Update 8:48 a.m.: Leon Schools will not go forward with the online portion of the state writing exam. Districts continue reporting problems and Superintendent Jackie Pons says until the problems are fully resolved, the district will continue to suspend the Florida Standards Assessment Writing Test for 8th, 9th and 10th graders. Those in lower grades who take the paper-based version of the test will continue to be evaluated.
Leon County School Superintendent Jackie Pons says the district will not start administering the statewide online writing exam Wednesday. The move comes as the district continues to wait out technical glitches that have affected other school districts in the state.
State Education Commissioner Pam Stewart says most of the problems that affected nearly 70,000 students across the state Monday have been fixed. But some districts continued to report problems with logging in to the writing test Tuesday. Leon’s Superintendent Jackie Pons says testing for 8th, 9th and 10th graders will not start Wednesday as initially reported, and will continue to be put on hold. He says he’s especially concerned about 10th graders who have to pass the writing exam as a graduation requirement.
“We’ve got to make sure we get it right before we have our students go in there and have any type of problem that could impact them, especially when it comes to graduating from high school," Pons says.
Leon initially suspended its administration of the 8th through 10th grade test until problems were fixed. Pons says he will ask the state department of education for extra testing days to make up for the ones that were missed.
