Democrats urge Crist to audit FCAT

House Democrats sent a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist this morning urging him to authorize an audit of the FCAT given problems that were disclosed last week.

"While we commend the Department of Education for disclosing the mistake and taking action to help avoid similar problems on future FCATs, the House Democratic Caucus believes more needs to be done to restore confidence in public school accountability. It concerns us, however, that it took the DOE a year to discover the scoring discrepancies after questions were initially raised," the letter reads. (Read more in comments).

Comments

[Alex Leary]

The Honorable Charlie Crist
PL-05 The Capitol
400 South Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL. 32399-0001

Dear Governor Crist:

Last week’s troubling news about the scoring of the third grade reading portion of the 2006 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test has shaken the confidence of parents, school officials and state political leaders as to the test’s reliability.

While we commend the Department of Education for disclosing the mistake and taking action to help avoid similar problems on future FCATs, the House Democratic Caucus believes more needs to be done to restore confidence in public school accountability. It concerns us, however, that it took the DOE a year to discover the scoring discrepancies after questions were initially raised.

House Democrats believe that nothing short of a major overhaul of the current FCAT-based accountability system needs to take place by next year. In the interim, here are some things that we believe are needed to begin getting a clear assessment of where things stand today:

• A complete audit of all FCAT results since the test was implemented in 2000, not just a rescoring of the 2006 test. This audit should be performed by an independent organization that Republican and Democratic leaders in the Legislature can support.

• An analysis of other ways mistakes could be made, not just from using inadequate anchor questions, which could lead to skewed test scores resulting in children being inappropriately promoted or retained.

• An analysis of the impact of the 2006 third grade reading test’s error on: students who should have been retained under the state’s mandatory retention law but were not; the distribution of school recognition money; compliance with the Adequate Yearly Progress provision in the No Child Left Behind Act; compliance and distribution of federal dollars to Title I schools; teacher merit pay; and supplemental academic instruction funds.

• A comprehensive look at the longitudinal and latitudinal impacts of the scoring error on all grade levels.

• An assessment of whether any laws were broken by promoting children to the fourth grade who otherwise would have been retained in third grade because of the mandatory retention law.

• An analysis of how children performed in the fourth grade this year who otherwise would have been retained in the third grade under the mandatory retention law had the 2006 FCAT been scored correctly.

Again, we believe these are matters that need addressing to begin a comprehensive assessment of accountability reform. We must start that process now, with your help and that of Republican leaders in the House and Senate, if we hope to restore confidence in public school accountability.

It should be the highest priority for Florida’s political leaders to make certain that our children receive the highest quality and most reliable public school education available. Time is of the essence.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Rep. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, District 109 Rep. Shelley Vana, District 85

Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, District 69

cc: The Honorable Ken Pruitt
The Honorable Marco Rubio
The Honorable Evelyn Lynn
The Honorable Joe Pickens
Education Commissioner Jeanine Blomberg

Did Gelber deliver this in person at dinner last night?

Well if the Democrats want this, then the Governor will probably do it. Republican elected officials need not apply!!

I didn't know Democrats could even spell FTAC!

[terminator]

This could be the beginning of the de-emphasizing of FCAT after eight brutal years of Jeb Bush "smoke and mirrors" education policy.

What Charlie really needs to do is completely overhaul DOE in Tallahassee.

The agency is chock full of over the hill career bureaucrats who simply shove piles of paper around all day and accomplish little to nothing for public education K-12.

Most have been there over twenty years and continue to survive through six different commissioners and numerous re-orgs.

Jeanne Blomberg as acting Commissioner? Give me a f'ing break! When the hell is Charlie going to hire someone to replace Winn? Five months should of been plenty enough time for a thorough search.

DOE deadwood bureaucracy and unqualified Jeb Bush patronage hires is a bad combination for Florida kids. No wonder we're in the toilet nationally.

DOE is rudderless and a monument to governmental inefficiency.

while u r auuiting the fcat results, lesse just how many $$$$ found their way into jebbian and fellow piglican associated folks' pockets, for this farce,eh?
starting with brother neil and his various edjukashun-related scams!

Termie ~ You are right about DOE being rudderless. There's a crisis at the Department, while we all wait for the "executive search" to produce a Commissioner by October! What a fantastic joke. I'll tell you though, there are some great folks there who do care about students & teachers-- despite the dogmatic leadership.

3:39--- Remember, Jeb Bush couldn't spell 'edcuation'.

[terminator]

8:08
I'm sure I shouldn't paint all with the same broad brush.
I just remember alot who were in by 7 and out by 3!
Been there, done that.

Termie - 8:08 back at you. You know, the nature of bureaucracy is a funny thing. Some folks can do a mighty fine job in 8 hours, while others can work 16 and accomplish nothing. That notwithstanding, the crisis at DOE is real and taking 10 months to select a new Commissioner is unacceptable. I do not understand the relationship between Crist and the State Board. Who's in charge?

[Paul D. Harvill]

FCAT requires a lot of investigations given its sordid history the past eight years or so.