Florida Department of Education history

The Florida Statewide Assessment Program, begun in 1971, has been an important element in this accountability effort.

In late 1971, the Department of Education contracted with various Florida universities and school districts for the development of catalogs of objectives in many subject areas--from mathematics to art to automotive engineering.

Florida's first assessment, in reading in 1971-72, took place less than a year after the Florida Educational Accountability Act was passed.

In the Spring of 1971, test items were sent to selected schools for pretesting to eliminate items that did not measure objectives adequately.

The original 1971 Act was a comprehensive accountability statute emphasizing cost efficiency and behavioral objectives.

In order to make data from these tests comparable, the Student Assessment Section used the Anchor Test Study conducted by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in 1972-73.

On March 28, 1974, a review committee, composed of the coordinators of accountability in each district, was established.

In 1974 The Accountability Act was amended.

A contract was written with Westinghouse Learning Corporation for assessment development for 1974-75.

The assessment of TMH students too place during the 1975-76 school year and is described in the 1975-77 section of this paper.

All public school children in grades three and six participated in the 1975-76 assessment.

Preparations for assessment at the eighth and eleventh grades began with the development of test item specifications by Dade County educators during the winter of 1975.

The 1976-77 assessment was based on a revised set of statewide objectives which identified basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics for all students entering the third and fifth grades.

Workshops conducted by the statewide assessment staff in the fall of 1976 were designed to help districts understand the assessment data.

For the 1977-78 assessment at third and fifth grades, approximately 30 percent of the test items were replaced with new items designed to improve the tests and/or measure new skills and standards.

Sixty-six Hearing Impaired students participated. Items were developed during 1977 to measure performance standards for seventeen-year-old Hearing Impaired students.