ORLANDO, Fla. – A teacher in Orange County told some lawmakers Tuesday this week that her students are losing at least 37 days of room instruction for the test preparation every year.

The English teacher at the Timber Creek High School in Orlando, Florida, Peggy Dominguez, spoke during the hearing of the senate education committee last Tuesday. Dominguez said that the time being spent on the students’ test preparation for the upcoming Florida Standards Assessment includes telling the students about the instruction and showing them how the assessment platform would actually look like.

Lawmakers have heard several matters including the SB 926 which will move most of the state testing to the school year’s last three weeks and which will shorten the test preparation. The proposal will also require the test scores of students, both for the current and the subsequent school year, to be given to the teachers. This also includes the report detailing students’ strengths and some areas that are in need of improvement.

The bill also seeks a review of the SAT and ACT college admissions tests to find out if the test contents cover only English Language Arts and math courses taught in high school. The review will be done by Pam Stewart, the Commissioner of Education. Representatives from the Orange and Seminole counties’ school districts also spoke at the hearing.

Dominguez related her concern to the lawmakers, saying that on her English 1 and 2, three-quarters of the students have disabilities while the rest of the students are considered low learners or those that can neither read nor write. Students usually start reading during the third to fifth-grade level, she added.

Dominguez also added that the standardized tests from the state don’t capture the abilities and skills that her students have gained during the school year. She said that it is not an authentic assessment of what her students can do. They would then need additional time for test preparation for the state’s assessment.

She said that she provides her students some accommodations in her instruction based on their abilities. She provides visual elements for students with hearing impairment and speaks to them directly. However, during the Florida Standards Assessment, she is not allowed to do this.

Allison Liby-Schoonover, a lobbyist, spoke on behalf of the Seminole schools about the district’s plea to allow high school students to take SAT or the ACT college admission tests instead of the FSA because they feel that double testing is just a waste of the classroom time, student time, and most especially the taxpayers’ dollars.