Remember when the teachers unions screamed that DeSantis was destroying Florida's education system?
The unions said progress monitoring would wreck Florida's kids.
Florida students just crushed the teachers union with math scores that everyone said were impossible.
The Numbers That Have Unions Scrambling
Mid-year results for the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking just dropped.
49% of students are performing at or above grade level in English.
That's a 10-point jump since September.
Math scores are even more dramatic.
34% of students hit grade-level benchmarks, an 18-point surge from September.
That's nearly 20,000 additional kids now performing at grade level in math alone.
Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas credited DeSantis for replacing "high-stakes testing with the nation's first progress monitoring system."
The system tests kids three times per year instead of one make-or-break exam at the end.
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2021676969008460275?s=20
Why This Crushes the Union Narrative
Back in March 2022, when DeSantis signed the law killing the Florida Standards Assessment, teachers unions went ballistic.
The Florida Education Association called it a failure.
The bill "fails to meet" what teachers and parents wanted, they said.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2021625232403182020?s=20
Union President Andrew Spar claimed the bill "does not focus on student learning" and would add "more work for already overwhelmed teachers."
He said it "fails students."
Instead, Florida's pioneering exactly what education research says works.
A 2024 meta-analysis of 25 studies covering 7,379 students found that progress monitoring produces a 0.30 effect size on academic performance.
The research shows the gains are even bigger when teachers get ongoing support on how to use the data.
The High-Stakes Testing Scam Finally Dies
For decades, teachers unions pushed one massive exam at the end of the year.
Results came back in summer when it was too late to help anyone.
The whole system existed to protect union interests rather than educate children.
DeSantis killed that entire racket.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2021970480895529331?s=20
The new system gives parents and teachers real-time data three times per year so they can actually intervene when kids struggle.
The first year of FAST testing told the whole story.
When FAST started in fall 2022, only 15 out of every 100 Florida kids could handle grade-level math.
By spring, 59 out of 100 could.
Other States Are Watching
Oklahoma watched this happen and killed their end-of-year testing in August 2025.
August 2025: Oklahoma killed standardized end-of-year testing.
Superintendent Ryan Walters surveyed 15,349 Oklahoma parents and found 86% said standardized testing wasn't necessary for evaluating student learning.
Florida proved there's a better way.
Progress monitoring doesn't let bad teachers hide behind yearly test scores that arrive after students are gone for summer.
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2021613935216968070?s=20
Progress monitoring forces teachers to actually teach instead of hiding behind test scores that show up after kids are gone for summer.
The mid-year Florida results prove it works.
Parents get real information while their kids are still in school.
And teachers can actually fix problems instead of discovering them three months too late.
Sources:
- Anita Padilla, "Florida students show gains in mid-year FAST Assessments, Education Commissioner reports," Florida News, February 11, 2026.
- Florida Department of Education, "Commissioner of Education Announces Significant Increases in Mid-Year Progress Monitoring Results," Press Release, February 11, 2026.
- WFSU News, "Florida will dump standardized tests in favor of progress monitoring in public schools," March 16, 2022.
- Fuchs, A., Radkowitsch, A., & Sommerhoff, D., "Using learning progress monitoring to promote academic performance: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness," Educational Research Review, November 2024.
- Fox News, "Standardized tests being dropped by red state following Trump Department of Education changes," August 8, 2025.
- NotieAI, "How to Use Florida Fast Testing Data: Teacher's Guide," November 3, 2025.
