My complaint about FCATs
I don't normally write about personal experience on this blog. However, I thought it worthwhile to share my family's recent experience with the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, also known as FCAT.
First, my lead paragraph: We have a third-grader, Dillon, at Florosa Elementary in Okaloosa County, and I'm happy to report that he passed the FCAT. Dillon's success is largely a result of three things: Dillon has a fantastic teacher named Rosia Cahn; my wife, Mary, has worked religiously with Dillon on his homework; and Dillon has personally worked hard to improve his reading skills.
But the FCAT left us with some negative feelings. I think the state of Florida places far too much emphasis on the FCAT results. This causes schools and teachers to "teach to the test" if only for their own survival. The FCATs also cause an unnecessarily high level of anxiety for parents and children. If a third-grader has bad FCAT test day, it could too greatly impact their academic future, their self-esteem, and the rest of their life. That seems to be to be more pressure than a nine-year-old child needs.
I'm not opposed to standards. But I'm also for balance, and I think FCAT has caused the education system to focus too much on the results of one test.
What do others think about FCAT?
posted by Patrick Rice @ 1:25 PM
33 Comments
33 Comments:
Boy do I have complaints about FCAT. Around our house we call it the 4 letter f word. My daughter was retained in the 6th Grade based only on her FCAT test. She passed all her classes for the year and had a B in her English Honors class. She is an ESE student that works very hard and has great study habits and coping skills. She was not tested according to her IEP, I think they didn't think she needed it because in 5th Grade with her accommodations she scored level 4's. Plus the teacher that would normally oversee her testing had recently been arrested for having relations with a student. Anyway, she didn't do as well and no amount of reasoning with then Superintendent Don Gaetz made any difference. He claimed it was out of his control, that the school board determines retention based on FCAT. A quick side note, my friend has a son who basically flunked school but can pour it on for FCAT he scored well and the moved him onto the next grade.
One of my biggest issues about the test is the requirement that it be used for graduation. There is algebra on the math test for high school students and algebra isn't required to graduate. Texas, one of the states that started this, just passed into law rules that will eliminate their standardized test (TAKS) and replace it with end of subjects exams that will only apply to the classes an individual has taken. This would be a better indicator of how our education system is working. In a few short years when the current crop of young students go through school that have only been taught this test, I am sure we will look back on this terrible experiment and wonder where we went wrong
Mr. Rice, would you prefer we evaluate kids with smiley faces and frowny faces? There has to be some quantitative way to measure what students are learning.
The problem isn't standardized testing--we've had norm-referenced tests in public schools for decades, and they serve as a good measure of how well our children are doing when compared to those in other schools, districts, and states. The problems arise when high stakes are attached to the test in the form of life-altering decisions such as grade retention and graduation for students; school grades, funding, and bonuses for teachers and administrators.
Everything is distorted by the FCAT--especially the curriculum, as our schools become giant test prep factories.
The FCAT was NOT designed to tell us what our children know and what they might need help with. Even John Winn, the recently departed FCAT czar, freely and publicly admitted that. The FCAT is designed to rank and sort children into five bands of "achievement," which ultimately determine their fitness for the vaunted Global Economy--or consign them to a permanent underclass who clean our beaches, flip our burgers, and bus our tables.
Anyone who has more than one child or who has worked with children knows that one size doesn't fit all, that all children don't learn the same things at the same time. A study of children's fears done back in the early 1980s showed that after losing a parent and going blind, children fear grade retention more than anything. Researchers who did a similar study recently found that for sixth graders, fear of being held back ranked #2. Frightened children do not learn well, not do they often become productive citizens.
Let's stop shaming and stigmatizing children, families, schools, neighborhoods, etc. and instead devote ourselves and our resources to reaching every child, and to open, constructive, broad-based assessment that respects the diversity of learners and the complexity of learning.
Gloria Pipkin
Lynn Haven, FL
Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform
www.fcarweb.org
Join the club!
No one that is sensible disagrees with you on the fact that there is too much emphasis on the FCAT.
