{"id":1518,"date":"2012-04-20T20:01:41","date_gmt":"2012-04-21T00:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1518"},"modified":"2012-04-20T20:01:41","modified_gmt":"2012-04-21T00:01:41","slug":"can-the-science-fcat-be-defended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1518","title":{"rendered":"Can the science FCAT be defended?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Times education blog, The Gradebook, published an e-mail exchange<\/a> that was sparked by Robert Krampf’s (the Happy Scientist<\/a>) critique of the science FCAT. The Department of Education tries to defend the test and not very well, I think. Krampf’s points are definitely still valid.<\/p>\n

Also, NPR’s StateImpact readers<\/a> have Krampf’s back.<\/p>\n

These tests are bad \u00e2\u20ac\u009d gotcha\u00e2\u20ac\u009d tools that do nothing to test real science knowledge, and will turn kids who are excited about science into frustrated, science-hating robots. The state claims to care about STEM subjects, but this is an example of how politicians, test companies, and others who are hundreds of miles from actual classrooms are grading our children. It makes me so sad for curious, potential young scientists.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Times education blog, The Gradebook, published an e-mail exchange that was sparked by Robert Krampf’s (the Happy Scientist) critique of the science FCAT. The Department of Education tries to defend the test and not very well, I … 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-ou","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1059,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1059","url_meta":{"origin":1518,"position":0},"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":[]},{"id":413,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=413","url_meta":{"origin":1518,"position":1},"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":97,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=97","url_meta":{"origin":1518,"position":2},"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":213,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=213","url_meta":{"origin":1518,"position":3},"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":1101,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1101","url_meta":{"origin":1518,"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":137,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=137","url_meta":{"origin":1518,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518"}],"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=1518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1519,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518\/revisions\/1519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}