FAIR test causing bandwidth headaches

Last week I told you about the new state reading assessment called Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading, or FAIR. The pieces focused on the move toward testing to inform teaching.

Your comments on my story and blog post had a different perspective. Mostly, they blasted away at my failure to talk to enough teachers to realize that it has been a nightmare to implement. Things like, "FAIR doesn't even work!" And, "a fiasco-I brought my 140 students to the computer lab on Tues and Weds to take the test. 24 students logged on 1st hr - it crashed/no one finished the test."

Turns out these complaints were neither few nor far between.

Florida looks to Massachusetts as education leader

Florida is arguably making the most dramatic improvements in the country on “the nation’s report card,” but in reading, math and science it’s still far below the top states. This analysis by the state Department of Education (in preparation for next week’s Board of Education meeting) looks at how Florida stacks up academically against top-ranked Massachusetts.

Massachusetts is No. 1 in both fourth- and eighth-grade math. Florida is No. 22 and No. 37.

Massachusetts is No. 1 in both fourth- and eighth-grade reading. Florida is No. 21 and No. 35.

Massachusetts is No. 6 in eighth-grade science. Florida is No. 28.

The DOE analysis stresses the rave reviews Massachusetts gets for its content standards, and notes that Florida has vastly improved its standards in the past few years. It includes a side-by-side look at demographics and funding, too.

(Photo from www.timboucher.com)

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Summer reading helps adults, too

Every summer, predictable as July showers, the same message goes out to families hoping to slow their kids' summer slide in academic skills: Read!

The folks at the Florida Department of Education publish their annual list of summer reading recommendations, and columnists remind us of the importance of any sort of reading -- great literature, passable kid-lit, even Mad Magazine if you must -- for developing fluency.

None of this is news to my family, full of readers and former teachers.

Report: Make reading top priority in middle, high schools

To shake off academic stagnation in middle and high schools, states need to dramatically beef up the reading skills of middle and high school students and better train all teachers to help, says a report released this morning by the Southern Regional Education Board.

The report singles out Florida’s Just Read, Florida! Program for praise but also points to national test scores that show Florida’s middle schoolers perform below the national average in reading. The 25-member committee that shaped the report included two Floridians: Evan Lefsky, who directs Just Read, Florida! at the state Department of Education and former state Rep. Trey Traviesa, R-Tampa.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter (Times file photo)