But when it comes down to it, the FCAT is definitely not a hard test for the majority of students. The stuff teachers actually teach as part of the class is much more difficult and challenging than what is on the FCAT.
But it works, and actually it works quite well in these parts considering how good the scores in Okaloosa and Santa Rosa have been these past several years.
The FCAT is a good standardized test, but it just needs to be scaled-down.
I hate to look at it this way, but it could be worse…we could be Alabama.
The only reason the FCAT was developed is to give some measurable performance criteria, to justify teacher bonuses.
There is no correlation that higher scores make students better workers, employees or citizens.
The score are higher in High School because low scoring students are asked to drop out and pursue a GED or pushed into a Vocational school or the military.
First to anonymous, yes I agree that there has to be some quantitive way with what the students are learning, but the constant talk about the FCAT testing from day one at the start of the school year is definately not the way to go. And perhaps, maybe for the younger grade levels, that "smiley and frowny faces" is possibly what the younger children need to give them incentive to either continue doing good work, or a means to improve.
Mr Rice, I agree with you 100% when you state that the schools "teach to the test". I have 4 children who have or are still in the Santa Rosa school system. My youngest is in the 5th grade, getting ready to move onto middle school. I strongly believe that the structure of our children's education is based off of this test. Yes, I do understand that there has to be some teaching standards and guidelines, but it seems that once the FCAT is taken in February, all the teaching stops, when yet, we have 3 months of school left. What ever happened to the standard IOWA tests that we took in school growing up? Everything that we were taught in school was on those tests, but our teachers did not teach to the test, we were taught the basic curriculum that we needed for our futures. Times have changed with all the technology we have now and assessments of our children's education have also changed. My children have come home crying after taking the test, becasue they were so afraid of failing; because of the emphasis that the principal and entire faculty of the schools put on the FCAT. Teaching to the test should not be the standard.
No doubt, we need some type of measurement, but the FCAT is not the answer. This is nothing more than a stress producer for students and teachers. I have serious doubts as to the validity of the test when after years of FCAT's and FCAT preperation our students graduate only to need remedial studies at the college level in reading and math. This is a common thread and has been reported in serveral colleges in the state. Our county leads the state but just check with OWC to get a true picture of out childrens academic achievement.
The alternative is having kids graduate from high school that cant read, as in the "good old days".
Drew wrote that the FCAT isn't that difficult, and cited as evidence the fact that students in Okaloosa and Santa Rosa tend to do well on it. The primary reason students in Okaloosa and Santa Rosa score well compared to other districts is that the poverty levels are lower than for the state in general, and there are fewer students with limited English proficiency (LEP).
The department of education web site has a feature called "school indicators" that allows you to look at a wide range of data at the school, district, and state levels. Santa Rosa, for example, reported that less than 2% of its students are LEP (2005 is the most recent year for which data is available), while in the state at large, more than 10% were classified as LEP. In some districts it's closer to 25%.
So as much as we'd like to believe that our kids in the Panhandle are smarter than kids in other places, the reality is that they tend to be more privileged.
The school indictors data is at http://data.fldoe.org/fsir/default.cfm
Anonymous wrote, "The alternative [to FCAT] is having kids graduate from high school that cant read, as in the 'good old days.'"
The vaunted gains in reading that show up in third grade largely disappear in middle and high school. If we were really doing such a great job of teaching kids to read and if the improved test scores of younger students were valid, we wouldn't see those declines in upper grades. The major effect FCAT has on struggling readers is to push them out of school altogether.
And contrary to the myth, few people outside of special education ever received a Florida high school diploma without minimal competency in reading even before the Reign of Terror began. And the special ed graduates get diplomas labeled "special."
whatever happened to the old stanford tests i took all through elementary, junior and senior high? they seemed to work pretty good at finding out who needed help in what subject. go back to that instead of fcat. fcat doesn't do a bit of good. all you have to do is look at a job application filled out by a recent graduate, or ask them to do simple math in their head, or on a piece of paper. the misspellings are everywhere, and without a calculator they are lost. if you really want to have some fun, ask them to make change for a dollar without using four quarters.
