State cutting chances at FCAT
Dept. of Education getting rid of summer retakes, discontinuing network that allows parents to check students’ scores
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TREASURE COAST — High school students will have one less chance to take the 10th grade FCAT.
To save money, the state Department of Education is eliminating the summer retakes of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and making other changes and cuts to the FCAT.
Students need to pass the reading and math sections of the 10th grade FCAT to graduate high school with a standard diploma.
“This is going to leave some students high and dry if they’ve not been able to successfully pass the FCAT on previous tries,” said Vernon Pickup-Crawford, a lobbyist for Treasure Coast and other Florida school districts.
Among the other changes, the department outlined in a memo to school officials the cancellation of computer-based makeup exams, and discontinuation of the online FCAT Parent Network that allows parents to look up their kids’ scores.
St. Lucie County School Superintendent Michael Lannon believes more cuts to the test should be considered.
“Given the state’s financial ongoing and not soon to end catastrophic circumstances, perhaps all testing should be temporarily curtailed,” Lannon wrote in an e-mail. “I’d rather have testing (cut) rather than teaching and other direct services to children cut out until we recover as a state.”
Earlier this year, the state decided to 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.
The new rules also mean third-graders cannot use scores from the norm-referenced test as a way to get to fourth grade, if they failed the FCAT reading exam.
For many parents, the biggest change may be that next year they cannot look up their child’s FCAT score online. The state’s online score system debuted in 2006 and allowed parents with computer access to quickly look up results. Now, they’ll have to wait for paper reports to come home in backpacks.
“Being a concerned parent, I always went to that Web site to see if the results were up,” said parent Mickey Wich, of Jensen Beach. “I’m disappointed that’s been eliminated. Maybe they can do something about getting the paper results to us sooner.”
But the change that has the potential to hurt students most is eliminating the summer retake for high school students. Next year, students will have five, not six, chances to pass the 10th-grade FCAT reading and math exams needed for graduation.
While students who don’t pass the test can still walk with their peers at graduation ceremonies, they receive a certificate of completion instead of a diploma.
The Orlando Sentinel contributed to this report.
