- December 13, 2025
Final FCAT scores are in. The School Board also formally opposed high-stakes testing.
By a vote of 4-1, the Flagler County School Board approved a national proclamation formally opposing standardized, high-stakes testing. Trevor Tucker opposed at the Tuesday, June 5, meeting.
For the board, signing the proclamation will send state legislators a message to look at alternative testing methods, or allow for multiple testing.
“There’s not necessarily something wrong with assessment, or with a norm,” board member Colleen Conklin said. “The issue is with the politicizing of it, and the misuse of it. … (The FCAT) has consistently brought up questions of validity.”
Andy Dance agreed.
“Having successful students after school,” he said, “is about problem-solving, creative instruction and cooperation … not testing.”
“We have to be leaders, and if we believe in something,” John Fischer added, “we have to make a stand.”
Tucker opposed on the grounds of accountability. “I don’t know how you compare people without (standardized testing),” he said.
Katie Hanson, teachers union president, took the podium before the vote to talk about her 7-year-old son, who is in second grade.
“He is an all-A student … a teacher-pleaser” she said. “But he was visibly stressed out about having to take (the FCAT next year). … I don’t want to see (young children) stressed out about one test on one day.”
Conklin agreed, adding that, in her house, the FCAT used to be known as “the F-word”
“When you create stress, (that’s) not how you motivate people,” she said. “It’s like life: everything in moderation.”
