Gov. DeSantis signs bill eliminating Florida Standards Assessments exams

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - From St. Petersburg, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that abolishes the Florida Standards Assessment exams, which has been one of his priorities this legislative session.

The governor signed the legislation, which was sent to him last week, while at the St. Petersburg Collegiate High School. It paves the way to replace the standardized exams with a "progress monitoring system" that would test students three times a year.

"We are here not to praise the FSA, but bury it," DeSantis said during the press conference. "We needed some tool to be able to assess, and we do believe in accountability. It's important to do that to have high standards at the same time, but you look at technology we can get the same info as FSA, but we can do it in shorter amount of time and in a way that provides really quick feedback."

Students would be required to take progress-monitoring tests at the beginning, middle, and end of each school year. The final tests of the year would be used for accountability purposes to determine such things as graduation for high-school students and school grades.

Progress-monitoring tests in English-language arts would be administered to students in grades 3 through 10 three times a year. Math assessments for grades 3 through 8 would be given to students on the same schedule.