Florida
Florida Senate passes bill lowering stakes of school standardized tests
The Florida Senate passed a large education package Thursday that would reduce the impact of standardized testing when it comes to graduation requirements.
The legislation, sponsored by Tallahassee Republican Senator Corey Simon, would no longer require high school students to pass Algebra 1 and the Grade 10 English Language Arts Assessments to earn a high school diploma.
Additionally, it would allow 3rd graders to advance grades even if they failed their reading assessment as long as they passed two previous progress monitoring assessments throughout the year.
Simon said the changes will allow students who get testing anxiety to advance.
“What we’re able to do is look at that data and say, ‘Okay, this kid just had a bad day testing.’ And that happens for some of our kids. Some of our kids just struggle with our tests. But the track record for that student over eight, nine years, we should be able to determine if a kid is on grade level and is mastering the material and just had a bad day,” he said.
The policy is a change in direction from the Republican-controlled body, that since the early 2000’s has championed those assessments. Simon said the current system has led to an emphasis on teaching for the test and contributed to why only a little over half of Florida kids are reading on grade level.
“What we’ve currently been doing, we’ve just been testing our kids and testing our kids, we have to really take a honest look at our education system. If 98% of our teachers are effective or highly effective, but only 53% of our kids are reading on grade level, there’s a problem there,” he said.
His bill has received bipartisan support. Tamarac Democratic Senator Rosalind Osgood said before the vote on the bill that reducing the stakes of the tests is the right move.
“Eliminating high stakes testing for graduation around the Algebra 1 end of year course exam and 10th grade ELA will go a long way in helping our students,” she said.
No House version of this bill has emerged, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead. It’s been an issue Senate President Ben Albritton has heavily messaged on, meaning it could be one of his chamber’s biggest asks when negotiations between the House and Senate begin to happen near the end of session.
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The Florida Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, Dec. 11, filed a lawsuit against popular online gaming platform Roblox, accusing the company of failing to protect its millions of underage users from predatory adults who would “find, groom, and abuse children.”
“Roblox aggressively markets to young children, but fails to protect them from sexual predators,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a post to X. “As a father of three little ones and as Florida’s attorney general, my number one priority is simple: to protect our kids.”
The lawsuit claims Florida children have been talked into taking and sending sexual images of themselves and lists several recent incidences, including a 20-year-old California man arrested last month for having sexually explicit conversations with a Palm Coast child and asking for nude photos.
A Roblox spokesperson said the lawsuit “fundamentally misrepresents how Roblox works.”
“We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications,” Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said in a statement, adding that the company — currently the most downloaded game in the world — will be rolling out additional safeguards “beyond what is required by law and what other platforms do.”
Read Florida’s lawsuit against Roblox
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What is Roblox?
San Mateo, California-based Roblox, released in 2006, hosts millions of user-created games (or “experiences”) constructed with the platform’s built-in game engine. Any user can create a game and share it with others, and there are millions of games available of all types.
The game platform and most games are free to use, but some cost to play. There is also a thriving economy based on Robux, an in-game virtual currency used to purchase virtual items. Roblox offers a subscription service called Roblox Premium that provides access to more features and a monthly allowance of Roblox.
Voice chat is available, but only for users aged 13 or older with verified ages. Age ratings were introduced for games in 2022, and in 2023, 17+ games were permitted to include more graphic violence, romance, and drinking.
According to Roblox, as of 2020, the monthly playerbase included half of all American children under the age of 16.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The 2026 football schedule for the Florida Gators has been set. Next year’s slate was unveiled Thursday night on SEC Network.
The most notable dates are Florida’s SEC opener on Sept. 19 — a Week 3 trip to Auburn, where the Gators haven’t played since 2011 — along with a road game at Texas on Oct. 17 and home games against Ole Miss (Sept. 26) and Oklahoma (Nov. 7).
Next season will mark the Sooners’ first-ever visit to Gainesville. The teams have previously played twice in the postseason, with the Gators defeating Oklahoma 24-14 in their first-ever meeting to win the 2008 national championship.
The Gators open the season in The Swamp on Sept. 5 against Florida Atlantic. UF’s other non-conference opponents will be Campbell (Sept. 12) and at Florida State (Nov. 28).
Florida is also hosting South Carolina (Oct. 10) and Vanderbilt (Nov. 21). The Gators haven’t played the Gamecocks or the Commodores since 2023.
UF takes on Georgia in Atlanta on Oct. 31 after the bye week. Florida’s other road games are Missouri (Oct. 3), Texas (Oct. 17) and Kentucky (Nov. 14).
The Gators will be led by first-year coach Jon Sumrall. He won the American Conference title with Tulane last week and has the Green Wave in the College Football Playoffs. They will have a rematch against Ole Miss on Dec. 20 in the first round after losing in Oxford, 45-10, on Sept. 20.
Sumrall was back in Gainesville this week to assemble his staff. So far, he has hired offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, defensive coordinator Brade White and defensive line coach Gerald Chatman.
Date
Opponent
Location
Sept. 5
Florida Atlantic
Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 12
Campbell
Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 19
at Auburn
Auburn, Alabama
Sept. 26
Ole Miss
Gainesville, Florida
Oct. 3
at Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Oct. 10
South Carolina
Gainesville, Florida
Oct. 17
at Texas
Austin, Texas
Oct. 24
Bye
Oct. 31
Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Nov. 7
Oklahoma
Gainesville, Florida
Nov. 14
at Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Nov. 21
Vanderbilt
Gainesville, Florida
Nov. 28
at Florida State
Tallahassee, Florida
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