Florida's honesty pledge

From the Sun Sentinel, By Marc Freeman, Sun Sentinel

There's a new pledge students will be asked to make in public schools starting Monday — a promise not to cheat on the FCAT.

The state this year added the academic honesty statement at the beginning of all sections of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and the end-of-course exams in Algebra 1, geometry and biology.

It says: "I agree that I will not give or receive unauthorized help during this test. I understand that giving or receiving such help during the test is cheating and will result in the invalidation of my test results."

Students will be asked to sign it or print their names before taking paper versions of the exams, or check a box under the pledge displayed on computer-based tests.

"This is just one more step in the security chain," said Cherie Boone, manager of research, evaluation, and assessment for the Palm Beach County School District. "They want to make sure kids are completely aware of what behaviors are appropriate and what is not."

Students will be allowed to take the exams even if they elect not to sign or check the no-cheating pledge, for religious or other reasons.

"They have an out if they choose to use it," Boone said, adding that proctors will note refusals with submitted answer forms; it's not supposed to be held against the student.

Last month, fourth-, eighth- and 10th-grade classes signed the pledge before taking the writing portion of the FCAT. No concerns about it were reported to district administrators, Boone said.

Beginning Monday and covering two weeks: The schedule in Palm Beach and Broward counties includes reading exams for third through 10th grades; math exams for third through eighth grades; science for fifth and eighth; and makeup exams.

For the first time there is no 10th-grade math FCAT and no 11th-grade science FCAT, as part of a multiyear roll out of changes linked with the state's more rigorous grade-level expectations.

The ninth-grade math FCAT was removed last year. Instead, high school students are taking Algebra I, biology and geometry end-of-course exams in May.

These exams are used to measure student performance in core academic areas. The scores also are used for school and district ratings, some teacher merit pay plans, school financial rewards and principal reassignments if achievement is too low.

Educators are warning parents that math and reading scores this year could be a lot lower than they expect. That's because the state Board of Education imposed a tougher FCAT scoring system for the first time in a decade.

As a result, school districts are anticipating many more students will need to take remedial classes and fewer teenagers may receive the passing scores on the 10th-grade exams needed for diplomas.

The state expanded its focus on cheating a few years ago, starting with security concerning electronic devices, as officials want to make it impossible to text a message and email a picture of the test to someone else.

Students are being warned teachers will be looking for iPods and smartphones. Exams will not be scored if students are caught with the devices.

Last year, Florida officials tossed out nearly 7,000 FCAT results from schools across the state, citing students with extremely similar test answers. State contractor Caveon Test Security analyzed results to detect unusually similar answer patterns.

It invalidated scores where the chance of two or more tests being so similar while taken independently was one in a trillion.

Those cases involved a tiny percentage of the more than 4 million standardized exams taken by Florida students.

mjfreeman@tribune.com or 561-243-6642

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-fcat-cheating-pledge-20120414,0,2091461.story