From the Sun Sentinel by Leslie Postal
Scores on Florida's writing test dropped dramatically this year, with student essays earning such poor marks that one superintendent called them a "disaster" and many educators demanded that the state study what happened.
The State Board of Education has called an emergency meeting for Tuesday to consider a plan to mitigate the impact of the low scores on Florida's annual A-to-F school grades. The state released the preliminary results from the writing section of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test this morning.
The percentage of fourth graders scoring an acceptable score — a 4 on the 6-point grading scale — dropped from 81 percent last year to 27 percent this year. The scores for eighth and 10th graders fell about the same on the test that requires students to write an essay on an assigned topic.
The Central Florida Public School Boards Coalition, meeting in Orlando this morning, said the state should not make a hasty decision and should instead take time to figure out why the scores are so low this year.
Seminole Superintendent Bill Vogel said he relayed that message in a telephone conversation with Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson this morning and planned to call him again to share the coalition's view.
He said the scores undermine the credibility of the state's school accountability system, which "may not recover" if the marks are left to stand.
"The results are a disaster," he said.
Volusia Superintendent Margaret Smith agreed. "How can all of a sudden our students get that dumb over the summer and score at this level?" she said.
The state made the scoring for the writing exam tougher this year, demanding students use correct spelling and grammar and do a better job presenting logical arguments backed up with relevant details.
But local educators said those changes, at least at first glance, couldn't explain such a dramatic drop in scores.
Kathleen Oropeza, an Orlando mother who founded the group Fund Education Now, said the precipitous drop in writing scores seems illogical and makes her question whether the state purposely set the grading standard too high.
"This doesn't make me think they're doing right by our kids," she said, adding that if the data was manipulated in some way "every parent in the state should be furious."
The recommendation presented to the State Board is to lower the score used in the school grading formula to a 3.5 out of 6, as it had been in previous years, which would lessen the impact on a schools' grades.
Forty eight percent of fourth graders hit that 3.5 mark, for example, as opposed to the 27 percent who met the 4-point score.
But several educators at the coalition meeting, which includes 10 school districts that stretch across the state from Brevard to Manatee counties, said dropping the school grading mark would be a quick fix that wouldn't dig into what happened. And it would look like the state was lowering standards when it didn't like the way the scores came back.
"Either own the results and try to explain to everybody you're right or maybe step back," said Brian Binggeli, superintendent of Brevard County schools.
A spokesman for education department could not be reached immediately.
The writing test, given in February, requires students to write an essay in 45 minutes.
In 2006, a problem with the third-grade FCAT reading exam led to artificially inflated scores that year. That problem -- stemming from test questions put in the wrong place -- was not discovered until the following year, however, when the third-grade scores fell and were more in line with how students had done in 2005.
The state pulled together a committee, and then hired outside testing experts, to figure out what happened. Vogel said something similar is needed this year to delve into the writing scores.
School administrators already were braced for lower school grades in 2012 because of a tougher FCAT scoring system and a revised school grading formula. The number of F-rated schools is expected to jump to more than 130, from fewer than 40 in 2011, for example.
But state simulations of 2012 grades -- that took into account new scores and formulas -- showed writing scores remaining fairly stable. So if the writing scores are much worse than expected, more schools could see their letter grades fall, officials said.
The department only released statewide results for the three grades that take the writing test. It has not yet released scores for districts or schools.
Check back for more details.
lpostal@tribune.com or 407-420-5273.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/os-fcat-writing-scores-disaster-20120514,0,7398737.story
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