David Campbell is a Florida Citizens for Science board member and was featured in a New York TImes article about the teaching of evolution. Here on this blog I’ve been posting about a movement to eliminate the 11th grade science FCAT and replace it with end-of-course tests. (see here, here and here.) David has taken the time to offer his insights in the comments of those posts, but his informed responses are valuable enough to promote to their own post so as not to be lost and forgotten. Here’s what he had to say:
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The 11th grade FCAT is a disaster. It tests student recall in eleventh grade on material taught in 8th, 9th, 10th, and maybe 11th grade. It is a full three year comprehensive exam. It means nothing to the students who take it but does count on the school grade. Released questions have shown that the test includes some poorly written questions based on questionable application of scientific principles.
Commissioner Smith floated this idea of end of course exams with the standards writers more than a year ago and has been pushing it ever since. The last I heard (spring 2008) the only request for funds for a high school FCAT based on the next generation sunshine state standards was for development of an end of course biology exam. The FCAT test development people have been marching down that road for almost a year now.
Biology is the logical choice for the first test. All high school students take high school biology. In some districts various cohorts of students might not take earth/space science, physical science, or chemistry in high school. The test is supposed to be taken at the end of the biology course. If a student takes the course in ninth grade he/she will take the FCAT in ninth grade. Ditto tenth grade or eleventh grade. The test is supposed to consist of multiple choice and free response questions. The last plan I heard was for the multiple choice to count toward the student’s grade for the course and failing the FCAT will mean receiving no credit for the course. That means students are accountable for how they do on the test. Free response questions would still be graded and count for the overall test grade but there had to be a compromise so students/teachers/schools could have part of the test results by the end of the school year to factor into the student’s class grade. My only concern is the legislation’s start date of school year 09-10 for the first end of course biology test. The standards and the course descriptions were written based on the assumption that the junior highs would have fully implemented the new standards before the high schools received their first class of students taking the new test. That won’t happen by next year.
I have the feeling that part of the rush is due to budget constraints. Writing/administering/grading the FCAT is expensive and buying an almost off the shelf test from a third party ought to be a lot cheaper.
I have seen the draft test standards for the proposed biology EOC exam and the evolution standards are assessed. Districts that don’t teach those standards risk lower scores and a higher failure rate. We still need to be vigilant for the closet “teach the controversy†AKA “strengths and weaknesses†AKA “academic freedom†teachers who will try to undermine the teaching and the external groups who will try to browbeat teachers who actually teach the standards.
Next week I start two-three weeks of dedicated FCAT review with my International Baccalaureate eleventh grade students. It is time I can ill afford to lose but I need to review (read: reteach) the earth/space science they took three years ago and I need to teach a full semester of physical science physics that they never had because they were on an accelerated science track that skips that course. An end of course exam makes so much more sense.
Hmmm … Great minds think alike.
Although Mr. Campbell explains it much better. 🙂
You make so much sense. My bright 10th grader has taken biology and chemistry and wants to take anatomy for 11th grade, but I’m afraid to let him postpone physics until 12th grade. He’s a humanities kid and takes AP classes in english and SS and honors in the rest.
End of year tests in each disipline make so much more sense — NYS had Regents exams per subject and that was a great way to cover each subject.
Is there something I can do to advance this?
To help support the proposed legislation communicate with the decisionmakers in Tallahassee. Write to Commissioner Smith and offer your support. Check the progress of the bill frequently and write to committee members as well as your own legislators. Talk to your school district employees, especially the elected school board, and tell them how much this means to you and to your vote. Emphasize to all of the above how much better this is for the students. Always, always, always focus on the students. Then hope that common sense prevails.
I am deeply concerned that biology will be the end of the program. As David points out, the decision to focus on biology was made a year ago, and as far as I know there has been no move to begin work on the earth/space science or the physical sciences. Particularly in the present fiscal environment, we face the real hazard that these other sciences will be deemphasized in the face of the emphasis on biology. This process has already begun in my own kids’ high school, where there is presently no certified physics teacher and the AP physics class is being taught by a teacher with no physics background past an algebra-based introductory physics sequence.
The FCAT Science Advisory Committee has a responsibility to remind the Commissioner of the importance of other sciences to our high schools.
Yes they should do away with fcat I am a 11th grade and I took my test today 3/12/09 and at my school its saying if you don’t make a level you are retained and is forced to be 11th grader all over again until fcat comes back around and I feel this is not fair for to come this long way and get set back because of test that the teacher can’t even pass and for one we don’t even be prepared