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FCAT Demolition ProgramBy Bill Archer, Daytona Beach FCAT anecdotes from my little Title 1 school alone could fill large volumes. I am not worried about revealing the weird and negative spin offs of this lunar high stakes testing and NCLB driven approach to public education. My opposition to its bizarreness is well documented as early as November of 1999 in the Orlando Sentinel. I will only describe in general terms the areas in which the negative impacts have been experienced in my school community so as not to reveal the specific details and risk a breach in student and parent confidentiality. Starting with "A" in the alphabet which stands for "anxiety" in the emotional life of students, parents, teachers and administrators as they worry about the entire process that encompasses the narrow FCAT skills preparation, test taking, waiting for test results and finally dealing with those results, is just the beginning of troubles caused by this politically driven charade. Along with "anxiety" comes the "alienation" of teachers and students who resist the lock step process and whose creative inclinations are blunted by the FCAT's narrowest of educational skills requirements. Even though I could use every letter in the alphabet to come up with a word to describe another negative result of the FCAT I won't because this record would be too expansive for this message. Take the letter "R" for instance; in FCAT parlance it stands for "Real Estate" market. Yes, even realtors use local school grades as selling points to advertise houses that are located close to "A" schools. Florida's student drop out rate is one of the highest in the nation and teachers are leaving the profession in huge numbers. As a last resort local newspapers have some school districts advertising for non education professionals to switch to teaching because of the overwhelming shortage. A realtor friend of mine said he wouldn't switch to education. He said he is "making too much money now and wouldn't want to deal with the problems kids and their parents are having in an economy that is destroying its middle class." This guy would be an excellent teacher with his great ability to communicate and his grasp of the world today. He added that "teachers aren't paid enough for what they do and what they endure." Sounds like he had some good teachers when he was in school. Getting back to the alphabet, take the letter "D" for example. In FCAT lingo "D" is for "Dissension". That is what happens in the school community when it comes to deciding how to divide the bonus money that was initially offered as a reward for teachers in schools that "earn" an "A" grade. I put "earn" in quotes because with the controversy over the qualifications for scorers we really can't trust the validity of the test results upon which many financial, geographical, educational and emotional futures are decided. But I must include "V" since it stands for the ultimate goal of this politically driven education reform. "V" stands for "Vouchers". The FCAT and NCLB are the lynch pins of the process for the privatization of public education. The present Governor of Florida, and his brother, the president of the nation, both owe much of their political status to their far right extremist supporters who expect a return on their investment. That return comes in the form of funneling tax dollars marked for public education into the private coffers of religious and private schools; and if the government has its way the money will go into its vision of "corporatized schools". Public schools may even be morphed into some sort of "Gates Foundation" institutions that produce corporate clones for the new "corporate states of America". Under the leadership of those who have deceived the public with their education reform charades America faces a more damaging threat than many can imagine. And the legions of educators that sit idly by and accept it are either too intimidated to mobilize or are sadly ignorant about the dire direction in which their profession is about to be plunged. If teachers and other educational professionals haven't made a philosophical decision for themselves that values individual and personal freedom in education then they are a part of public education's decline and unwittingly allied with those who are consciously making its destruction their goal. There is a deeper meaning assigned to teaching than just earning a paycheck. It is about instilling an understanding of the democratic process in the minds of our students and helping them to see the importance of their collective participation in maintaining a democracy that is now under siege by forces within our own government that have a vested interest in its demise. Bill Archer, School Counselor, Volusia County Schools, Daytona Beach, FL 32118. H 386 255 3592
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