The debate over whether and how to test students in private school choice programs has been swirling through school choice circles for years, and it’s no idle debate. The prospects for Florida’s tax credit scholarship legislation, in fact, may hinge on how lawmakers decide to resolve the issue.
So it’s worth noting a couple of coincidental developments on this front – even if, in the end, they don’t impact the Florida debate.
First: A slight shift in position at the Fordham Institute, which promotes both school choice and common academic standards. In recent policy papers and on this blog, Fordham has made the case for requiring students in school voucher and tax credit scholarship programs to take the same statewide, standardized tests as their public school counterparts.
This morning, however, Fordham leaders Checker Finn and Mike Petrilli wrote in the National Review that they’re willing to compromise with school choice advocates who bristle at the same-test requirement. The re-calibration comes as Florida and most other state prepare to test their students for the first time on the Common Core State Standards. Write Finn and Petrilli:
But now that most states are transitioning to the Common Core, the state test will soon be some sort of Common Core test. And that has freaked out some choice supporters, some private-school teachers, and some charter-school teachers, too.
Without backing away from our commitment to the inseparability of the two tracks of education reform, we see room for compromise on specifics. Yes, some degree of transparency and accountability is essential for all choice schools. We don’t buy the argument that we should leave it to “parental choice alone”; experience in the real world demonstrates (here as in every other market that we know of) that some external quality control is needed if only to protect consumers. But in the case of private-school accountability, it doesn’t have to be the Common Core–aligned tests that states will be using for their district and charter schools (some of which also need “alternative” accountability arrangements). If states will allow schools in the choice sector to use other valid, respected assessments — the kind that make clear to policymakers, parents, and taxpayers whether a school and its pupils are making academic progress from year to year — we won’t complain. It’s not ideal but it’s better than nothing. We certainly never meant to force private schools (and specialized charter schools) to forfeit the curricular distinctiveness that is a major reason for choosing them in the first place.
In Florida, Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, has also called for scholarship students to take the same standardized assessments as public school students. (The scholarship program is administered by Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog.) But on Friday, while reiterating that position to the Associated Press, he also offered this:
Gaetz stressed that he is not insisting that students at the private schools take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which is on the verge of being phased out to a new test. But he said it has to be a “common assessment” that will “provide an accurate report to parents as to where their children stand compared to other children in other schools.”
Florida’s tax-credit scholarship students are required by law to take state-approved norm-referenced tests, the results of which are analyzed by an independent researcher. But lawmakers may still debate whether – and when and how – to require them to take tests that more closely resemble those given in public schools.
Where is all this headed? Stay tuned.
