{"id":137,"date":"2007-01-16T17:30:36","date_gmt":"2007-01-16T21:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=137"},"modified":"2008-08-05T11:40:19","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T15:40:19","slug":"science-on-the-fcat-more-fs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=137","title":{"rendered":"Science on the FCAT; More Fs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Changes to this year’s FCATs, including the importance of the science tests, are prompting dire school grade predictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 added to the school grading formula.<\/p>\n

Science achievement and learning gains for the lowest-performing students in math will be calculated into school grades for the first time, based on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test that begins next month. Science has been included on the FCAT for several years, but those results were not factored into school grades.<\/p>\n

The grading change threatens to lower school scores dramatically in Duval County and across the state, according to projections compiled by the Florida Department of Education that applied the new formula to last year’s scores.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Local school officials say they are aware of the projections and are working hard to minimize any decline in school grades.<\/p>\n

However, there have been setbacks.<\/p>\n

This month, the School Board approved $106,000 to purchase fourth-grade science textbooks for fifth-grade classrooms after teachers complained that textbooks purchased last summer for fifth-graders did not adequately prepare them for the FCAT.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The main concern is the science test, which 11th-graders will take in roughly six weeks. To spur improvement, Brennan implemented weekly FCAT mini-lessons so students can review materials that may appear on the exam.<\/p>\n

“It’s a lot of science but we have to get it into them before the test,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … 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":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-2d","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1712,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1712","url_meta":{"origin":137,"position":0},"title":"FCAT science and Biology end of course … public input","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"There are two public input workshops coming up during which you can give your opinion on how the new science FCAT and Biology end of course exams (and Geometry) are scored. You can go to Tallahassee tomorrow or West Palm Beach on Thursday. (h\/t Sentinel School Zone.) In September, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":213,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=213","url_meta":{"origin":137,"position":1},"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":605,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=605","url_meta":{"origin":137,"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":871,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=871","url_meta":{"origin":137,"position":3},"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":1585,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1585","url_meta":{"origin":137,"position":4},"title":"Science FCAT 2012, nothing new","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"FCAT science. Grades 5 and 8 (no more high school science FCATs with the advent of the Biology end of course exams): stagnant (pdf document, scroll all the way down to page 55 ... yes, page 55, heck, even the press release buried the science results.). Not much I can\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":1143,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1143","url_meta":{"origin":137,"position":5},"title":"Florida students are pretty much last in the nation for science","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last in the nation. That's one of the \"take home\" points made in a slide show created by the Florida Department of Education\u00c2\u00a0and obtained by they Orlando Sentinel's School Zone education blog. To see the 55-slide presentation, head over to the School Zone blog and click on the link there.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1143#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137"}],"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=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}