FCAT fiasco: scores wrong

State education officials said Wednesday that they botched one of last year's FCAT tests, putting question marks on everything from school grades and student retention to the status of Florida schools under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. As a remedy, the Department of Education promised an independent panel of experts would audit the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test every year to make sure there are no future glitches.

Said Gov. Charlie Crist: "It doesn't raise my confidence, I can tell you that." More here.

Comments

Said Gov. Charlie Crist: "It doesn't raise my confidence, I can tell you that."

YA THINK!

So, you picked up on that did ya! I wonder how this will play, come budget time?

[D R]

SCHOOL HAS BEEN OUT A WEEK AND I CAN'T EVEN GET MY SON'S RESULTS. THE WEB SITE SAYS "NOT YET AVAILABLE". FCAT IS CRAP.

[jim]

Please, no more testing and no more accountiblity from our schools. Just pay the teachers more money and make sure our "fat" kids go to gym class before hitting those Big Macks. And get better coaches while you're at it. Football is King in our Florida schools. If a school doesn't win on the gridiron, what good is it? Go Florida!

[politicalspectator]

Scores are wrong...FCAT is wrong...it goes together.

ONE: dump the FCAT. its a boondoggle for testing firms, most of whom have deep financial ties to repiglican donors.

TWO: let teachers teach their subjects and truly evaluate the students, and if li'l joanie or li'l johnnie fail because they were too busy playing with their wii or themselves, tough marbles!!

moms and dads need to take responsibility for their spawn!!

[jim]

Right on . Dump the FACT.Dump all testing. Make education "relevant". Let the kids take electives such as Comicbook Reading, Everyone's an American "Idol": SelF-Esteem Made Easy, or, my favorite, Math For Social Justice. Give students a choice. And, of course,have the classes in up to 200 different languages. Now that's education--yeah!

This is a very misleading statement: "Under former Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida began using the FCAT to determine how schools would be graded, whether third-graders should be held back and whether high school seniors could graduate."

The FCAT was instituted during the Chiles administration. It was written and designed to test the Sunshine State Standards that were implemented way before Jeb even ran for office. Regardless, it doesn't change the fact that the FCAT identifies students who are struggling with low skills--the skills they need to thrive in future grades throughout the rest of their schooling. Having worked in Adult Education (aka, drop-outs), I saw the result of students who were 'socially promoted' and were passed from grade to grade with an inferior set of skills. They struggled their entire school career until they finally dropped out. Typically this student would return to school in their early 20's to try and pass the GED exam with a third grade reading level. This inadequate reading level likely had impeded them on the job and in other areas of their lives as well. The students who were in elementary school during the 'scourge' of the FCAT testing and Sunshine State Standards, however, easily test out at least three grade levels higher in their reading and math than a drop-out of the same age who went through school ten years earlier. Skill remediation is hard work, so the fewer skills you have to build, the more quickly you'll be able to pass your GED exam and earn your high school diploma.

The bottom line is: It really doesn't matter that DOE made a technical error that they will now have to fix, because it doesn't address the bigger problem of how the media and teacher's unions and everyone else complaining about FCAT continue to expect so little out of our students. Their disdain for accountability and expectations of failure send a negative, hopeless message to our students that they can't and won't pass the test, rather than encourage them to remediate their skills and reach the higher standard. It's pretty repugnant, IMHO, and they should be ashamed of themselves.

[jim]

"It's pretty repugnant" ---you are right on. Sad for America's future.

[jim]

"It's pretty repugnant" ---you are right on. Sad for America's future.

No problem here folks… Charlie Crist just taught millions how to make millions by being and absentee and irresponsible parent…. Who need FCAT.

[terminator]

Charlie Crist should start by cleaning house over at DOE.
They've got a building full of 900 faceless bureacrats doing nothing but pushing paper from one pile to another.
These are the same people who have been there twenty years or longer and have been through five-six different Commissioners.
Alot of incompetent Jeb Bush patronage hires plus the old DOE dead wood makes for a bad combination.
Jeanne Blomberg as acting Commissioner? Give me a f'ing break?
When's Charlie going to hire a new Commissioner? I think five months is plenty of time.
I can only hope his selection is alot better than the two nitwits (T. Fair and Dr. Akshay Desai) he appointed to the worthless state board of education.
Florida public education K-12 is a f*cking joke!
If you want your kid to get a good education, you better move somewhere out of Florida.

[Bob Thompson]

We moved here from a blue ribbon "A" school district to this joke of a public school system. We repeatedly asked the teacher for imput by e-mail or written letters, nothing. The principal's answer was " you'll have to discuss that with the teacher". Florida sucks, the people are rude, taxes and property insurance is out of hand. Soon as the housing markets breaks I'm selling and going back to the cultured Northeast, moving here was a big mistake.

Not me, I moved into a great school district (did the research first!), and I love the warm weather, beautiful beaches, other recreational opportunities, and the pleasant southern hospitality. Enjoy your pretentiousness, state income taxes, and nine months of cold weather, Bob! Sayonara!

[William Milford]

Where is this great school district???
Southern hospitality my ass, everyone here is from somewhere else. I don't even get a hello from my neighbors. This state caters to tourism and that's the reality
Bob.

[Paul D. Harvill]

"FACT fiasco: scores wrong"

.......

This has become an annual occurrence.

Another Jeb Bush legacy...

Tests work if used to HELP teachers see what needs more work. Instead they are NCLB sledgehammer for public school destruction.
JEB and George fail their oath to support Constitution. NCLB injected military recruiters to deceive kids into false promise army of oil theft skullduggery. NCLB & vouchers & "scholarships" split students away into profitable church schools at your expense. NCLB punishes public schools and students who need help most. NCLB funnels monies to crony companies with inferior products like brother Neil Bush cash COW using overpriced and insulting cartoon fluff.
JEB wouldn't do high speed rail voters put in state constitution. He vowed to disobey our courts to keep funneling taxes to nutbar religious fanatic projects. Just like George paid off televangelists thru illegal "faith-based" failed programs like "abstinence only" with publications profiting weirdos like Dobson spouting lies, half truths, and mandating ignorance of facts which could save teen lives.
Heaven forbid they fully fund fed. program to install filters or replace School Buses so deisel fumes stop gassing students on way to school.
Learning might improve if brains weren't dulled before they GET to school. Making kids breathe cancer causing carcinogens in fumes seems stupid and irresponsible. If it makes them dull -- scores go down -- crony corporate profits go up. Check out that stock market folks. Rich smiles.
Look up how PLUTOCRACY works.
Shame on citizens who do not inform themselves, vote, and demand common sense. Shame on electees who ignore voters. Florida voters demanded smaller class size --- which DOES improve learning. Ignore all "we can't afford it" screams. We can't afford NOT to really educate all citizens. Smart enough to earn a living is cheaper than buying their lawyer, prison, judges, jurors and/or being their victims. Where are the morals of these propagandist profiteers and privitizing plutocrats? SOLD to highest bidder?