The FAST test results are in and Florida education leaders, students, teachers, and parents got a pleasant surprise after seeing improvements from last year’s results.
The Florida Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz, Jr., announced Monday the “successful results of Florida’s second year of the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST).”
In a news release, The Florida Department of Education announced that the results from the 2023–2024 assessments “demonstrate substantial student growth throughout the school year and notable year-over-year improvement across the state.”
“The substantial gains achieved by Florida’s students on all statewide assessments demonstrate that progress monitoring is working,” said Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. “I want to thank our teachers for their hard work in the classroom and the dedication of Florida’s students to growing throughout the year. Our dedication to our students and our willingness to change the status quo is why Florida is the number one state for education.”
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According to the results published by The Florida Department of Education, the takeaways from the results from the 2023–2024 ELA and Mathematics FAST show that in grades 3–10 ELA, performance increased by 20 percentage points over the school year. In the Progress Monitoring 3 (PM3) assessment, 53% of students scored at grade level or above, compared to 33% in the Progress Monitoring 1 (PM1) assessment.
Scores over the 2023–2024 year increased by 20 percentage points, outpacing the previous year by 3 percentage points and the percentage of students scoring Level 1 decreased from 25% last year to 22% in 2024. “The lowest percentage of Grade 3 students scoring Level 1 on ELA since 2019,” read the news release.
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Grades 3–8 performance in Mathematics increased by 42 percentage points from PM1 to PM3. In PM3, 56% of students scored on grade level or above, compared to 14% in PM1.
In science, 53% of grade 5 students scored on or above Level 3 in 2024, a 2 percentage point increase from 2023, while 49% of grade 8 students scored on or above grade level, a 2 percentage point increase from last year.
The news release also mentioned that 66% of students who took Biology 1 scored at or above Level 3, a 3 percentage point increase from last year's results.
In Statewide Algebra 1, 53% of students scored at or above Level 3, while in the Geometry Assessments, 52% of students scored at or above Level 3 this year, a 6 percentage point increase from 2023.
67% of students scored at or above Level 3 in Civics and U.S. History, marking a 5-point increase from 2023 in U.S. History.
The achievement gap between African American, Hispanic and White students narrowed across multiple subjects, including ELA, Mathematics, Algebra 1, Geometry, Grade 5 Science, Grade 8 Science, Biology 1, Civics and U.S. History.
Miami-dade Superintendent Dr. Jose Dotres said in every category, on every state assessment platform, from the FAST test to end-of-course exams, the district did well on the key metric of getting students up to or surpassing their grade level.
“I’m talking about reading, math, algebra, geometry, civics and history, in every single one of those tested areas, we showed improvement in proficiency and when we compare ourselves to the state, we surpassed or overperformed the state in the great majority of those tested areas," he said. "So we are extremely, extremely encouraged by the results, at the end of the day, we have to support and make sure that our students are on grade level."
“UTD (United Teachers of Dade) is proud but not surprised that our students outperformed their peers statewide by almost every measure. In other words, we, the education professionals of Miami-Dade, have surmounted every hurdle that the state government has put in our way," said UTD President Karla Hernández-Mats in a statement issued after the Florida Department of Education released the results of the spring 2024 statewide assessments.
“Now we need Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the State of Florida to step up and show their appreciation for our hard work. We jumped through every hoop required of us. Now it’s time to pay us what we’ve earned! Being 50th in the nation for teacher pay is unacceptable," said Hernández-Mats.
For more information about this year’s assessment results, click here.
