Two thousand teachers, led by the Florida Educators Association, rallied in Tallahassee on Thursday to protest Florida’s test and punish A-F Accountability system. This is the latest expression of a growing public rejection of nearly two decades of politically motivated, profit-driven education “reform.”
Under current laws, high-stakes testing dominates the Florida classroom. K-8 Curriculum has been narrowed largely to language arts and math and teacher evaluations have been tied to student test scores. Students can be retained or plunged into years of “remediation” based on a single test.
For high school students, this means losing out on electives such as music and art, often the very subjects that keep them engaged in learning. The Florida Legislature continues to pass laws to micro-manage classrooms and disrespect professional educators. As a result, parents and teachers share a growing consensus that children are being hurt and their schools are being harmed.
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