So kids can't read what they wrote?

I have mentioned below dozens of times. -cpg

From the Palm Beach Post's editorial board

Way back in 2004, we noted in an editorial that "Florida's public schools apparently harbor thousands of kids who can write a bang-up essay but can't read it once they're done."

The anomaly that has continued to astound us - FCAT writing scores much higher than FCAT reading scores - blew up last week, spattering egg across faces in Florida's Department of Education. The mess reveals how baseless FCAT writing scores have been. More than that, it exposes for perhaps the 200th time the state's FCAT-based school grading system as a fraud.

Even beyond that, assuming that Florida's politicians and education bureaucrats are capable of comprehending the news accounts they should have been reading, this scandal shows that the state's plan to retain and reward teachers based on high-stakes testing results is bogus.

Along with reading and math, the writing portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test has been a key component of the grade the state has assigned to schools ever since former Gov. Jeb Bush began misusing the FCAT for political purposes, starting in 1999. Never until this year have spelling, grammar and punctuation been part of the student's writing score. Because of that flabbergasting omission, students could score well simply by following a five-paragraph formula teachers quickly learned to drill into them.

Then came the reckoning, when the state Board of Education decided, quite properly, that spelling, grammar and punctuation are important parts of anything that can be called "writing." When, as a result, the percentage of students judged proficient in writing dropped to 27 percent from 81 percent last year, the board abruptly lowered the bar again to proclaim that 81 percent of students are proficient in writing.

If the FCAT were being used properly - that is, to find out how well students understand specific subjects and offer ways to help those who are struggling - the more stringent test results could calmly have been interpreted as proof that students need more help in grammar, spelling and punctuation. But because writing FCAT scores also affect school grades, education gurus panicked. If school grades plummet, parents get upset. Real estate values decline. And, of course, the decade-plus of FCAT-based "accountability" suddenly would be shown not to have produced steady improvement.

Ever since Mr. Bush began his drive to make private school vouchers widely available, the state has stuck to the narrative that FCAT testing is the only way to hold public schools accountable. The FCAT - a good idea when proposed in the early 1990s - has been torn apart by the irreconcilable tension between the desire to discredit public schools and the claim that tough testing will make them better.

The state has been gaming school-grading formulas for years. The writing FCAT is just the latest, most obvious embarrassment. For the credibility of FCAT-based school grades, this debacle should be all she wrote.

- Jac Wilder VerSteeg,

for The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/editorials/rewrite-states-bogus-system-2363947.html