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State Officials Tout Rising FCAT Scores

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By MARILYN BROWN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 11, 2008

Updated: 06/11/2008 12:15 am

TAMPA - More Florida students performed at or above grade level in reading and math on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test this year compared with any year since 2001, state education officials said Tuesday.

Only the percentage of fifth grade students reading at grade level dropped from a year ago, a change echoed in Hillsborough. The state reported 67 percent of them reading at fifth grade level, a 5 percentage point drop; Hillsborough was 65 percent, down 4 points.

Officials stress improvement as the key measure of success, but others looking at Florida's test results may not be as impressed.

Scores show just 38 percent of 10th graders on grade level or above in reading, not much better than it's been since 2001, when 37 percent were on grade level or above.

This year's 10th graders came up through the state's growing accountability system that became high stakes in 1999 under Gov. Jeb Bush as he tied FCAT scores to school bonus money, voucher eligibility and teacher pay.

"They are getting better," insisted state Education Commissioner Eric Smith during a telephone press briefing Tuesday, although he acknowledged, "There is still a lot of work to do."

Smith noted marked improvement in lower grades since 2001: Ninth grade reading scores improved from 28 percent proficient in 2001 to 46 percent in 2008, for example. The nature of reading gets more difficult over time, he said.

Still, a red flag went up to district testing officials last year when high school scores came out. They said the state set the scores that determine proficiency too high.

The state's score for proficiency is equal to a student scoring in the top 20 percent on the achievement test the state uses to compare students to others across the nation, said John Hilderbrand, Hillsborough schools testing chief. Students take that Stanford 10 test as part of FCAT.

"That's a pretty high bar," agreed Lynn Dougherty-Underwood, supervisor of the district's middle and high school reading. Elementary students learn the elements of reading, working on the basic skills, she said. FCAT tests high school students on understanding and analyzing content, using higher-level thinking skills.

One irony: the state requires a lower level score - level two as compared with the minimum level three required for proficiency - to graduate.

"You can actually graduate based on state standards and not be proficient," Hilderbrand said. "It's Florida's definition of grade level."

When asked to explain, Department of Education spokesman Tom Butler responded by e-mail saying that a consultant will review those high school cut scores "sometime around the end of the summer."

New legislation also will bring changes to FCAT requirements and "will lead to future discussions on graduation requirements and will help us define the parameters surrounding graduation more closely," he wrote.

The consultant was hired last year to review unusually high reading scores of 204,000 third-graders in 2006. The scores were found to be inflated, leading to the unwarranted promotion of some fourth-graders. They also skewed some school grades.

This year's low fifth grade reading scores were analyzed by the consultant and determined to be "consistent with normal fluctuations," said Jay Pfeiffer, a deputy state education commissioner.

The state released FCAT writing scores in May as well as third grade reading and math results and make-up test scores for high schools students. Some district officials are questioning scoring of the fourth grade narrative writing question, Hilderbrand said.

Overall, it wasn't clear how well schools did Tuesday, he said. "It looks like more elementaries went down than up," he said.

How those FCAT scores will transfer to grades is unclear until districts make sure all students whose scores are not to be included in school grades are removed.

They include disabled students, those who don't speak English well and those not at the same school on certain dates.

Most parents will be able to access their children's scores via www.fcatparentnetwork .com beginning at 6 a.m. Thursday.

They will need an access code from their school.

To view state and district FCAT results, go online to fcat.fldoe.org/fcinfopg.asp.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

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