Florida students did better on their state benchmark tests this year.
But one critic said these tests are not an accurate indicator of how students are — or aren't — improving.
Students take Florida Assessment of Student Thinking tests for math and English-language arts courses three times a year. End-of-course exams are given twice a year for some science and history courses.
The state measures improvement by the number of students testing on-level or higher. Students are tested in the subjects at various grade levels between third and 10th grade.
Roughly 3% more students in the greater Tampa Bay region scored on-level or higher by the end of the 2024-25 school year in the four subjects compared to the previous year's assessments.
On average, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota counties had more students reach this benchmark.
But while scores on state tests improved, the president of state's largest teachers' union says that Florida students' national test scores are falling.
"If we truly want to have the world-class education systems we should have here in Florida, then we've got to look a little broader than just the state assessments," Florida Education Association president Andrew Spar said.
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The National Assessment of Educational Progress puts Florida in the bottom half of the country for math and reading, but better in science and writing.
Florida's SAT scores are dropping as well, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Spar said one reason students may be doing better on state assessments but not national ones is that Florida keeps changing the test it uses.
Spar said consistent national tests, such as the SAT and ACT, are better indicators.
"The issue I would say in all of this is it's hard to know how our students are doing over the course of time when we constantly switch the type of assessment we are using to assess students," he said.
Florida switched to FAST testing during the 2022-23 school year.
Spar added that these tests also compare different classes each year rather than judging the progress of a group over time.
Gina Michalicka, Hernando County's assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, said state tests are necessary.
"It's teaching to the rigor of those benchmarks to make sure that we are consistently challenging our students with rigorous coursework," Michalicka said.
She said Hernando uses state tests to determine what teachers and students need to focus on in the classrooms.
"We have some really good processes in Hernando County that we've rolled out so that that facilitated lesson planning around those benchmarks is occurring," she said.
For example, teachers host "data chats" with students to review test scores and then share overall data with the district.
While some parents have expressed concerns about teachers "teaching to the test" rather than what their students need, Michalicka said this isn't the case.
She said teachers are teaching to a rigorous benchmark, not one test.
Spar said these test scores should be just one of many measures of how a student is doing.
"We shouldn't put a whole bunch of effort into a single test score," Spar said.
He said the focus should be on addressing Florida's teacher shortage, a lack of funding for schools and too many regulations teachers need to follow.
Pinellas County's school district said it is hoping to continue to improve already-rising test scores in the 2025-26 school year.
In a press release, the county added that the data show a narrowing achievement gap among students but they cannot be used by the district to assess how these gaps affect different groups.
Manatee County interim superintendent Kevin Chapman said his district's science scores have greatly improved over the past 10 years.
But he added that changes to the assessment method makes tracking the progress more challenging.
"Every couple of years, the testing seems to change, and you have to keep up with it, and that does make it harder to do apples-to-apples comparisons," he said.
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