Dive Brief:

• Heading to the desk of Florida Governor Rick Scott is a bill, recently approved by the Florida legislature, that scales back the number of K-12 assessments districts are required to give.
• In addition to nixing some previously required exams, the bill limits the weight assessments can play on teacher evaluations (33% from 50%) and also sets a 45 hour max on the number of hours students can spend testing each year. Under the bill school districts could start a new year as early as Aug. 10.
• The bills, largely informed by the state's vocal "opt out" movement, has critics who say it does not go far enough.

Dive Insight:

Since Florida's education system has often been mimicked, let's look at some of its reform decisions, as they may be coming to other states. Gone permanently are the 11th-grade language arts exam (Scott had already temporarily shelved the exam). The state is getting rid of a plan requiring end of the year merit exams, which had been created solely to complement a teacher merit-pay law. It wants to nix a rule requiring middle and high school students to take remedial courses if they did poorly on a reading or math assessment. And then of course it plans to limit the amount student exams count for teacher evaluations.

Scott is likely to approve these reforms, considered he ran on a campaign platform that promised to investigate the use of standardized testing within schools. In December Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart announced the Keep Florida Learning Committee, which would consider ways to limit the number of tests, increase parental involvement, assess curriculum tools, and track the implementation of the state's Common Core informed Florida Standards.