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* School Testing Petition Email – Email your representatives
| Miami-Dade PTA/PTSA Takes Action! |
| For months parents, teachers, and school administration have urged the Department of Education to pause the implementation of Florida’s new assessments. Instead of listening to our concerns, they moved ahead with an exam that was not fully field-tested. Today’s computer glitches throughout the state were avoidable and unnecessary.
It’s time to TAKE ACTION! Our elected officials need to hear from us, as a collective voice, regarding the “testing madness.”
Below is a sample email, along with email addresses of our elected officials. Please copy and paste this sample e-mail, or draft one of your own, and forward to those we have elected to serve.
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| Dear (name of Elected Official),
In September 2014, Florida PTA asked the Commissioner of Education and state leaders to delay school grading on the new Florida Standard Assessments to give students and school time to adjust to the new on-line tests.
The requests were simple:
1. Allow for proper field-testing and test development in areas with similar demographics to Florida’s diverse demographics. We have recently learned of Utah’s dissatisfaction with the test and possible cancellation with the America Institutes for Research (AIR), the test vendor. Florida had chosen Utah as the state to field-test the new test. 2. Suspend the issuance of school grades until performance data has beendeemed reliable. Although the Board of Education stated the grades will carry no consequences, using the new exam as a baseline for generating school grades and teacher evaluations from this year’s test remains a concern. 3. Allow additional testing and calculation flexibility to students with disabilities and students who speak limited English. For their attention to the concerns regarding ESOL accountability, I thank Representatives Victor Manuel Torres and Jose Javier Rodriquez, and Senator David Simmons for filing bills to bring about reform of the accountability policy for English Language Learners.
The state moved forward and pushed the debut of Florida’s new assessment tests, prematurely. Computer glitches plagued the first day of administering the test. It is apparent that our state was not ready and subjected our children to continued angst over an assessment test of this magnitude.
Suspend the test. Take the time to get it right.
Sincerely, (your name here)
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