FORT PIERCE — If any school district knows the FCAT is a fickle lover, it’s St. Lucie County.

Improve in writing and watch your math scores drop. Improve in math and watch science take a dip.

This year, St. Lucie’s third-graders improved in math only to see their reading scores drop three percentage points, erasing the previous year’s gains.

“We’re back down to where we were the year before,” said Troy Ingersoll, a school board member.

A slight drop in third-grade reading scores might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Scores on the reading test, unlike math, are used to determine if a child moves on to fourth grade. And how third-graders fare on the test may be an indicator of what lies ahead for the district’s scores. Already, school officials are regrouping, looking for ways to correct the problem. (more…)

Third-graders in Martin County bested their peers statewide on this year’s reading and math sections of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, while St. Lucie students trailed them, according to results released today by the state Department of Education.

In Martin, 81 percent of third-graders passed the reading test, while 63 percent did in St. Lucie. Statewide, about 71 percent of third-graders passed.

Martin’s score was a slight improvement over last year’s 80 percent passing rate. St. Lucie’s average was a drop of three percentage points compared to 2008.

St. Lucie School Superintendent Michael Lannon said he was “not thrilled” by the drop in reading scores and staff members would be looking for reasons to explain, and correct, it.

“I’m disappointed because I know our teachers are more highly skilled than they’ve ever been and more effort has been put in” than ever before, he said.

The third-grade reading FCAT is one of the most important tests a child takes because it can determine whether the student has to repeat the grade. The only other test with so much at stake is the high school FCAT, which can determine if a child graduates.

Across Florida, 34,872 third-graders failed the reading test and are in danger of having to repeat third-grade next year. In St. Lucie, about 684 students are in danger of repeating the grade; in Martin, about 118 are. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Cheers, tears and roses were on display before a standing-room-only crowd in the auditorium of Port St. Lucie Elementary Monday night.

The gathering was to say goodbye to the 34-year-old school that is being closed in June as part of the school district’s plan to save $30 million next year.

“We have always been a family,” said Deb Mock, a reading coach who has taught at the school 31 years. “We’ve been there for each other through all the challenges we’ve had — hurricanes, flooding, the deaths of faculty members. We always strived to do the best for our students,” she added.
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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Budget cuts have hit the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test again.

On Tuesday, the Florida Department of Education announced it would eliminate all FCAT summer retakes and a portion of the science FCAT. Sample test materials also will be eliminated and schools will no longer receive printed score reports.

“As you are aware, all aspects of education are facing budget reductions, and the statewide assessment program is no different,” Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith wrote in a letter to school superintendents.

In November, the state made about $18 million in cuts to the statewide assessment program. It discontinued the FCAT Parent Network that allows parents to look up their kids’ scores on the Internet, eliminated 10th-grade FCAT retakes and is not placing sticker seals on certain test documents.

Students need to pass the reading and math sections of the 10th-grade FCAT to graduate high school with a standard diploma.

Last April, the state cut the multiple choice portion of the FCAT writing test at a cost-savings of $2.5 million and the norm-reference test — which compared Florida students to their peers across the nation.

In Smith’s memo “Changes to FCAT in 2009 and Beyond,” he wrote that no changes were being made to the 2010 FCAT reading and math tests and that the writing test would be administered in February and reading, math and science would be administered in March.

When the new FCAT is implemented in 2011, testing will be later in the year and performance tasks or constructed-response questions will not be included, leading to faster turn-around time and an easier transition to computer-based tests, Smith wrote. (more…)

When students take the FCAT this month, the goal is to determine how much they’ve learned this year. But often the real predictor of students’ success occurs when the teacher first walks into the classroom.

National studies show high staff turnover — often filling schools with inexperienced teachers — can impact a school’s overall performance and can impair students’ learning. Researchers say across the country Title I schools, which get federal money because of a high number of low-income students, often have difficulty attracting highly qualified teachers.

This, they say, results in struggling students not getting the help they need and low grades for the schools. In Florida, the state grades schools based on Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores each year, which can translate into more money for the schools.
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