About 4,000 Miami-Dade seniors at risk of not graduating get help from House bill
Thousands of Florida high school seniors struggling to meet graduation testing requirements got one step closer to a diploma on Wednesday — including about 4,000 students in Miami-Dade Public Schools who were at risk of not graduating, or about 16 percent of the class of 2023, according to state education fall enrollment records.
The Florida House unanimously approved a sweeping education bill (HB 1537) that includes provisions to delay the higher passing scores that have presented a hurdle to teens who otherwise have met all other standards in place to complete school.
Bill co-sponsor Rep. Kimberly Daniels, D-Jacksonville, noted that Republicans and Democrats alike received calls from concerned superintendents, teachers and students.
“Now they can go home and confidently announce that this is no longer a concern,” Daniels said during her closing remarks on the bill.
READ MORE: As Florida seniors struggle to graduate, lawmakers eye a ‘temporary fix’
The legislation would allow students who have not been able to pass the state’s Algebra 1 or 10th grade language arts exams to substitute scores from the SAT or ACT that are lower than what had been in place starting this year.
The bill would set the test scores this year for Algebra 1 at 420 or higher on the SAT math test (800 is the top score), or 16 or higher on the ACT math (36 is the top score). For language arts, the scores would be 430 or higher on the SAT reading and writing test or 19 or higher on the ACT reading section.
Next year, the scores would return to the levels that were supposed to take place this spring. Those scores would increase by 50 points from 430 to a 480 for the reading and writing score for the SAT, while the required score for the ACT would be an 18 for both reading and English.
The move comes after district leaders across Florida argued that the new stricter standards, initially established in 2018 but postponed until this year, were unfair to the Class of 2023. School superintendents argued the current seniors faced an unusual set of circumstances because of the coronavirus pandemic, including a shuttered final quarter of freshman year and a quarantine-marked sophomore year where many standardized tests were limited and students faced significant learning losses from the pandemic.
According to district staff, 2,850 students at Miami-Dade public high schools failed to graduate in the 2021-22 school year, or about 11% of seniors, state numbers show.
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Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Jose Dotres was among the district leaders advocating for this group of students and calling for a delay.
On Wednesday, Dotres said the decision by the Florida House will “open the door for thousands of students impacted by the pandemic to walk across the stage and receive their high school diploma.”
HB 1537 still must go to the Senate, which does not have a companion bill. Co-sponsor Rep. Alex Rizo, R-Hialeah, said he collaborated with the Senate and governor’s Office in putting together all aspects of the bill, and anticipated their support.