Your concerns about the adverse impact of the FCAT, "teaching-to-the-test," and lack of effective educaion are well founded. We have had standardized testing since the 19th Century; however this testing was focused on what students had learned. The FCAT is designed to validate No Child Left Behind while making politicians feel good. NCLB's greatest attribute is to provide employees best trained to work for Walmart and McDonalds. The focus on so called reading and writing skills has sadly left several years of students deficient in math and science and totally ignorant with respect to history, social sciences,and government. But FCAT scores give an illusion of performance. These students are, and will be, going on to higher education increasingly challenged, frustrated and likely failing.
you gotta give kids credit, though. they're MUCH more educated than in the good 'ole days more than 25 years ago.
The thing with kids these days is that they have an unimaginable sense of wit. They question anything and everything (I'm not sure if that's good or bad, probably both). They are, for the most part, extremely smart...but where they choose to show those smarts is not usually where they're most expected.
We are setting up our students to become dropouts. Not just the FCAT, but the standards for Kindergarten. Our schools retain Kindergarteners if they are unable to read! And because that becomes so important the teachers have no time to teach the children how to correctly write their letters. The schools are retaining students in Kindergarten.
The Florida state mandated tests as THE deciding factor for a student's retention or passing are unfair. Unless a second grader is very adept at listening they will not be able to pass the SAT 10 test because each question is not in the test booklet, but instead is read ONCE by the teacher. The facts are described and then the request for a solution is stated. Only not all the description is needed for the answer, but the student does not know until the end which facts are important to the solution.
The FCAT is not to see if each student is comprehending what is taught on par with other students in his grade, as the standardized tests of previous years. The FCAT is the all-controlling factor in the schools. Teachers avoid getting the students that will not be able to pass the FCAT, leaving the worst students to the most inexperienced teachers. Retention is encouraged in the hopes that the second time through the student's score will be higher so that the school's grade will be better. To skip a grade, even when the student is able to test and do the work of two grades higher than where he is, is nearly impossible because the teachers want the higher test score for their grade level.
When a student is retained in Kindergarten and then again in third grade, but continues to progress the rest of his school years, he will be twenty before he can graduate from high school. How many twenty-year-olds are willing to put up with the degrading treatment they get in high school? Not many. Florida will have a booming high school drop out rate within the next ten years. Because they could not test well, not because they could not learn, MANY MORE students will be left behind.
I do believe that FCAT is one of the worst things to happen to our kids. I don't know if it's true or not and would appreciate the Daily News checking it out. I've been told that Okaloosa County is the only county in the state of Florida that uses the FCAT to retain students. You can excel in all your classes, make great grades but be retained if you fail the FCAT.......or so I've been told. My grand son failed math his 6th grade year and had to go to Summer School, which he finished in 2 weeks. The same year he finished in the 99 per centile in FCAT. My grand daughter who has a learning disability was told in the 3rd grade that she was in danger of failing FCAT and in danger of being retained. My daughter, a single parent, had to spend over $1000 sending her to the Sylvan Center to help her pass. Now, in the 6th grade, we're holding our breath again hoping she passes, even though she has passing grades for the year. FCAT, basicly is for the politicians, not the children.
Anonymous asked if Okaloosa County is the only school district using FCAT scores to retain students. The answer is No, it isn't. State law dictates that FCAT reading scores are a major factor in third grade promotion (with some good causes exemptions from mandatory retention included).
State law also requires districts to tie promotion at other grade levels to "achievement levels" set by the state. Every district must develop a "student progression plan" (SPP) that spells out what the requirements are for promotion at every grade level. Some districts have been more aggressive about piling on the FCAT requirements than others. Okaloosa's SPP is online at http://tinyurl.com/yttonz
Mr. Rice, I agree with you completely -- The FCAT does cause too much anxiety, especially for our children. Parents that are blessed to have children that can breeze through the testing might think FCAT is the answer; however, parents with children that make good grades in classes, but struggle with FCAT feel differently. They know their child's future unfairly rests with the FCAT results. Retention is not the answer! Repeating a grade is criminal when a child has no discipline problems and has already proven by report card grades that they can learn. Children that have been retained have a certain sadness and embarrassment about them, and in most cases it doesn't help them at all. Environment, learning differences, low IQ, etc., all play a role in test results. Not all children have the ability or desire to complete college; nor do all jobs require a degree. I have found that many kids that were "Most Likely to Succeed" in high school end up working for the kids that struggled. What do FCAT results prove in the long run anyway? I would like to see many of the adult proponents of FCAT required to take and pass the high school test in order to retain their current job.
