Florida Judge Rules That Tests Can’t Be Used To Hold Students Back

A judge is siding with families who are fighting a state law that ties students’ promotion to fourth grade on how they perform on standardized reading tests.

A Tallahassee judge ruled Friday that school districts must consider other options other than students’ performances on the Florida Standards Assessment tests, including classroom grades and assessments from teachers who work with the students.

Circuit Judge Karen Gievers chastised the state Department of Education and six counties named in the suit for failing to promote students who had no reading deficiencies simply because they didn’t pass the test.

At the instruction of their parents, students wrote their names on the tests and then didn’t answer questions. The action was a protest of a law passed under Gov. Jeb Bush that made reading test scores a requirement to advance to fourth grade.