Karen Thurman: “as a math teacher in Dunnellon, Florida when the State of Florida mandated the state assessment tests, I started the…”

“as a math teacher in Dunnellon, Florida when the State of Florida mandated the state assessment tests, I started the first remediation classes for math at the High School. The diagnostic testing that was performed allowed educators to address the weaknesses of students before they progress to a higher grade. Recently, I was at a wedding where one of the students who was in my program came up to me and said that he would not have passed math without the remedial work I did with him. Mr. Chairman I share this story with the House because it is critical that testing be used as a diagnostic process to help students in areas where they are underperforming and not just to collect statistics. Mr. Chairman, we hear constantly about the federal government getting too heavily involved in state matters. I believe this is a priority we should leave to the states. I also wonder why we are using federal money to duplicate programs already being performed by the states when we should be using the Federal dollars to reduce the class size for our children.”