{"id":1147,"date":"2009-12-16T07:51:10","date_gmt":"2009-12-16T11:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1147"},"modified":"2009-12-16T07:51:10","modified_gmt":"2009-12-16T11:51:10","slug":"end-of-course-testing-attempt-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1147","title":{"rendered":"End of course testing attempt II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bills have been filed in the state legislature<\/a> that would push aside the FCAT (including the science FCAT) and replace those comprehensive tests with end of course exams. That’s a step in the right direction. The problem with the science FCAT is shockingly simple<\/a>: \u00e2\u20ac\u009dThere are a lot of kids who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care because they know it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It doesn’t count toward their passing to the next grade or graduating, but does count toward the schools’ annual grades. It covers multiple science concepts and subjects that students might have learned a few years previous and possibly forgotten. Science teachers in the 11th grade, regardless of subject, find themselves having to stop their own curriculum in order to review other science subjects just to give students a fighting chance, well, for those students who actually care, that is.<\/p>\n

So, end of course tests make sense. But the way Florida wants to do it seems rather silly. The focus is mainly on Biology and “an additional high-level physical science course,” which snubs vast fields of science that could then be shoved aside. Paul Cottle has been sounding the alarm<\/a> on that problem.<\/p>\n

There is a red flag to keep an eye concerning even the Biology exam. “The test changes would be developed over the next three years by a educators, parents, community leaders and researchers.” Seems to me yet another opportunity to scream about the teaching of evolution. We need to stay on our toes!<\/p>\n

Another story about the tests here<\/a>. A blog post from the Sentinel School Zone here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bills have been filed in the state legislature that would push aside the FCAT (including the science FCAT) and replace those comprehensive tests with end of course exams. That’s a step in the right direction. The problem with the science … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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-iv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1201,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1201","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":0},"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":891,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=891","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":1},"title":"Insights into Florida science testing","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 5 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 5 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=891#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":871,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=871","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":2},"title":"Lawmaker wants to dump 11th grade science FCAT","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, House Bill 543, \"Educational Assessment\", was filed by Representative Debbie Mayfield (R). The bill text indicates that Mayfield would like to see a major change to the science FCAT. Notwithstanding s. 1008.22, Florida Statutes, or any other provision of the law to the contrary, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test\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":97,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=97","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":3},"title":"Letter to the editor about science FCAT","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is an interesting letter to the editor about the science FCAT: As a science graduate and education specialist teaching science in high school, I find myself along with other teachers arresting our science curriculum in anatomy and physiology, physics, zoology, environmental science and chemistry to help our students either\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":146,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=146","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":4},"title":"Science FCAT … all for nothing?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This story about the science FCAT is a mixed bag. It's sad kids have to be essentially bribed in order to give schools any hope of not nosediving in scores. Ipods, prom tickets, limo rides -- the prizes offered at American one morning last week are meant to motivate 11th-graders\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":1059,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1059","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":5},"title":"Op-ed: Is science education important to Florida?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week I submitted an op-ed column to newspapers across the state on behalf of Florida Citizens for Science. Today the Gainesville Sun ran it. The Sun even ran a political cartoon with the column! A couple of other papers expressed an interest in it, but I haven't gotten\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1059#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147"}],"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=1147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}