The Collaborative for Student Success is a non-profit advocacy organization that works to defend high standards, high-quality assessments, and strong systems of accountability, to ensure that all kids are prepared for college or career.
Through capacity-building efforts with in-state organizations and collaboration with national partners, we promote fact-based public discourse and fight to advance policies that promote best practices and ensure equitable outcomes for all students.
The Collaborative is supported by both regional and national foundations, including:
- Bloomberg Foundation
- Carnegie Corporation of New York
- ExxonMobil
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
- The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation
We want to share with you a February 10, 2019 letter received by Adam Ezring, Director of Policy, Collaborative for Student Success.
“You’ve probably seen some news about Gov. DeSantis’ recent announcement that he plans to eliminate ‘all vestiges of Common Core.’
One problem I’ve noticed in many of these articles is people applauding the announcement because they think it means the end of over-testing in the state.
This is not the case at all.
Florida has a set of statewide academic standards, as required by federal law. Florida also has a set of assessments aligned to those standards, also required by federal law. Revising the standards has nothing to do with how much testing a state does.
Even if the state replaces the standards with a brand new, totally different set of standards, testing policies in Florida could stay exactly the same.
Removing ‘all vestiges of common core,’ regardless of whether they help prepare students for college or a career is not going to fix that.
What will changing the standards do?
1. It will mean teachers will have to adjust curriculum, lessons, instruction, which always takes years of work and adjustments. This adjustment period often leads to a drop in student test scores.
2. It will mean school districts across Florida will have to spend tens of millions of dollars procuring new textbooks and curricula resources and training materials.
3. This purely political maneuver also risks the possibility that the state will end up with lower standards leaving Florida kids unprepared for college or career.
To be clear the Governor did mention in his executive order that he also hopes to receive innovative recommendations to ‘streamline testing’ in the state. But that’s a separate item on his agenda that can happen with or without changes to the standards.
Thank you for paying attention to the facts. This is an important moment for Florida.”
Sincerely,
Adam
Adam Ezring
Director of Policy
Collaborative for Student Success
Collaborative for Student Success
225 Reinekers Ln #250 Alexandria, VA 22314
Vero Communiqué 
Do we understand what makes for a good, high quality, education? So much of what we’ve heard seems like bullet points, a list, but I wonder what leads to young adults with a full appreciation for this country, the inherent opportunities and responsibilities, and a view to future excellence, much of which they determine with our help. They will be the ones who succeed, and with their family, will prepare the next generation.
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