PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – A movement to ditch standardized testing is growing. Parents are organizing on social media to have their children opt out of the state's assessment and accountability program.
The Opt Out Of Miami-Dade Facebook page has about 1,700 followers, while the Opt Out Of Florida page has nearly 4,000 followers.
Some teachers are also supporting the movement because they feel their teaching can't be creative in order to ensure students pass the exams.
There are only two times, third grade and in high school, when testing it considered "high stakes," meaning it weighs heavily on a decision of whether or not to promote a student to the next grade level.
If a third-grade student does not take the standardized tests, the school district can use a collection of the student's work from that year to decide whether or not that student will be promoted to fourth grade.
Broward County Public Schools' chief academic officer Daniel Gohl says promotions are never solely based on a test score. "We have a number of mechanisms in Broward County we use to make the very important decision of whether a student will be promoted and we will not be reduced to one single measure," Gohl said.
Last year, in Broward County, only 61 students out of 17,000 didn't have a score for standardized testing. As for Miami-Dade Public Schools, they told Local 10 News they only had a handful of cases last year.