See blog  www.thestudentistheclass.com

This is another solution

I am a product of the NY State Regents' Exams and there was a non-regents path.  Those students in that particular program usually attended the several vocational schools which were available in Rochester, NY.  Both awarded diplomas.

Sharon

Every conversation thread has to have a heretic so here I am.  I am thrilled to hear the whining and moaning from certain professional/union areas relating to FCAT.  The louder the moaning the more convinced I am that the mission of FCAT to hold people accountable for the quality of the product they are being well paid to produce is working.  Think about this;  if all the touchy-feely, feel good, self esteem processes had worked over the past 30 years, would FCAT have been necessary?  As a stock holder in the systems as both a parent, grandparent, and employer I want to know if my employees are turning out people I can hire who can at least read directions on a can opener.  If you can't hack FCAT to graduate that means you didn't get the basic, basic material.  I can't hire you under false pretenses when you show up with a meanginless diploma.   There are other alternatives for the student who can't grasp the basics covered by FCAT.  And teachers, rather than lament having to teach to the FCAT, go for it with gusto and use that energy of dissent to find a way to make it more meaningful and empowering for your students.    Go FCAT!

I had the opportunity recently to go back into a high school class  to teach ESOL/Reading  students.  Two of the classes were for EOSL students who did not pass the FCAT.  Ironically, ESOL methods include shorter assignments for ESOL students.  When I gave a practice FCAT test to the tenth graders, they expressed concerns that the test was boring and that the reading passages were too long. Their failure had an impact on the grade of the high school.  Maybe provisions should be made for ESOL students.

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 Civic Concern notes:  Legislative leaders and members of the state board of education traveled last week to New York for an in-depth look at that state's Regents exams. For months now, there have been high-level discussions of shifting Florida's accountability system toward end-of-course exams, which some experts say would be a more useful tool than the FCAT.
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And yet the myth that FCAT results provide an adequate evaluative benchmark to determine academic progress and individual excellence is perpetuated.  Take Saint Johns public schools as an illustration.  My comment relates to the unswerving loyalty of the Superintendent and the present School Board to the FCAT as adequate evaluation device providing credible results of academic achievement and progress.

At present all four Saint Johns high schools are classified as Grade B by the state results.  Somehow the Grade A status of Nease and Bartram, the Grade C of Menendez and Grade D of St. Augustine High a year before have been magically transformed to straight B's in 2007.   What happened?  Could it be the change in private corporate testing companies, the lingering end to the Jeb Bush era of inertia, the adding of the 'science' dimension to secondary evaluation or simply another reflection of a truly BAD standardized test with little hope of rectifying its methodological jumble?  

Or maybe you believe the kids in four different settings just rose or settled to a happy medium in one year?  

Whatever the true reason, it is past time that Florida citizens and taxpayers demand their public schools address their  standard testing images within the community,state and nation.   Yes, I know that Saint Johns Staff are well aware of the methodological and conceptual issues in the test
( as are a majority of the Board I suspect) but that does not change the fact that Saint Johns refuses to be a proactive leader within Florida districts, demanding 'more and better' education progress alternatives than FCAT profiles.  

The state of Florida now seems to recognize they need help from somewhere else with an adequate evaluative process.  At least the New York State PEP and Regents tests have Standards that differentiate 'beginning' from 'commencement' progress. See math and language arts illustrations below.

http://www.albany.edu/~dkw42/math.html

http://www.albany.edu/~dkw42/english.html

And New York Regents offers a spectrum of Subject driven tests for secondary profiles that are a 'tad' better than the generics of Reading, Writing, Math and Science collected on 10 and 11th graders.

And the bottom line is that Professor Dorn's assessment of Florida's  FCAT is correct;
no prop up by SAT or NAEP (or even Stanford 11) will mitigate the fundamental FCAT methodological flaws apparent since its inception in 1999...with or without A+ obligations.

Saint Johns k12 has been performing in the Top Five of the state since the FCAT inception. A half decade as a Grade A district.  This is just the type of k12 jurisdiction that should help all of Florida public education move from its comfortable niche of being about 30th nationally and lead the way in promoting top flight student evaluation and  continuous assessment integrity.  Demand something better than FCAT.