Last fast test of the year
The State of Florida changed the way tests are administered in schools and approved new state education standards. The new Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) is a reading and writing progress monitoring test that will be given to students in pre-kindergarten through 10th grade three times a year as opposed to the past Florida State Assessments (FSA). Its purpose is to monitor every student’s progress in learning the necessary materials within Florida’s state curriculum in smaller time frames.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the FAST exam into law in March 2022. The first administration of the new examinations has already taken place in the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year. According to the Florida Department of Education, the exam is served to file an accurate report of each students’ capacities throughout the year, when knowledge is freshly administered, in mastering the necessary reading and writing topics within the Benchmarks of Excellent Student Thinking (BEST) standards.
The last FAST exams will be conducted on April 10th and 11th for the writing portion and May 1st – May 4th for reading. The grading system will stay the same with achievement levels ranging from Level 1 to Level 5. Level 3 marks a superb on-grade-level performance. All assessments will be taken in one session per day within the span of 120 minutes (two hours), a significant change from the 90 minutes (about one and a half hours) that are given for the 1st and 2nd exams.
“I think students should take to it throughout the year, so they don’t have to stress as much to prepare and pass all three tests,” said Deerfield Beach High School junior Maria Dasilva.
After the school year, the final exam yields a summative grade that indicates how students are advancing into the next school year as well as needed areas that might benefit from additional guidance and teaching. It is advised for students to start studying now and create a balanced routine for a focused test session.
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