Florida PTA is committed to ensuring all children receive a high quality education aligned to benchmarked standards, providing clear expectations of the skills students need for success in college and/or career.
T
he Common Core State Standards (CCSS), adopted by Florida in 2010, was a joint effort led by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers from 48 states to develop a common core of K-12 standards in English language arts and Mathematics. The goal of this initiative was to create internationally-benchmarked standards that ensure all students are held to consistent expectations that prepare them for college and career, regardless of where they lived. The standards were informed by the best state standards at that time, feedback from teachers, content experts, the business community, higher education, parents and the public.
In 2014, Florida updated the standards to include calculus and cursive writing as well as making other changes, and re-named them the Florida Standards. With each change to the standards comes a need to re-write and re-purchase assessments which are used to ensure students' mastery of skills. The need for assessments for certain subject areas and at different grade levels are written in statute, which can be changed by the legislature.
Whichever standards Florida uses, the goal should be the same: to ensure that every child graduates high school ready for college or career. Academic standards set a goal for what a child should know and be able to do at the end of each grade level, but higher standards cannot stand alone. Quality implementation of new standards will require aligning new curriculum and assessments, providing professional development for teachers, providing sufficient resources and support for students, ongoing communication with parents and balanced and comprehensive accountability systems.
We look forward to working with Governor DeSantis, Commissioner Corcoran, and other stakeholders to ensure parents and educators are given an active role in the process of developing new standards that are fully vetted to support student achievement.
