Posted on 05/23/2002 4:02:37 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Passing the FCAT is one of several graduation requirements, including a minimum qualifying grade point average and community service. Tenth-graders who fail the FCAT are offered extra tutoring and can retake the test at least five times before their graduation date. ''It's not like all these kids don't get high school diplomas,'' Toural said.
More than half the 10th-graders in Miami-Dade County and about 40 percent in Broward County failed to meet the state's tougher new graduation standards on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and will have to retake the test.
About 13,600 sophomores in Miami-Dade and 5,500 in Broward failed the reading and/or math sections of the FCAT this year. Last year, about 10,400 in Miami-Dade and 4,200 in Broward flunked.
''The failure rate is scary,'' said Mercedes Toural, associate superintendent for education in Miami-Dade schools, the nation's fourth-largest school district. ``It's disheartening for the kids and teachers who work so hard. We would like our kids to do well.''
Passing the FCAT is one of several graduation requirements, including a minimum qualifying grade point average and community service. Tenth-graders who fail the FCAT are offered extra tutoring and can retake the test at least five times before their graduation date.
''It's not like all these kids don't get high school diplomas,'' Toural said.
In October, about a third of the 11th-graders in Miami-Dade and about half in Broward passed the test on their second try.
Officials in both districts said that while the state's raised graduation standards were a major factor in the high number of failures, they can't identify other reasons until the state releases individual student scores in a couple of weeks. School average scores were released last week.
''This is a totally different group of kids from last year, and every group looks different,'' said Anne Dilgen, director of student assessment for Broward schools. ``We haven't been able to analyze the changes from this year to last. We need to wait for more drilled-down data.''
This year, high school sophomores have to earn 300 of 500 possible points in reading and math to qualify for a state diploma. Last year, students needed 287 in reading and 295 in math. The state recently decided not to apply this year's higher standards to 11th-graders retaking the test.
Students who fail to pass receive only a ''certificate of completion'' at graduation.
Student scores on math and reading -- along with writing, which doesn't apply toward the graduation requirement -- will determine the school performance grades that the state plans to release in mid-June.
The FCAT replaced the less difficult High School Competency Test as a graduation requirement last year. The old exam, used since 1976, tested basic knowledge while the FCAT tests higher-order critical thinking and problem solving.
''The FCAT is significantly more difficult,'' said Natalie Roca, executive director of student assessment and educational testing in Miami-Dade. ``Students now have to meet a more rigorous standard than previous classmates.''
Still, attaining the new FCAT minimums show only that students have ''limited success with the challenging content.'' Former Education Commissioner Tom Gallagher, now the state insurance commissioner, once called the FCAT minimums ''embarrassing'' and suggested raising them to 315 for math and 327 for reading.
As in years past, sophomores in Miami-Dade failed the FCAT at a much higher rate than other students in the state.
This year, 56 percent of the 24,300 10th-graders in Miami-Dade failed the reading section and 42 percent failed math. In Broward, about 40 percent of the 13,800 10th-graders failed reading and 28 percent failed math, mirroring state averages.
Miami-Dade wasn't alone in struggling with the new tougher standards. Thousands more 10th-graders across the state failed this year than last year.
The state has not yet released the exact number of students who failed at least one section of the test, so it is unclear how many South Florida sophomores will need to retake the test.
Miami-Dade school officials said the county's high poverty rate and large population of students still learning English factored into its high failure rate.
''We have bright kids who are new arrivals who really study and pass courses and have a good GPA,'' Toural said. ``But it's another thing to sit down and take a test designed for speakers of English. That's like you and I taking a test in German.''
Though specific breakdowns by race are not yet available, the higher graduation standards are expected to particularly impact minority students, officials said.
''We don't want to ask [that] standards be watered down for minorities, because there's a danger in that,'' Toural said. ``So how do you balance high standards for all with the special needs of minorities? That's the challenge our teachers face every day.''
These were values our country had from its inception and for many years following (barn raisings being one example that stands out in my mind.) I think voluntary community service helps to restore this to the community and the individual.
IMHO, we lost the willingness to volunteer in our communities right about the time that people realized they were being robbed and then that money was being used to aid community programs and charity. This is why, in too many cases, REAL charity programs (most formerly run by churches and other civic organizations) are now being funding by nanny-government (through FORCED taxation) instead of locally and by folks contributing voluntarily. Ergo, when the government steals the fruits of people's labors, they have less left to voluntarily give where they would like.
I'll second your sentiment and add that "mandatory" community service is being used to enforce the Communist belief that we have a "duty" to serve our fellow man. Never mind the Constitutional ideas of personal responsibility and initative. These programs are being utilized to groom our children for citizenship in a collectivist/socialist, one-world order society. These programs are also direct decendents from UNESCOs "Rights fo the Child" progroms....
I know this happens. It happened to our daughter, who survived public school grade inflation, graduated and received a business degree from Texas A&M. We too believed she was doing wonderfully in her math studies. All A grades came home in math, until the final Algebra II exam, which she failed. Her 9 week grades kept her from failing, but obviously she knew nothing. After aprox. 8 sessions with a private tutor, she was able to learn geometry, algebra II (she had learned algebra I while we were in Virginia) and pass a summer Calculus class to get into A&M. Her mind is sharp, her high schools education was not.
The teacher was letting them grade each other's papers and call the grades up to him. This followed another teacher who had them take group tests. All this happened in a supposedly "very good school district." Perfectly good minds are being wasted because the schools don't have teachers who can teach or who don't know the subject matter. Too many parents don't know how bad it is because schools are inflating grades to hide it and their unions will do everything to keep them employed and in front of the students. Going to meet with teachers like these does no good, they are the ones inflating the grades and telling parents their children are excellent students!
It's good to have as many tools available as possible!!
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