Schools and Education Residents Outraged at Falling FCAT Scores

BRADENTON -- Several members of the public expressed concern with the preliminary results on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. This year, there was a dramatic decline in writing scores after the State Board of Education increased the level of difficulty for the test to prepare for new nationwide educational standards. Expectations for the correct use of punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and sentence structure, as well as the quality of details used to explain, clarify, or define were all amplified.

The State Board of Education scheduled an emergency conference call meeting for Tuesday to consider reducing the passing grade.

The preliminary results show only 27 percent of 4th graders received a passing score of 4 or better compared to 81 percent last year. For 8th graders, it was 33 percent – down from 82 percent in 2011. Only 38 percent of 10th graders passed, compared to 80 percent last year, according to the FDOE. 

Christine Sket, a concerned citizen, came forward during public comment at Monday night’s school board meeting. She said that high stakes testing is the GOP’s way of pushing a corporate agenda that intentionally fails public schools through Pearson and in turn gives more tax dollars to charters. The educational foundation is affiliated with Pearson – the national testing giant that has the FCAT contract. 

”Pearson is not reliable,“ said Sket. ”Our ACT and SAT scores have not gone up and statewide dropout rates have actually increased.“

Sket asked that members of the school board halt FCAT testing and teacher evaluations. She said she was in favor of teacher and professor based testing -- more like exams given in college. 

”The FCAT is not realistic,“ said Sket. ”In college, students have the option of taking placement tests more than once. Even students taking the state bar exam are given multiple opportunities to pass it. The FCAT is a mistake, and our children are suffering.“

Local activist and school board candidate Dave Miner advised the board to lobby the state legislature for change. 

”We have a lot of problems with FCAT,“ said Miner, who is running for District 2 on the board. ”The system is based on punishing public education and it’s not good for anyone. We need to stop it. We need to reform it, and I hope you will support Palm Beach and other counties that have said Ôwe have had enough’.“

Board member Robert Gause questioned the viability of FCAT as a tool, even though he thought it was well intentioned when it was first created. He said the district spends millions of dollars dealing with FCAT every year, and students lose several days of learning because of the test. Gause said the test was questionable in its current application because not only have test scores not increased, but also college readiness has not been augmented. He thought the stress being placed upon students and teachers was unsubstantiated. He recommended the board look at collaborating with other districts like Palm Beach, which are lobbying the legislature in order to change the test.

”At some point the legislature has to take a good look at this and realize it isn’t working,“ said Gause.