I have had an excellent education in primary education at Penn State U and have been horrified at the FCAT's and their use ever since they became a reality of the Florida Schools.
     Through the years and certainly prior to 1962 ,when I graduated from college, there has been extensive educational research in merit pay for teachers as well as other consequences of this test. I  have been wondering why these particular tests were implimented without researching the implications of such a course.  The only answer I have come up with is that Neil Bush is making money off these tests and that our esteemed legislators are too lazy to do their homework before voting.  Any initiative that is politically appealing and can be explained by sound bites is always a positive vote by these people.          
     Long ago merit pay was deemed to cause a depressive atmosphere in the work place.  That shouldn't be a surprise since the best teachers in
the most difficult classes will never get the merit pay. If you read about merit pay for education, the reason it becomes so abhorant is the difficulty in rating the unlimited variables in a classroom.
     Now let's discuss the actual tests.   The stress on younger children is enormous and for what result?  The tests do not coordinate with national tests.! Of course the younger children's improvement in tlhe testing has been positive, but at what cost?  Physical Education, music and other subjects have been eliminated to concentrate on reading and math.  When I taught in the Northeast, the unit method was the way to teach.  You taught reading and math not only at that time schedule, but through music,, science, social studies etc so that the value of reading and math became apparent.
     I  do see the value of some end of year testing, but only for remedial education.   And then, of course,  there needs to be remedial education.  Children should never be left back. It is a social disaster as well as a disaster for individual schools.  That alone is the reason for so many dropouts.
     Bottom line: Politicians should not be making educational policy. Respected educators should be instituting policy AND political affinities should not come into play.   The only role legislators would play should be freeing up money for better salaries for ALL teachers, and let the individual school boards run their schools.  It would even be better if each city area had their own school boards and the county boards be eliminated.
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