Our Students Deserve better than what they are getting

From the TCPalm, by Bob Minsky

Education is probably the most multifaceted complex barrier facing America's future. Watching the many news reports on various TV stations I hear companies are complaining they have plenty of job openings, but not enough applicants with the technical and basic educational training needed to fill those openings.

Then I look at the results of the latest FCAT testing for the St. Lucie County School District and I can understand. The Florida Department of Education report format is difficult, if not impossible, to understand. Nowhere does it reveal what is the standard for a passing grade. The report contains the phrases "Average score adjusted" and "mean scale score."

I guess I am from the old school, where right at the start I knew that if I scored less than 70 percent, I failed. Today a student doesn't know if he failed or passed until all the test results are in and the DOE decides what constitutes a passing score, at least that is my current understanding. If that is the case, the results of the FCAT do not reveal if the majority of students absorbed an acceptable amount of the subject being taught; it tells us what percentage of students scored above and below the median score. The median score is that point where 50 percent scored above and 50 percent scored below.

This does not indicate how much of the curriculum was learned by the students; it indicates how many students are performing at grade based on how the students performed en masse. So if most of the students performed poorly, a passing grade would be determined by the average of all the scores and whether the individual student performed better than that average or worse. How does that relate to how much that student actually learned is beyond me. And when these students who are our children go out into the world, how will they be able to succeed?

Reviewing the results of the High School Algebra FCAT, there were five levels of achievement. According to the results in the paper, 1,895 students were tested. Of that total only 697 (37 percent) passed. Out of 1,895 tested, only 12 made it to the highest level; that's less than 1 percent.

What we don't know is the passing score. Was it 100 percent, 80 percent or 60 percent? How much did our children really learn? Is that enough for them to go forward in life and be successful?

The big question I have is why the DOE is making it so hard to really assess the quality of education our children are being given? Why are they making it so hard for teachers to establish class lessons for our kids to learn what they need to know? How will America be sustained if we continue to produce generations of students with a substandard education?

It is widely advertised that America is failing to maintain an acceptable level of educational quality. When compared to the rest of the world we once dominated. Florida is the fourth most populated state in the country and our ranking among the other states is among the lowest, and among the rest of Florida we are rated among the lower districts.

How do we improve the quality of our educational system? It is my opinion that if the superintendent and School Board can't come up with the right answer, they should be replaced. In our high schools only 37 percent of those tested achieved level 3, the middle of the scale.

These students are all our children. They deserve better.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/jul/07/bob-minsky-confusing-fcat-end-of-year-grading-on/