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Blog: FCAR
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Why Increased FCAT Scores Can Mean Less Learning
For the sake of Florida’s children, teachers and schools, don’t pay too much
attention to FCAT scores. What is the FCAT anyway? Answer: It is a set of tests
intended to measure kids’ ability to select or create correct answers to test
questions or directions. It is most like a standardized test designed to “rank”
test takers. Test items were selected to ensure a bell-shaped or normal
distribution of the scores in each state-wide school grade level. The term “at
grade level” was then assigned to scores near the average or middle. By
mathematical rule, nearly half of all kids will have scores below the grade
level standard.
Most all of the differences among the school-average scores are due to the
differences in the household incomes of the students attending each school.
Differences in average scores by ethnic group are almost totally due to those
income differences, not race characteristics.
Among students, many factors cause differences in student learning. Parents with
average or above average household income have the resources needed to provide
their children with many life experiences that help them achieve in school. But
there are other factors.
God and his partner, Mother Nature, did not give the same school-learning gifts
to all kids. It is similar to height. Kids of the same age come in widely
different heights and shapes.
Society does not punish people for being short. It is strange that political
leaders believe it is appropriate to punish kids who were given fewer
school-learning abilities.
Many national and state professional organizations have studied the long-term
impact of the use of a single test for high stakes decisions such as grade level
retention, assigning grades to schools, granting graduation diplomas from high
school and judging teachers. They have all condemned those practices as
wrong-headed and abusive.
State officials want schools to use research-based methods for school
improvement. Why then, do the Florida Legislature, Gov. Bush and the Florida
Board of Education refuse to attend to the large body of research-based truths
about improper uses of the FCAT? Do they really intend to destroy kids and
public education or do they desire to remain uninformed?
Florida now has the highest high-school dropout rate of any state in the nation
(the Fl. department of education says it is only third from the highest). A
close look at the data would suggest that while FCAT grades increase, the
Florida A+ plan is leading toward the destruction of the state’s work force and
thus it’s economy.
In the world of adult work, adults are not given salary increases or promotions
because they can pass a test but do little more. Yes, basic academic skills are
important, but other employability skills are more important. Learning to locate
answers, working cooperatively with others, and dependability are among the most
critical skills needed to keep a job.
When kids are forced to spend 20% to 60% of their total yearly school time on
drill and practice for the FCAT, the test scores do go up: but at what cost to
real long-term learning? When the same kids get little or no art, music,
physical education, or cooperative problem solving lessons, they soon learn to
hate school and become disruptive. When most all school activity is focused on
grade-level FCAT content, faster learners are held back and slower learners are
punished.
There are many positive methods for school improvement and accountability. The
public needs to spend a bit of time to become informed! A few hours on the
internet will help anyone learn about better methods for school improvement.
There are positive methods for accountability.
It is sad that very few of Florida’s school boards and school district
administrators have the courage to refuse to follow what are known to be abusive
treatments of students, teachers, and school level leaders. Where would our
nation be if the founding fathers had been too wimpy to resist abuse?
Remember, short people will not get taller if beaten with a stick. Punishment
does not help kids learn when they are doing their best. Threats are not
motivators for positive actions.
Robert R. Lange, Ph.D.
Retired Prof. of Educational Research and Measurement
Email qida@bellsouth.net or
lange@mail.ucf.edu Phone 407-322-6234
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