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Elia says tougher FCAT standards don't worry her

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN

sackerman@tampatrib.com

Published: September 16, 2009

Florida has made it harder for schools to earn an A.

The state Board of Education added graduation rates and participation in Advanced Placement courses to a grading system that was based solely on scores in the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

The changes will make it more difficult for schools, said Hillsborough schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia. "But we're not afraid of the challenge."

High schools will now receive an overall letter grade based half on student performance and learning gains on the FCAT and half on five new measures: graduation rate overall, graduation rate of at-risk students, participation in advanced courses, post-secondary readiness, and growth or decline in these areas.

Hillsborough, like other school districts, will have to reassess how it works to improve school grades — and that's not necessarily a bad thing, Elia said.

"We need to know how many of our kids are graduating," she said.

For some schools, it might make a tough time even tougher.

"I'm sure some of the changes will be beneficial," said Owen Young, principal of Middleton High School in Tampa. "But we may have to work a little harder, too."

Middleton received its sixth consecutive D grade this year on the FCAT, putting the school on a program that requires marked improvement and threatens closure.

The Florida Department of Education is monitoring the school. The district appointed Young principal and hired about 10 teachers as well as teacher coaches to improve student achievement.

Young sees this period as an opportunity for Middleton to not only raise its test scores, which determine state funding, but to help students grow.

"Throughout the country, there's this shift from just teaching to more meaningful learning," Young said. Because of the intervention efforts to improve FCAT scores, "Middleton is already a step ahead."

School grades play a role in where families decide to move and they can earn a school added money. An A on the FCAT or significantly improved grades mean as much as $75 per full-time student.

By law, the dollars must go toward nonrecurring faculty and staff bonuses, nonrecurring expenditures for educational equipment or toward the hiring of temporary personnel to maintain or boost student performance.

Statewide, 2,103 schools with students in kindergarten through 12th grade received $122.52 million in 2009.

Locally, Hillsborough received $8.2 million, Pasco $3.11million, Pinellas, $3.8 million and Polk $3.64 million.

The board of education approved the new formula in Miami on Tuesday. The changes were required by a bill passed by the Legislature in 2008.

"The Board's approval of these changes represents a significant step forward for our state as we work to prepare our young people to compete in today's highly competitive global marketplace," Education Commissioner Eric Smith said.

Under the old measure, Florida's more than 400 public high schools were given grades based entirely on their FCAT scores. State Sen. Don Gaetz, who sponsored the amending legislation, argued that wasn't an accurate barometer of a school's performance because only half the students in a high school take the standardized exam.

"The FCAT, by itself, was an incomplete picture of achievement in high schools," Gaetz said at the board's meeting Tuesday.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144.

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