Florida’s Three-Times-a-Year FAST Model
Florida did something most states have not: it retired the single once-a-year test and replaced it with F.A.S.T., the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking, which your child takes three times in a school year. Those three windows are called PM1 in the fall, PM2 in the winter, and PM3 in the spring. The most important fact for a parent to hold onto is that these three are not equal. PM1 and PM2 are informational progress checks, and PM3 in the spring is the summative administration that counts for accountability, promotion rules, and graduation-linked decisions.
That distinction solves the single biggest source of Florida testing panic. Each FAST window covers the full grade-level blueprint, including PM1 at the start of the year, which means your child can see standards they have not been taught yet. Florida intends PM1 as a baseline, not a verdict, so a low fall score is not a failure. It is a starting point. When people say “my kid’s score dropped,” the honest reading is that an adaptive test given at three different points in the instructional year is doing three different jobs, and the fall and winter numbers are context, not a grade.
What FAST Looks Like: Format and Item Types
FAST uses more than multiple choice. Expect multiselect, evidence-based selected response, hot-text selection, table match, equation editor, graphing, and other technology-enhanced items, with ELA items always tied to a passage set. Timing is manageable and grade-based. FAST ELA Reading is 90 minutes for PM1 and PM2 and 120 minutes for PM3. Math in grades 3 through 5 runs 80 minutes in the first two windows and 100 minutes in spring, and grades 6 through 8 run 100 and 120 minutes. Writing is a single 120-minute session, and EOCs and Science are a 160-minute session with a break after the first 80 minutes. Documented accommodations through an IEP, 504, or ELL plan include extended time, text-to-speech, speech-to-text for Writing, oral presentation, paper forms, and more. Use Florida’s official practice materials first, since they match the tools and item types your child will actually see.
Which FAST Test Your Child Takes, Grade by Grade
FAST ELA Reading runs from grade 3 through grade 10, and FAST Mathematics runs from grade 3 through grade 8. Starting in grade 4, students also take B.E.S.T. Writing, a standalone written response scored on a 12-point rubric across Purpose and Structure, Development, and Language. Writing is not folded into the ELA Reading score and is not a graduation requirement, so treat it as its own thing.
Science enters in grades 5 and 8. As students reach specific courses, they take end-of-course exams: Algebra 1, Geometry, Biology 1, Civics, and U.S. History. Middle schoolers enrolled in Algebra 1 or Geometry take those EOCs in place of the grade-level math test, and a student taking Biology in middle school takes the Biology EOC instead of grade 8 Science. If your child is on an accelerated path, ask which specific test replaces the grade-level one so nothing catches you by surprise.
How FAST Is Scored and What the Levels Mean
Florida reports results in five achievement levels. Level 1 is Below Grade Level, Level 2 is Approaching Grade Level, Level 3 is On Grade Level, Level 4 is Above Grade Level, and Level 5 is Mastery. Level 3 is the line the state treats as on grade level for most purposes, and it is the number to look for first on the report.
The tests are computer-adaptive, and this is where a common worry comes up. Parents assume “adaptive” means their child received harder, higher-grade material. For FAST in grades 3 through 10, the item bank holds only grade-level content, so the test is not reaching above or below your child’s grade. What changes is which grade-level items appear, based on earlier answers. Florida also reports fast: computer-adaptive results are generally available in the state reporting system within about a day of testing, and state law requires your district to deliver statewide results to you within one week of receiving them. You access them through the Florida Family Portal using a unique access code from your child’s school.
The High-Stakes Points: Grade 3, Grade 10, and Algebra 1
Three moments carry genuine consequences, and they deserve plain language. In grade 3, promotion is tied to reading: a student needs to score Level 2 or higher on the spring PM3 grade 3 ELA Reading test for standard promotion. A Level 1 does not mean automatic retention. It triggers a process that includes good-cause exemptions, portfolio evidence, approved alternative assessments, protections for English learners and students with disabilities, and a summer reading retake opportunity. The accurate line is that Level 1 starts the retention and good-cause review, not that failing means being held back.
At the high school level, students must pass the grade 10 FAST ELA Reading test to meet the ELA graduation assessment requirement, with a current passing score of 247, and students completing Algebra 1 must pass the Algebra 1 EOC, with a current passing score of 400. Both allow approved concordant or comparative-score pathways if a student does not clear the bar on the state test, and retakes are available. EOCs also carry course weight: a statewide EOC serves as the final cumulative exam for its course, so it factors directly into the course grade.
Opting Out in Florida: What Parents Should Know
Florida does not offer a simple, formal opt-out. State law makes participation in statewide assessments mandatory for public school students unless otherwise provided by law, and there is no official opt-out form the way some states provide one. What exists instead is an informal “refusal,” and it is not a clean or consequence-free path, especially where real stakes attach in grade 3, grade 10, Algebra 1, and school accountability. Because day-of handling and any consequences are set locally, verify the current approach with your district’s assessment coordinator and your school’s student progression plan before making a decision, rather than relying on what other parents describe online.
There is also a school-level stake. Schools are generally expected to test 95 percent of students for school-grade accountability, which is part of why schools work to reach every child during the window.