Florida working to resolve problems with private schools, end-of-course exams

Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett is tweaking policy and looking to enlist school districts and state colleges to remedy a testing headache for thousands of private school students.

The headache is caused by Florida’s end-of-course exams, which are tied to graduation requirements. kids testing

Here’s the problem: If a seventh-grader in a private school completes Algebra I, then becomes a freshman at a public high school, he can’t receive credit for the course until he takes the EOC. But currently, he can’t take the test until he enrolls in public school. So he ends up taking the test two years after completing the class.

As many as 6,000 private school and out-of-state students a year could be affected.

Barbara Hodges
Barbara Hodges

“It’s one of our biggest issues,’’ said Barbara Hodges, executive director of the Florida Council of Independent Schools, which accredits 160 private schools.  “It’s really impacting our freshman class this year. We know our students are prepared, but they don’t want to take a test on a class they took two years before.’’

Here’s Bennett’s proposed solution:

First, starting next month when EOC assessments begin, the state Department of Education will allow private school and out-of-state students who plan to attend a Florida public school next fall to take the exams prior to enrollment.

Private school administrators and/or students must contact their local district’s assessment office – not the public school – to schedule a time.

Bennett has “strongly’’ encouraged school districts to offer their future students the opportunity to participate.

“While I certainly understand that testing these students prior to enrollment will result in additional work for school and district staff, allowing these students to test is the right thing to do … ,’’ he wrote to school superintendents earlier this month.

The move will give students a better shot at doing well on the exam; let them receive the credit before they set their new school schedules; and reduce remedial efforts in the fall, Bennett said. It also would create a more “welcome environment’’ for these new students, he said.

Most of the districts the department has heard from are willing to test private school students, although some are not offering the opportunity until this summer, a department spokeswoman said.

Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett

Bennett has directed his department’s assessment office to guide districts in computer-based test setup and scheduling options for the private school students.

He also wants to look at revising Florida’s testing contract to allow more testing centers across the state to administer the EOCs.

A new state law passed last year that allows private schools to apply to give their students the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests and EOCs, but the option was only available to a limited number of schools due to the state’s contract. Fourteen private schools applied this year, with school leaders from eight of the schools saying they did so to get access to the EOCs.

James Herzog of the Florida Conference of Catholic Schools, which has 237 schools, said the schools welcome Bennett’s gesture on the EOC glitch. “It encourages us to think about all school children in Florida,’’ he said.

James Herzog
James Herzog

Bennett also has asked Florida colleges to offer an alternative on their campuses for private middle school students: the PERT (Postsecondary Education Readiness Test). He suggested the exam should cost no more $10.

The Florida Department of Education is working now to establish a comparative score for the PERT that will let students who score high enough on the exam satisfy the Algebra I EOC, Bennett said. A study is expected to be completed this summer. Based on the results, the scores then will go through the rule-making process.

In addition, Bennett wants his department to develop legislative language that would give the commissioner greater flexibility to determine concordant scores for EOCs and whether other norm-referenced tests could be used.

House Bill 7091, which remains in the K-12 Subcommittee on education, calls for the use of comparative scores for the EOCs and the uniform transfer of high school credits for students who earn such scores.

Senate Bill 1076, which expands career academies and industry certifications at the middle and high school level, also includes a provision for comparative assessments. Gov. Rick Scott signed it into law Monday.


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BY Sherri Ackerman

Sherri Ackerman is the former associate editor of redefinED. She is a former correspondent for the Tampa Bay Times and reporter for The Tampa Tribune, writing about everything from cops and courts to social services and education. She grew up in Indiana and moved to Tampa as a teenager, graduating from Brandon High School and, later, from the University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications/news editing. Sherri passed away in March 2016.