This year, it counts

This year, it counts.

Florida students have taken state science exams for the past few years, but those were trial runs.

This March, the science portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests will be factored into the grade schools receive from the state. Those A-F grades mean cash bonuses for high performing schools and warnings for the low-performing ones….

“We have an enormous task,” said Nancy Durham, principal of Edgewood Academy, an elementary school in Fort Myers. “Up until this time science has not been stressed. You have to really build your science program from kindergarten until fifth grade.”

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It’s the first time in at least a decade that the district has had a systemwide science program, said Rick Tully, the K-12 science coordinator. In the past, schools had to teach state-mandated topics but teachers and principals could decide when they wanted to cover the lessons — a problem in a district that sees lots of students changing schools during the year.

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“The kids need the science,” said Bill Hamstra, a fifth-grade teacher at Edgewood. “They don’t have a good background in science and an understanding of how things work.”