{"id":146,"date":"2007-01-27T23:23:51","date_gmt":"2007-01-28T03:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=146"},"modified":"2009-01-20T14:07:05","modified_gmt":"2009-01-20T19:07:05","slug":"science-fcat-all-for-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=146","title":{"rendered":"Science FCAT … all for nothing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story about the science FCAT is a mixed bag<\/a>. It’s sad kids have to be essentially bribed in order to give schools any hope of not nosediving in scores.<\/p>\n

Ipods, prom tickets, limo rides — the prizes offered at American one morning last week are meant to motivate 11th-graders into taking and doing well on the upcoming FCAT science exam. While the scores won’t affect their state graduation requirements, they will count, for the first time, toward school grades.<\/p>\n

Now some South Florida educators find themselves trying to entice 16-year-olds — even if it borders on a bit of bribery. At Michael Krop Senior High, students who score Level 3 or higher on the the science FCAT will get to sport shorts to class.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

‘You are putting a certain amount of power in the hands of kids,” said Miami-Dade district science supervisor Cyd Heyliger-Browne. “But since they’re putting them in the driver’s seat, we’re telling them to drive us forward.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

”There are a lot of kids who don’t care because they know it doesn’t matter,” said Clifton Forbes, a junior at American.<\/p>\n

That attitude is what concerns officials most.<\/p>\n

”Between 94 and 96 percent of juniors have to show up and take the test or their school will be penalized,” Heyliger-Browne said. When not enough students at a school take the test, the school receives an Incomplete from the state rather than a grade, no matter how well students score.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Experts say science’s growing influence in standardized testing stems from an increased emphasis on math. But they are skeptical of the format being used to measure science comprehension at the high school level. They much prefer final exams in specific subjects.<\/p>\n

”Generally, with an 11th-grade comprehensive test such as the FCAT, the state’s standards are not terribly high,” said Lynn Cornett, a senior vice president of educational policies for the Southern Regional Educational Board. “You end up not teaching to a high level of standards on that test.”<\/p>\n

Cornett said that at the middle school level, science courses are already too broad and shallow, which reflects in testing that fails to cover subject matter in depth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, that’s a lot of negative stuff packed into one story. The test is high stakes for the schools, but not so much for the kids. Kids are being pretty much bribed. The kids have the control rather than the schools. This style of testing is possibly not the best for a subject like science. Science in schools is not covered well as a result.<\/p>\n

Whew! And this stuff is supposed to help kids? How?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … 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":[22,2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-2m","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":413,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=413","url_meta":{"origin":146,"position":0},"title":"Dropping the curriculum for FCAT","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"And now for some non-evolution science education news ... the FCAT is so dang important that regular science curriculum is being dropped in some schools in order to do an intense FCAT prep. (The FCAT is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. It's a high stakes test that determines if kids\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":213,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=213","url_meta":{"origin":146,"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":146,"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":1345,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1345","url_meta":{"origin":146,"position":3},"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":1101,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1101","url_meta":{"origin":146,"position":4},"title":"Shocking fact about science FCAT","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The folks over at The Gradebook education news blog analyzed statewide test scores and came up with an ugly little fact concerning the science FCAT: Meanwhile, not a single black student in the entire state scored a Level 5 on the science FCAT, at any grade level. Let us repeat\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 23 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 23 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1101#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2309,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2309","url_meta":{"origin":146,"position":5},"title":"Statewide science scores … anyone out there actually care?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Another year, another dismal performance on statewide science assessments here in Florida. Depending on grade level, students either took the science FCAT or Biology End of Course exam. Here's the results compared to previous years': Biology End of Course State Percentage Passing (Level 3 or Above) Spring 2014-2015: 65 Spring\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146"}],"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=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}