Schools gear up for the FCAT, keep your kids at home

From the Miami Herald, By Laura Isensee
lisensee@MiamiHerald.com

On Monday, South Florida students will start taking the FCAT 2.0.

New this year: The test will be harder to pass; students’ scores will factor into teacher evaluations; more students will take the test online; and the state is requiring seating charts and asking students to promise not to cheat.

District officials say they expect the testing period to go smoothly. They’ve asked parents and students to keep a positive attitude.

“Really, the impact of the changes is not so much for the kids. We know it’s a new test, it’s a harder test. It should be transparent,” said Gisela Feild, Miami-Dade’s director of research and assessment.

One of the biggest changes this year is that student scores will contribute to teachers’ evaluations. Scores will go into a statistical equation — called a value-added model — that will issue a grade for teachers that will count for half of their evaluation

For students, the FCAT will be harder to pass this year because the state has raised the scoring standard. More students are expected to fail.

Along with the higher stakes, Florida education officials have beefed up security. All test administrators have to keep seating charts. Students taking a paper test have to pledge not to cheat.

“It is part of an overall system designed to make clear that Florida takes the issue of cheating seriously,” DOE spokeswoman Jamie Mongiovi said in an email. In other places, including Atlanta, investigations have uncovered widespread cheating on standardized tests. Last year, Florida contracted with a security company, Utah-based Caveon, to analyze answer sheets.

The state has had some computer-based exams since 2006. But this year, sixth-graders and 10th-graders will take their reading exams on computers. This creates logistical challenges for some schools that may not have enough computers.

At George Washington Carver Middle School in Coral Gables, Principal Libia Gonzalez said she borrowed computers from other classrooms to create an extra, temporary computer lab. The computer teacher won’t be able to teach in her lab during testing. The library, which also houses computers, will be closed to other classes.

“We don’t have the actual tools in order to give that type of testing,” Gonzalez said of online exams. “[The state] is asking us to do something that disrupts the education process of everyday school for a month.”

Karen Aronowitz, president of the United Teachers of Dade, said online exams muddy what the score means, especially for kids who don’t have regular access to computers. “Are you getting an accurate result of what they know on their test, or are you getting a poorer result because of their inability to use the technology?” she said.

Some parents, like Rosemarie Jensen, have decided to keep their children home during testing because of the stress. “I can’t keep doing this to him,” said Jensen, a former teacher. Her son, a Broward County sixth-grader, has a learning disability. The test makes him tired. He isn’t likely to pass, even though he makes A’s in class.

“In the eyes of the state, everybody has to be at a certain level or you’re a failure. And that’s not really how people are, that’s not how children are. They don’t learn at the same rate,” she said.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/13/2746427/schools-gear-up-for-fcat-testing.html#storylink=cpy