{"id":1049,"date":"2009-05-28T12:51:40","date_gmt":"2009-05-28T16:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1049"},"modified":"2009-06-27T13:18:37","modified_gmt":"2009-06-27T17:18:37","slug":"2009-science-fcat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1049","title":{"rendered":"2009 Science FCAT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Science FCAT scores are out<\/a>. The bottom line: fifth and eighth graders had gains, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re small; whereas 11th-graders dropped a bit.<\/p>\n

Fifth graders have been slowly making gains over the years, which is, of course, what everyone wants to see. According to this sheet (pdf<\/a>), they went from 43% of all fifth graders passing at level three or higher last year to 46% passing. But, as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve mentioned in years past, that still means a dismal 54% are not passing.<\/p>\n

Eighth graders also are still on an upward trend, with a one percent gain from 40% last year to 41% this year.<\/p>\n

Before I go any further, I want to quote here what each of the five achievement levels are on the FCAT:<\/p>\n

Level 5– This student has success with the most challenging content of the Sunshine State Standards. A student scoring in Level 5 answers most of the test questions correctly, including the most challenging questions.
\nLevel 4 — This student has success with the challenging content of the Sunshine State Standards. A student scoring in Level 4 answers most of the test questions correctly, but may have only some success with questions that reflect the most challenging content.
\nLevel 3 — This student has partial success with the challenging content of the Sunshine State Standards, but performance is inconsistent. A student scoring in Level 3 answers many of the test questions correctly but is generally less successful with questions that are the most challenging.
\nLevel 2 — This student has limited success with the challenging content of the Sunshine State Standards.
\nLevel 1 — This student has little success with the challenging content of the Sunshine State Standards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now take a look at the achievement level spread on the fifth grade mathematics FCAT:
\n2009 1st:14 2nd:24 3rd:26 4th:27 5th:9<\/p>\n

Then take a look at the achievement level spread on the fifth grade reading FCAT:
\n2009 1st:14 2nd:14 3rd:34 4th:29 5th:8<\/p>\n

What stands out to me is the nice split between the 3rd and 4th levels. Plenty of students are up to the challenge of the 4th level in those subjects. Now compare those to the science FCAT spread in fifth grade:
\n2009 1st:21 2nd:32 3rd:34 4th:10 5th:2<\/p>\n

Not many students are making it to the 4th or 5th levels in science in any of the grades in any of the years. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a very ugly fact deserving of some attention.<\/p>\n

Now let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s move on to the bad news: 11th-graders. They dipped a percentage point from 38% last year to 37% this year. Keep in mind that means a full 63% of 11th graders apparently have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153limited\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153little success\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with the material. I welcome your thoughts on this in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Science FCAT scores are out. The bottom line: fifth and eighth graders had gains, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re small; whereas 11th-graders dropped a bit. Fifth graders have been slowly making gains over the years, which is, of course, what everyone wants to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-gV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":213,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=213","url_meta":{"origin":1049,"position":0},"title":"2007 science FCAT scores","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s science FCAT scores were released today. For those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, the FCAT is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test given annually to all Florida public school children in grades 3 through 11. The FCAT is supposed to measure what students have learned about reading, writing, mathematics and science. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1345,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1345","url_meta":{"origin":1049,"position":1},"title":"Science FCAT 2011","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Results for Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s annual science exams taken by 3rd, 8th, and 11th graders were released today. The good news? Scores overall improved since last year. The bad news? The rise in scores is small, and 50 percent of our state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s students aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t proficient in science. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tired of being a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FCAT"","block_context":{"text":"FCAT","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":605,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=605","url_meta":{"origin":1049,"position":2},"title":"2008 science FCAT scores","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s science FCAT scores were released today. For those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, the FCAT is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test given annually to all Florida public school children in grades 3 through 11. The FCAT is supposed to measure what students have learned about reading, writing, mathematics and science. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FCAT"","block_context":{"text":"FCAT","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=137","url_meta":{"origin":1049,"position":3},"title":"Science on the FCAT; More Fs?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Changes to this year's FCATs, including the importance of the science tests, are prompting dire school grade predictions. There could be a record number of failing schools in Duval County and around Florida this year unless local school districts find a way to improve student achievement in two categories being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1201,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1201","url_meta":{"origin":1049,"position":4},"title":"2010 Science FCAT and beyond","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The annual Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results are finally released. These are exams that students across the state in specific grade levels must take in core subjects. These scores can influence students\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 promotion to the next grade, and dictate what the student can or cannot take the next school year,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1201#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1872,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1872","url_meta":{"origin":1049,"position":5},"title":"Biology EOC results?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Help me out here, please. FCAT scores were released this week. Of course, they snagged the media spotlight. But buried in there were supposedly the results of the Biology End of Course exams. This article says: Scores also were released Friday for the writing portion of the FCAT \u00e2\u20ac\u201d taken\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1872#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}