Florida's K-12 Statewide Assessment Program
Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST): The Florida Assessment of Student Thinking, which measures student success with Florida’s BEST (Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking) Standards, includes assessments in English Language Arts (grades 3-10) and Mathematics (grades 3-8).
FAST Renaissance Place Assessments measure student success with assessments in Early Literacy, Reading, and Mathematics (grades VPK-2).
Please see the links below for additional information about Florida’s new FAST Progress Monitoring Assessments:
Statewide Science Assessment: The Statewide Science Assessment measures student success with the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards and includes assessments in grades 5 and 8.
NGSSS EOC Assessments: The NGSSS EOC assessments are computer-based tests designed to measure student achievement of the specified standards for middle- and high-school level courses in Science (Biology 1) and Social Studies (Civics and U.S. History).
National and International Assessments (NAEP, PIRLS, PISA, and TIMSS): National and state assessments enable us to know how well students are doing in a variety of subjects at different ages and grade levels. International assessments allow us the unique opportunity to benchmark our students' performance to the performance of students in other countries. Florida participates in several national (NAEP) and international (PIRLS, PISA, TIMSS) criterion-referenced surveys.
Florida Standards Assessments: The Florida Standards Assessments, which measure student success with the Florida Standards, include assessments in English Language Arts (grade 10 retakes) and End-of-Course (EOC) assessments for Algebra 1 and Geometry.
District Assessments
The District uses various methods of assessing student learning (including i-Ready and district-created assessments) that are determined by the Curriculum Department.
College entry Exams
PSAT / NMSQT or PSAT10 by the CollegeBoard
The PSAT NMSQT is offered in the fall and the PSAT 10 is offered in the spring. The PSAT/NMSQT and PSAT 10 focus on the skills and knowledge of what you learn in high school and what you need to succeed in college. Both tests are SAT practice tests. Only taking the PSAT NMSQT during your junior year can qualify you for the National Merit competition. The PSAT 10 is designed for sophomores, and PSAT NMSQT is designed for juniors, so the PSAT NMSQT is slightly harder.
SAT by the CollegeBoard
The purpose of the SAT is to measure a high school student's readiness for college, and provide colleges with one common data point that can be used to compare all applicants.
ACT
The ACT is an admissions test, measuring what students learn in high school to determine academic readiness for college.