The FCAT itself isn't a bad test. The way it's used is somewhat questionable, though. Most kids who fail the FCAT do so because they don't know the basic material. The students who fail the FCAT and who get retained because they are bad test takers is in the extreme minority. And besides, kids need to learn how to take tests anyway. But this test should not hold kids back, their classroom grades should. that's the problem with it.
The problem IS standardized testing. I graduated high school a little more than five years ago. I didn't live here, I lived up north, but the problems are the same as far as I can tell, from my brother who's still in high school down here. Too many tests. I was fortunate enough to NOT have to take the FCAT, or any test like it but the end of year exam-I was in the last class out of my high school to do so. Those kids after me never had the learning experience I had gotten. Nor does my brother, except for in his college classes that he takes along with his high school classes. They spent the ENTIRE year studying for the stupid test (it wasn't called FCAT up there, I can't remember what it was called-it's in North Carolina, but the test is basically the same) as contrairy to me spending the last three weeks of school on my end of year exams.
We are putting too much emphasis on these damn tests. What does it teach kids? They learn no real anything! No, we don't need to grade them with "smiley faces and frowny faces", we need to hire more teachers, increase their salary (screw upping taxes, the politicans get paid enough to sit up there all day doing nothing-take it from them!) so each student can have more time to spend learning and less time worrying.
On a side note, my cousin, who graduated high school two years ago was diagnosed with anxeity and depression before her sophmore year of school. She was doing well in her classes and at home. The only thing they could find was that her teachers basically told her that if she didn't past the FCAT she'd fail a grade. (A while ago her mom had her checked to see if she had a learning problem because she always did bad on tests but well on her homework.) When the schools started gearing up for them she started to panic, thinking she'd fail because she's a poor tester, even though she passed her classes, homework,and projects with flying colors. When she started taking the mediciane she was able to relax enough to BARELY pass the tests.
So, you tell me how well these tests do.
There are other ways, but Bush and his followers just can't seem to grasp that it might not be their way. Shame, I had high hopes for him the first time around.
Testing is fine. But as one comment noted, tests should be testing the subject matter studied!
The FCAT is a bureaucratic way to grade schools. And coerces the schools and teachers to "teach the test" instead of using school time to give the students a well-rounded education.
In my day, many grammar school teachers didn't even have a degree - but they made sure we learned!
High school teachers with a graduate degree were rare birds - most of those who had Masters became administrators. But, again, the teachers insured that we LEARNED the subject matter they were teaching (or flunked us - and that didn't hurt the teacher or the school!).
I believe the FCAT is a way for the teachers to see how the child is progressing throughout the year. I have a nine year old step-daughter who is below grade level, she made a Level 1 on FCAT reading, and she has maintained C's in all her academic subjects all year. She was to attend tutoring twice a week after school and she attended FCAT tutoring, however, her mom did not help her at home with her schoolwork. So now this child is suffering academically. If the school system she attends passes her on with all these factors, then the child will suffer in the long run. The school must follow the guidelines set by the state and if the child did not pass the FCAT, then she should be retained.
