Assessment

Florida Department of Education Approves Curriculum Associates for Private School Scholarship Programs

• By Sri Ravipati
• 06/05/17

Florida private schools participating in either the Florida Tax Credit or the Gardiner Scholarship Program can now use a math and reading assessment system from Curriculum Associates to meet program requirements.

Private schools in either of these scholarship programs must “demonstrate academic accountability to the parent by annually administering or making provisions for students participating in the scholarship program to take one of the nationally norm-referenced tests,” according to the 2016 Florida State Statutes Section 1008.22. The Florida Department of Education recently approved the Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready Diagnostic assessment for grade 3 to 12 “to provide student academic achievement and learning gains data to students, parents, teachers, school administrators and school district staff,” as required by the Florida Statutes.

Although Curriculum Associates only recently joined the list of 20 other approved norm-referenced assessments for private schools to use, the i-Ready program is the most widely used supplemental mathematics and reading program in Florida public schools. About 75 percent of school districts, or 1 million students, use i-Ready, according to a company spokesperson. The web-based adaptive diagnostic system helps to pinpoint student needs and offers ongoing progress monitoring to ensure students are prepared to meet end-of-year benchmarks.

More information about the i-Ready Diagnostic system can be found in the video below or on the Curriculum Associates site.