PANAMA CITY — On the heels of Gov. Rick Scott canceling 11th grade exams in English language arts through an executive order, Bay District Schools Superintendent Bill Husfelt and educational staff issued a reminder Thursday the larger issue is far from settled.
“No test has ever made a student better,” Husfelt said in Thursday’s press conference.
Husfelt said he was concerned people would think the perceived problem of overtesting and teacher evaluations would be fixed with Scott’s order. Husfelt urged parents to talk to legislators if they believe testing and teacher evaluations need to change.
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School testing begins next week and will continue until the end of the school year. Writing tests will be the first part of testing, with reading and math testing to start in April. Different tests are taken for varying grades on different days, with testing sometimes overlapping.
The amount of testing has come under criticism from parents and educators, both in Bay County and across the state. During a January meeting of the local legislative delegation, several teachers and school administrators voiced their concerns to legislators about what they saw as excessive testing.
Husfelt said he is afraid of the stress on computers, saying he is worried about an “Obamacare meltdown” when computers were turned on for testing.
He also said every student learns differently, so tests don’t always accurately reflect achievement.
“We want to be fairly accounted for,” Husfelt said.
Bay District Schools Coordinator of Assessment and Accountability Camilla Hudson said she also is a little concerned about the infrastructure in place for computer-based testing.
Still, she added, “I feel we’re ready.”
Hudson said she thought it would be great if the current regiment of tests could be replaced by every high school student taking the ACT or SAT.
Hudson and Husfelt said it was a big relief for testing in 11th grade to be taken away.
“We want to thank” Gov. Rick Scott, Husfelt said.
Mowat Middle School teacher Diane Wishart, who is also the Association of Bay County Educators president, said there is not enough time for students to get through the computer labs for testing.
The $94 million the state put into testing, Wishart said, could go to classrooms and lessen the student-teacher ratio. Wishart also said she would like to go back to paper-based tests.
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Current tests can have multiple right answers, with students not receiving partial credit on them if they don’t select all the right answers, Wishart said. Students who don’t test well can hurt teachers, Wishart said, since test results are tied to teacher evaluations.
Wishart said students can likely do better on the tests than legislators.
“I would like for those people in Tallahassee to take these tests,” Wishart said.