Fewer Miami-Dade students pass new Florida Standards Assessment

Miami-Dade County students performed below the state average on Florida’s new standardized tests in English and Algebra, according to data released Friday by the Florida Department of Education.

The results were released even as the state studies its new Florida Standards Assessments to determine whether the tests are fair.

Still, students have to pass the Algebra 1 end of course exam, as well as the 10th-grade English Language Arts test to graduate.

In Miami-Dade, 63 percent of students passed the Algebra exam — compared with 67 percent state-wide. Only 52 percent of Miami-Dade students passed the English test — two percentage points below the state average.

In neighboring Broward County, 69 percent of students passed the Algebra test and 55 percent passed the English test.

Florida Department of Education spokeswoman Meghan Collins stressed that students will have multiple chances to retake the English and Algebra tests, or to land a certain score on other tests in order earn a diploma.

“The students who took these tests are not facing an immediate graduation decision,” she wrote in an email.

The data released Friday is just a pass/fail rate, which was calculated by comparing scores to the old standardized assessments students took. Individual student scores have not been released yet.

Miami-Dade students will learn whether they passed within the coming weeks. The information will be uploaded to individual student portals, said Gisela Feild, Miami-Dade’s administrative director of assessment, research and data analysis.

Follow @Cveiga on Twitter.

This story was originally published June 26, 2015 at 8:46 PM with the headline "Fewer Miami-Dade students pass new Florida Standards Assessment."