Research Outline

Florida: Education Standards and Assessments

Goals

To gather information on the pre-kindergarten to first-grade education standards in Florida and assessment methods for kids in order to help them prepare for Berkeley Preparatory School.

Early Findings

Standards in Florida

  • Standards for the state of Florida can be found on CPALMS's website. It's an official source for standards information and course descriptions in the state.
  • CPALMS's search engine allows searching by subject and grade, including pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade.
  • Private schools don't have to follow Florida's standards. The state is not responsible for the content and comprehensiveness of their curriculums, student assessments, grades, graduation and promotion requirements, or certification, quality, and training of teachers.
  • According to Florida's Department of Education, private schools tend to advertise that their program meets or surpasses state standards. However, the department believes that parents should verify those each school's claims by doing their own research.

Curriculums in Specific Schools

  • Berkeley Preparatory School does not disclose its detailed curriculums.
  • However, there is some information on the curriculums for each grade. For pre-kindergarten, it includes social and emotional development, cognitive growth, creative expression, and physical development.
  • There are brief overviews of the curriculums for the reading workshop, the writing workshop, mathematics, social studies, and science for kindergarten and first grade.
  • Public schools commonly refer to Florida's state standards on their "curriculum" pages, referring to CPALMS's website.


Assessments

  • According to the Family Guide prepared by North West Evaluation Association (NWEA), the best way to prepare for its MAP Growth assessment is to take practice tests that are available here.
  • Children's Progress Academic Assessment (CPAA) has been acquired by NWEA in 2012. It appears that the old website is inactive. There are also no additional resources on NWEA's website.