When the Florida Department of Education replaced their standardized tests with the F.A.S.T. last year, it was in response to the outcry from school districts that the turnaround time from the time students tested to the time the schools and districts received the scores didn’t permit schools and districts to use that information to plan and make meaningful adjustments to meet students’ needs for the upcoming school year. This is the second year the F.A.S.T. has been implemented throughout Florida and districts received this data almost immediately after students took their tests and end of course exams.

If you happen to follow school board meetings, you will know that I’ve been asking the district administration for F.A.S.T. data since May to no avail. As a school board member, I think it’s essential to have this information in order to determine if the investment of tax dollars is producing the desired return on investment, offer informed feedback on budgetary decisions, and guide my decision-making process as it relates to voting for/against recommendations. All I was given, and presumably my colleagues as well, was an impossible-to-verify narrative ahead of being asked to favorably consider a slew of recommendations that I now regret reluctantly supporting. Lesson learned.

The information I have used to compile the graphs contained within this post was publicly released on the Florida Department of Education’s website on Monday, July 1st. While I have a deep fondness for spreadsheets, I realize that fondness isn’t shared by a lot of folks, so I wanted to provide my constituents with a visual overview of information about district and school outcomes that’s fair, convenient, and easy to understand. My goal is for people to be able to see how individual schools compared to the state average and other schools within the district in the areas of English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Civics/History, and how the district compared to the state average and other districts within the Heartland Educational Consortium. If there are any questions as to how this information was calculated, please don’t hesitate to reach out and I’ll be more than glad to explain my methodology. As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Any views and/or opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of other members of the Hendry County School Board.

~ Stephanie Busin