Frankenstein Comprehensive Assessment Test!

By Jac Versteeg, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Gov. Scott has noticed the growing crowd brandishing pitchforks and torches. So he is trying to downplay his role in grafting grotesque new parts onto the Frankenstein Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Florida’s current governor might be starting to realize what others have known for years. The FCAT has become a monster. Jeb Bush took a test designed to gauge and guide student improvement, and jolted it with voucher politics. With Wednesday’s release of FCAT-based grades for middle and elementary schools, Jeb’s deformed creation once again stalks public school halls and classrooms.

This year’s school grades are lower than last year’s. It’s not because the kids are dumber or the teachers aren’t teaching as well. The real explanation is simple: The grading scale changed. Lower school grades are common after such a change and would be no big deal if politicians from Jeb Bush to Charlie Crist to Rick Scott had not turned the artificial, mostly meaningless school grades into the ultimate sign of succes or failure.

There is a mounting backlash, though, and Gov. Scott is feeling it. The latest grades are being released as parents and educators are increasingly frustrated with over-testing. School boards, including Palm Beach County’s, have passed resolutions decrying the time and anxiety devoted to standardized testing. These low grades come after an embarrassing drop in writing scores — which the state “fixed” by lowering the passing grade.

That wasn’t the only time the state arbitrarily messed with grading formulas. The grades released Wednesday would have been worse if the state hadn’t cushioned the blow by ruling that grades would not fall by more than one letter.

Gov. Scott’s discomfort is obvious from his recent comments promising to review Florida’s testing load. Commenting on the school grades released Wednesday, he said, “We’re constantly reviewing the level of and kinds of testing occurring in our classrooms. Our goal is to make sure we’re not testing for testing’s sake.”

It would be good if he also made sure the state is not testing for politics’ sake. And it would have been good if he’d come to that position before advocating and signing legislation that places even more emphasis on the FCAT. Not only will the test be used to decide which students advance or are retained, it will decide which teachers get to keep their jobs and receive raises.

Gov. Scott also signed legislation that vastly increases the number of high-stakes tests students must take. Every class is to develop an end-of-course exam, which will be used in teacher assessments.

Gov. Scott assures Floridians that, “In just two years, Florida will move to a new testing standard that significantly reduces our reliance on the FCAT and moves to Common Core State Standards.” Gov. Scott’s new eagerness to persuade Floridians that the FCAT is going away of course raises the important question: Why was it allowed to become so monstrous in the first place? Gov. Scott seems to be admitting that the vaunted FCAT was misused.

And the switch to Common Core Standards doesn’t necessarily mean less testing. It just means different testing. If, like the FCAT, the new tests are misused for political purposes, that’s not education reform. That’s Son of Frankenstein Comprehensive Assessment Test.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/editorial-gov-scott-helped-create-the-fcat-monster/nPrkY/