St. Johns County educators weigh in on new education standards in Florida

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Florida's Department of Education is on a mission to rewrite the state's standards for learning. With a 2020 deadline, the DOE is looking to school experts for advice.

Monday night in St. Johns County, dozens of teachers, parents and education professionals let their voices be heard on what the standards should look like.

Schools have been using Common Core standards throughout the state up until this year when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order, basically asking for a complete education overhaul.

But some teachers say new standards may not be needed.

Tina Annucci, a SJC middle school teacher, says, "Why they are changing the standards? They rushed these in back in 2015 and now they want to rush them right back out."

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Annucci has been a middle school science teacher in St Johns County for the past 16 years. She says she doesn't understand the immediate need for new standards.

"What's the point? Who's benefiting from it? Is it the students or is it people who produce educational materials and testing?"

Action News Jax first reported in January that DeSantis got rid of the state's current academic standards.

The goal is to create new ones that better adhere to Florida's education needs.

To learn what those needs are, DOE Commissioner Richard Corcoran has been making revisions of the state's standards after listening to people like Annucci.

"Toxic overtesting to get specific test scores for teacher evaluation has increased students stress and anxiety," Annucci exclaimed during public comments.

"The goal is less. The goal is I want you to understand these standards, teach to that rigor, which they're going to do because they're great teachers, but at the same time, I don't need you testing as much," Corcoran said.

The one change many in the room, including Annucci, agreed on is that they want less standardized testing and more hands-on learning.

"Whether they love to learn and how they can go about making connections between our content and the real world is really difficult to assess with a standardized test," Annucci said.

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