Florida Senate Bill 166 aims to change certain graduation requirements

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It could soon get easier for high school seniors to graduate.

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That’s if a proposed senate bill that would lower graduation requirements passes the Florida Legislature.

Senate Bill 166 aims to change graduation requirements for algebra 1 and grade 10 English language arts.

As of now students have to pass the statewide tests for both in order to graduate.

But if this bill is passed, it could ease that requirement by making these tests a percentage of the final course grade instead of a graduation requirement.

The test would account for 30% of a student’s final course grade.

Andrew Spar, the president of the Florida Education Association believes this is a step in the right direction.

“We have been doing high stakes testing in Florida now for better than 25 years and our test scores are worse off today than they were back then,” said Spar. “Let’s actually pull back and let’s focus on the kid and the student and making sure they have what they need.”

One local parent said this bill will help alleviate some of the testing anxiety her kids and other students are faced with.

“I think the progress is going away from standardized testing and really evaluating the student in other aspects other than just sitting at a desk and filling in bubbles or at a computer, answering those questions,” said Anne Tressler. “I think that is really hard for some students to work that way, to test that way.”

If this bill is passed, it will go into effect on July 1st.

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