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Lawmakers Decry FCAT Rewards

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By CATHERINE DOLINSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 25, 2007

FCAT Homepage | Education Coverage

TALLAHASSEE - Egypt Lake Elementary's school grade rocketed last year from a D to an A, despite the challenge of having a student body that is 80 percent economically disadvantaged and 37 percent limited in English proficiency.

That staggering achievement won Lydia Sierra, principal of the Hillsborough County school, accolades from both local and state education officials. But Egypt Lake received no special treatment, because Florida does not reward schools for making dramatic gains in a single year.

"If you compare an A school that is maintaining its A to us, there is no comparison," Sierra said. "It's two totally different kinds of schools; our obstacles are different. And we made gains in every grade level and subject."

Florida awards financial bonuses to all schools that make A's or boost their FCAT-based state grades to the next letter. But no special reward or recognition exists for schools that rise two or more grades at once instead of improving incrementally.

That's wrong, said Joe Pickens, chairman of the House Schools and Learning Council. "I've been concerned, and continue to be concerned, about the schools that essentially are penalized for making remarkable progress in one year."

That and other perceived inequities in the school grading system have convinced Pickens and other key lawmakers of the need to change it. Whether and when they will be able to achieve that remains to be seen, however.

With the state facing an additional $2.5 billion shortfall, Pickens said, it's a tough time to try to dole out more reward dollars, even to schools that may deserve them most.

Progress Without Reward

Florida grades schools with an A, B, C, D or F based on their students' scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Schools that achieve A's or boost their letter grades receive $100 per full-time enrolled student.

Ninety-eight schools improved their state grades by two letters or more based on their students' 2006-07 FCAT scores. All received the same bonus that other schools received for improving by one letter - in some cases, by scoring only a few additional points that pushed them to a higher grade.

Schools that skipped at least one letter grade in 2005-06 received no additional reward if they maintained their improved grade in 2006-07, unless that grade was an A.

In Pickens' home county of Putnam, William D. Moseley Elementary School advanced from an F to an A in 2005-06. The following year the school fell to a "C," disqualifying it from receiving additional money.

"Had they gone from an F to a D, and then a D to a C, and then a C to a B, and then a B to an A, and not made remarkable progress, they would have been rewarded in a number of years," Pickens, R-Palatka, said during the Schools and Learning Council meeting Nov. 7.

Tampa's Edison Elementary School received no bonus for its second C in a row after the F it received in 2004-05.

Maintaining its C required the same kind of effort that it took to reach that grade the first time, Principal Larry Sykes said, especially because the state raised the bar this year by factoring science FCAT scores and bottom-quartile math gains into the grading system.

"We had to gain 150 more points just to maintain the C," said Sykes, stressing that 95 percent of Edison's students are economically disadvantaged.

As well, he noted, 76 percent are black, a minority group that historically has not performed as well as white students on standardized tests.

To make and maintain its gains, Edison brought in retired teachers, provided in-school and after-school tutoring, encouraged work in small groups, offered more rewards for student achievement and worked to build staff morale.

"We just didn't allow our students and staff to say we couldn't do it," Sykes said.

It's frustrating, he said, not to have received any recognition this past year.

"I think it's unfair," he said. "For us to maintain a C at Edison, we feel like we made an A, and there were no funds for us."

"If schools jump multiple grades and they maintain that grade jump, they should be rewarded for that second year as well," said Pickens, who also thinks the state should reward schools that score substantial gains within a letter-grade category other than A - moving, for example, from the equivalent of a low C-minus to a high C-plus.

Don Gaetz, chairman of the Senate Education PreK-12 Committee, agreed.

"If students and parents and faculty and everyone at a school make an extraordinary jump, they ought to be recognized and rewarded proportionate to the significant gains they've made," said Gaetz, R-Niceville.

Evolving System

Talk of tinkering with school grades has grown since the departure of former Gov. Jeb Bush, for whom school accountability was a hallmark legacy, said Sherman Dorn, an education professor at the University of South Florida.

"Any complex system, like Florida's way of assigning letter grades to schools, is going to have some consequences and problems," Dorn said. "When Jeb Bush was governor, most of those concerns were dismissed as unimportant or irrelevant. But at this point ... a broad variety of criticism has become acceptable."

That's true, said House Minority Leader Dan Gelber, who agreed that school grades should more accurately reflect school improvement. But the system requires more than a tune-up, Gelber said; it needs an overhaul.

"The accountability system is premised on achieving minimal competence," said Gelber, D-Miami Beach. "When a child moves up from a level 3 to a level 5, you don't get extra points for that. The question is, how do you restore a measure of excellence, rather than just minimal competence?"

Evaluating students and schools based solely on FCAT scores, he said, is not enough. In that, he appears to have an ally in Gaetz, who supports the FCAT but wants to introduce more measurements into school grading, such as Advanced Placement testing and end-of-course exams.

Don't take that as a sign of waning support for the FCAT, warned Pickens, who expects any changes to include use of the state's standardized test.

"To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the FCAT's demise are greatly exaggerated," he said.

Pickens said he wants to address the inequities in grading, but was doubtful about pushing a solution next session, when the Legislature will grapple with an additional $2.5 billion shortfall on top of $1.1 billion cut last month.

Rewarding more schools would require more dollars, he said, unless lawmakers are willing to "dilute the pot" of money now available. "We don't have the additional funding."

Gaetz said he thought some steps could be taken as early as this spring, both to expand the measures of school performance and reconfigure the way Florida defines school improvement.

He wants, he said, to work on a bill that is both "bipartisan and bicameral."

"I don't want it to get caught in the crossfire of those that don't want any accountability and those who believe that the current system is divinely inspired," Gaetz said. "I'm not an ideologue about it; I want to reward progress as well as those who reach the benchmarks."

Expect to hear more aggressive talk from Democrats in 2008 about changing the accountability system, Gelber said.

"That's the message I've been stressing a lot lately. From our point of view, taxes and insurance are the premiere issues of the moment, but education and health care are the issues of the age."

Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or cdolinski@tampatrib.com.

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