FCAT is not a standardized test; it is a criterion referenced test. That means that teachers should be teaching the test all year long based on the Sunshine State Standards. The Sunshine State Standards outline the knowledge our students should have and the skills they should be able to perform, thus the criteria for the test. The stanford tests referenced in posts here are indeed norm referenced tests based on scores of students across the country. They are very different types of tests. The content of the FCAT should be taught in our schools everyday because it is designed to assess the Sunshine State Standards That are being taught every day. I don't necessarily agree with the way the scores are used to evaluate schools but the test is valid as long as Florida decides that the Standards are what should be taught in our schools.
xtnnkhdMy sister is an assistant superintendant of schools in an out-of-state education system much larger than Okaloosa County and most of the counties in Florida. Her perspective is that parents spend far too much time today interceding into their child's education. She also feels that FCAT is not the example to follow since it is political intercession managed by elected officials who may have only their own interest in mind. My perspective is that the old 'California test' which were nationally taken and individually (the student) reported along with the SAT and ACT tests are sufficient.
One of the many anonymous bloggers states that FCAT isn't a standardized test. What he or she probably meant is that FCAT isn't a norm-referenced test. But it isn't really a true criterion-referenced test either. If it were, we would get much more precise information about how students meet (or fail to meet) particular standards and benchmarks--which the FCAT does NOT give us. At best, you get a sense of how well a particular student stacks up against his/her peers who took the test but nothing that can really be used to inform instruction. You might see that your child didn't do well with "words and phrases," but what exactly does that mean, and how do you teach from such a broad category?
The data that teachers need to meet the needs of students is abundant in any vibrant classroom. We assess their work products, observe their processes (one of the richest sources of information about how to help students is watching them as they approach a task or solve a problem), chart their progress, address the gaps, and design future instruction based on classroom measurements and observations.
Standardized tests were never intended for the uses to which they're now being put. They do have a role--but a limited one--in program evaluation.
Also keep in mind that "validity" is a technical concept in the field of assessment. In the olden days, it was applied to a test that measures what it purports to measure, but that outdated notion has been discarded by psychometricians. Now we look at whether particular uses of a test are valid. Here's a definition that suggests the true complexity of test validity: "validity is an integrated, evaluative judgment of the extent to which empiricial evidence and theoretical rationales support the adequacy and appropriateness of inferences and actions based on test scores or other means of assessment."
Are you satisfied with the "adequacy and appropriateness of inferences and actions" based on the FCAT? I'm certainly not.
The reality is that tests like the FCAT - with all of its imperfections - give us a minimal amount of quality assurance, to make sure that kids are able to do grade level work. I had a very disruptive child in my high school history class, who read at fourth grade level. Is it any wonder he was disruptive? He had no idea about what was going on and couldn't come close to reading the textbook. (This was in a county where you couldn't hold the kids back.) We have graduated people who are practically illiterate for years in this country. The FCAT is hard for a lot of kids, but it provides at least some incentive for schools and teachers to make sure they are TEACHING and not just patting the kids on the back and moving them on up.
As for the after-February lack of teaching time, I totally agree that this is ridiculous and it exacerbates the pre-FCAT stress, because the kids haven't done much of anything for six months before school starts again.
But doesn't that very lack of pressure post-FCAT give you the hint that if no FCAT existed, maybe the whole year would be like the spring? Full of fun ideas, but not a whole lot of actual checking that the kids are learning.
To the Anonymous History teacher, please get another job. If you can't or won't teach your children after the FCAT is administered you need to move on. This is the perfect opportunity to delve into subjects in a more detailed way than the way we need to push material along before the test to meet the SSS requirements.
Do you feel your own education was lacking or did you back in the day have a standardized test that your whole future hinged on? I don't think many posts here have said there should be no testing I believe what most have said is there should not be "high stakes testing". Children can and have tested as long as I can remember, either the Iowa, California, ITBS etc. These can be used to identify areas of concern and the student can be given a more individual plan IEP or AIP that meets their specific needs. What is the point in having a child repeat classes that they have passed with A's or B's when it is one subject that they are in need of help in. The first letter to this blog is an example of what is wrong with the way the test has been misused.
What do you think the outcome will be in the future when our current crop of twice retained student are in high school. Are we going to have a huge population of 20 year old senior or a huge population of 10th grade drop outs when they turn 18 and no longer must follow their parents rules.
