Narrative: a.

Florida has a longstanding history of standards–based instruction from the original Sunshine State Standards to the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards and most recently with the adoption of the Florida Standards (English Language Arts and Mathematics) by the state board of Education in 2014. The Florida Standards are the official state–adopted challenging academic content standards that fulfill the statutory requirement, under section 1111(b)(1) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(1)). Anchored by empirical evidence of what employers and educators actually demand of prospective employees and students, the Florida Standards share a dual purpose in preparing both K–12 and adult students to be college and career ready. Florida has historically set clear expectations between K–12 and its content equivalent counterpart in adult education by ensuring that standards–based instruction is aligned to the state adopted content standards in K–12; thus ensuring that all students (K–12 or adult), regardless of their pathway to graduation, have access to rigorous standards that will prepare them to be college and career ready. As such, Florida has already aligned its adult education content standards for Adult Basic Education (ABE) to the Florida Standards. ABE standards are the grade level equivalent of K–8 of the Florida Standards. The adult education curriculum frameworks containing the aligned standards were approved by the State Board of Education in April 2015. At the adult secondary level, adult high school credit programs implement the same course descriptions and standards as those used in the K–12 educational system and adult students participate in the same statewide assessment program that measures student mastery of the Florida Standards. GED® preparation courses are also a component of Florida’s adult secondary level programming and are also aligned to Florida’s evidenced–based standards. A high school equivalency diploma is issued in Florida to candidates who successfully demonstrate competency in language arts (reading and writing), mathematics, science, and social studies. The assessment used for the diploma program is the 2014 GED® Test, which was selected based upon a competitive procurement conducted to select a single assessment product for high school equivalency in Florida. The competitive process included a review of the assessment content for alignment with Florida’s Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics, as well as social studies and science content. The review process confirmed the alignment of the assessment with challenging academic standards. The current contract period for the use of the assessment runs through December 2017 and may be extended through December 2020 on an annual basis. All high school equivalency diploma state curriculum is aligned to the content standards for this assessment. Future competitive procurements will require that the assessment be based upon Florida’s academic content standards for high school graduates.