FAST Math Practice

About the FAST

Florida replaced the FSA with the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) starting in the 2022-2023 school year. Unlike a single end-of-year exam, FAST is a progress-monitoring system: students in grades 3 through 8 take three shorter, computer-adaptive tests across the year - PM1 in August/September, PM2 in December/January, and PM3 at the end of the year. Only PM3 produces the summative score that is used for school accountability and grade-three promotion decisions, but PM1 and PM2 give teachers and families early signals about where a student is strong or struggling. All three administrations are aligned to Florida's B.E.S.T. Standards for mathematics.

Florida's B.E.S.T. (Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking) Standards replaced the state's previous Common Core-aligned standards starting in 2020-2021, and they are now the basis for every FAST math item. While the B.E.S.T. Standards reorganize and re-label expectations, the underlying mathematical content tracks closely with the Common Core domains parents may already know - so a strong CC-aligned curriculum maps well to what FAST PM3 actually tests. Reports show the student's scale score, FAST Achievement Level (1-5), and category-level performance such as Number Sense and Operations, Algebraic Reasoning, Measurement, Geometric Reasoning, and Data Analysis and Probability.

Official source: https://www.fldoe.org/accountability/assessments/k-12-student-assessment/best/