Test all you want but quit putting their futures against the outcome of this test. Let teachers teach and keep a watch over them with lower stakes testing . Please do get another job as you seem unable to come up with a lesson plan that would teach without shoveling the SSS's down the kids throats.
I have two children in Okaloosa schools. They've always done fine on FCAT.
However, emotionally, they didn't. About two weeks before the test, they'd start to cry more often, get stomachaches, act depressed, and talk about failing school.
Folks keep talking about the old days, well, here's what I remember. We didn't talk nonstop about the tests we were going to take. A couple days before the test, we were told we'd have one, and then we'd be reminded the day before the test to sleep well and bring a pencil! That was it!
I think a lot of the kids issues are just the buildup of stress all year about FCAT. I receive "parent" packages and dvds about FCAT and all kinds of little reminders. My kids bring home faux test booklets so they can practice taking FCAT at home! That's just going too far!
I have discussed this with teachers and principals and they just shrug and say they do what they have to to meet requirements.
But all is not lost. My kids don't cry much about FCAT anymore. I use the FCAT issue to educate my kids about politics, "stupid" laws, and how not to be sheep when they grow up.
With all the people complaining about FCAT, you'd think the school system would get the hint that Something is Wrong.
Thanks for bringing it up.
Wow. Is this a difference!?
I am currently an eight grader at a public middle school. I recently found out i could be retained from 9th grade only because i did not take the fcat last year. I did not take it because i lived in California were standardized testing DIDN'T put such an impact in what grade u would be next year. I have had straight A's the whole year in 3 advanced classed and one honors math and 2 electives. This came as a surprise since no one had told me i would be held back at the beginning of the year. So to all the people who think FCAT is a great thing please rethink.
just helping my 4th grader with her homework,and was again reminded that thanks to fcat my daughter is still struggling with reading a clock. teachers are dictated how long they can cover a subject and no matter if students would benefit with being able to cover a subject as a WHOLE, they have to move on to the next subject that will be on the (guess what) fcat!!! i am 43 yrs old and can remember we covered adding time to for example: add 2 hours and 40 minutes to 1:22. we never moved on then came back in a month or two,due to who can really remember something they just started learning about a month later? even my daughters teacher last year said he wished they could cover each subject until the whole class understood. but they jump around to make sure everything on fcat is if not completely mastered,but at least glossed over! well,we have decided to spend 15 minutes a night with our daughter on the clock,until it is REALLY understood and not just touched on in school. i dont blame the teachers, i blame the state officials who passed such a inefficient way of teaching our kids. it takes the personal touch out of teaching,which seems to have become another thing of the past. where have the good ol days gone?!
just a little more to my comment above (my first time blogging,haha)my daughter did pass the fcat with a 3 on both reading and math. we really dont mind helping her learn about reading a clock,it is a challenge when we take it for granted since we know already. but for a 9 year old who hasnt had to use it on a daily basis it takes alot of patience. just a tip if anyone else is trying to help teach time to their kids... the dry erase board helps alot. we found a teaching aid at walmart that has dry erase pages. thanks for listening.
WRAGGLE FRAGGLE IM A KID AND FCAT SUCKS BADLY ITS UNFAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like to know what do we need to do to make school officials understand that must of parents and teachers are not happy with the Fcat on it's current form? I have not problem with them doing the test but there is too much emphasis on it and like one mom was saying, her dauhgter was a good student thru out the year but she did not tested well but them a student who should not pass to the next grade gets it just because he does well on the test. I think the FCAT should one PART of the ways that a child gets graded to go to the next grade not the only way BOTTOM LINE. If any one knows where should we go?? Someone has to listen...
I like to know what do we need to do to make school officials understand that must of parents and teachers are not happy with the Fcat on it's current form? I have not problem with them doing the test but there is too much emphasis on it and like one mom was saying, her dauhgter was a good student thru out the year but she did not tested well but them a student who should not pass to the next grade gets it just because he does well on the test. I think the FCAT should one PART of the ways that a child gets graded to go to the next grade not the only way BOTTOM LINE. If any one knows where should we go?? Someone has to listen...
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