly students, whose educational growth has not been enhanced as a result of such testing.” This sets a precedent nationally during a growing controversy over the use of high-stakes standardized assessments in public education.  Lee County is located in southwest Florida in the Fort Myers area. As reported in The Washington Post:

“[Lee County School] Board member Don Armstrong, who supported the testing boycott, said the vote was meant to send “a strong message” to state education officials in Tallahassee that county officials are tired of being told how to run their school system. He said:

“It’s an act of civil disobedience. We stood up for what we thought was right.”

The district’s superintendent, Nancy Graham, was  unenthusiastic, saying she believes the decision will “hurt children,” the News-Press reported. But Armstrong said it was Graham’s job to implement policy as set by the board. “Now it is up to her to adhere to it,” he said.

“The pushback from Lee County — the ninth-largest district in the state and the 37th largest in the country, with more than 85,000 students –  is striking in a state that has been at the forefront of standardized test-based “accountability” systems that use student test scores to evaluate not only kids but their teachers, principals, schools and districts. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush was a pioneer in test-based accountability and he continues to support it around the country, even amid a growing revolt around the country by parents and educators against test-based school reform, which has led to narrowed curriculum, obsessive test preparation and other negative consequences. Reformers have insisted that test scores are a legitimate high-stakes evaluation tool, even though assessment experts have repeatedly said otherwise.”

It remains to be seen how this plays out but the Lee County Board should be congratulated for taking this stand.

Tony

 

 

One comment

  1. Update:

    On September 2nd, it was reported that the Lee County School Board voted 3-2 to reverse the decision it made last week to reject state-mandated testing in the district of some 90,000 students in southwestern Florida.

    Lee, the 33rd largest district in the nation, was the first in Florida to take such a dramatic move. It drew both outrage and praise with a 3-2 decision that one board member called an act of civil disobedience.

    Tony