High standards will keep Florida’s students, workforce competitive | Opinion

Throughout the pandemic, Florida remained competitive because our leaders kept schools and businesses open, lowered taxes and swatted down frivolous litigation that keeps the costs of goods and services high.

They’ve also gone the distance for K-12 education.

Thanks to bold leadership in this year’s legislative session, we now have a landmark parental-choice program. Public charter schools are on their way to equitable funding. We’ve increased our focus on early literacy and math instruction to improve student learning, created new pathways for teachers to teach and allocated more funding to students and educators alike.

Yet amid all this good news, there’s a looming action that determines whether our students are prepared to compete with students from other states as they enter college, the workforce or military careers: the passing scores the State Board of Education sets for Florida’s new state tests.

Why is this so important? Our students don’t just compete with other students from Florida. They are competing for opportunities with students from all over the country.

Every state has a test for students in reading and math and every state sets a passing score on their test.

The problem in Florida is the alarming gap between how many students achieve a proficient score on our state tests versus how many are deemed proficient on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a required national test measuring the same basic skills.

Massachusetts, the highest performing state in the country, has barely any gap between how many students it says are performing on grade level on their state test and how many score proficient on the national test.

When we look at passing math scores for Florida eighth graders in 2022, just 23% are proficient on the NAEP, but 57% are passing the state test. That means 34% of students that we say are prepared on the state test would not be proficient on the national test.

On paper, those numbers might not stand out, but in reality that translates into tens of thousands of students not measuring up to the national standard. Families across Florida should be worried that, if we don’t increase our expectations, their kids won’t be prepared to succeed.

According to a 2022 College Board report on SAT scores, 41% of Florida test takers did not meet the college readiness benchmark for reading and writing, and 69% of test takers did not meet the college-readiness benchmark for math. Almost nine out of 10 Florida high school graduates took the SAT.

It all comes down to this: When you expect less, you get less, and Florida is expecting less not just compared with Massachusetts but with our neighboring states of Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee.

In the coming weeks, the Florida State Board of Education has an opportunity to raise expectations to ensure students are prepared for the future. I urge board members to rise to the occasion and raise passing scores so students are prepared to successfully compete for opportunities with students from across the country.

I know it won’t be easy. There are plenty of folks — elected and appointed— who’d rather report high percentages of students passing the state test than have honest conversations about how our students are performing.

Florida’s K-12 successes to date have happened for many reasons, including meaningful and consistent accountability. Low passing scores harm that process; high passing scores create pressure on the system to support underperforming students.

Florida has a rich history of rigorous expectations and raising the bar in education.

We can do this, but it will take the same kind of bravery lawmakers and our governor showed during the legislative session.

With passing scores aligned with proficiency on the NAEP, Florida students will demonstrate a thorough understanding of grade-level content and show that they are ready for college-level coursework or employment.

Our shared, strong commitment to high expectations will benefit everyone and continue the decades-long legacy of K-12 excellence in Florida.

Jeb Bush was governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He is the founder and chair of ExcelinEd and ExcelinEd in Action.