{"id":644,"date":"2008-07-10T19:11:51","date_gmt":"2008-07-10T23:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=644"},"modified":"2008-08-30T10:46:30","modified_gmt":"2008-08-30T14:46:30","slug":"high-stakes-vs-low-stakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=644","title":{"rendered":"High-stakes vs. low-stakes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.palmbeachpost.com\/localnews\/content\/shared\/news\/stories\/2008\/07\/FLORIDA_SCIENCE11_PBP.html?cxntlid=inform_artr\">Palm Beach Post reports<\/a> on a study that looked at what influence failing schools&#8217; focus on high-stakes test improvement has on other low-stakes tests. When a school is deemed failing (such as getting an F here in Florida) due to reading and math test results, the staff focuses on those subjects in an effort to bring the school grade up. With so much focus on those all-important tested subjects, do other subjects suffer from neglect? The study says no.<\/p>\n<p>The Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute took a look at Florida fifth graders&#8217; FCAT scores in the 2002-2003 school year. Reading and math FCAT results counted toward schools&#8217; grades whereas science didn&#8217;t at that time. (Science scores do count now, though.) The study tracked failing schools&#8217; attempts to improve. Since science didn&#8217;t really matter, was that subject brushed aside? The study found that science scores actually improved. As a matter of fact, those failed schools wound up making better gains in science than passed schools. Why?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>David Figlio, a professor at the University of Florida, said the focus on reading and math might have spilled over to other subjects as well. If a student can read and do math well, they have a better chance at correctly solving a science problem.<\/p>\n<p>Another possible reason is that after receiving a failing grade a school might institute school-wide reforms, which in turn could have helped science scores, researchers said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The study <a href=\"http:\/\/www.manhattan-institute.org\/html\/cr_54.htm\">can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Palm Beach Post reports on a study that looked at what influence failing schools&#8217; focus on high-stakes test improvement has on other low-stakes tests. When a school is deemed failing (such as getting an F here in Florida) due &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=644\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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-ao","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":213,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=213","url_meta":{"origin":644,"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 &quot;Alert&quot;","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":644,"position":1},"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 &quot;FCAT&quot;","block_context":{"text":"FCAT","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":214,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=214","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":2},"title":"Why are science FCAT scores low?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Low science FCAT scores (see previous post)\u00c2\u00a0were mentioned in many news stories yesterday and today, and a few even made that element the story\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hook. (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But scientists they are not.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) There is no in-depth analysis of the problem, though, that I have found. Mainly, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about reading, writing and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Analysis\/Commentary&quot;","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":644,"position":3},"title":"Science FCAT &#8230; 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 &quot;FCAT&quot;","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":644,"position":4},"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 &quot;In the Classroom&quot;","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":413,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=413","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":5},"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 &quot;In the Classroom&quot;","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\/644"}],"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=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}