Elementary and middle school students may have a tougher time passing Florida's favorite standardized test next year.
The Florida Department of Education proposed stricter scoring guidelines for the FCAT exams that would go into effect in 2012. The changes must be approved by the State Board of Education, which is expected to review the changes in December.
The proposed changes follow earlier revisions that went into effect this school year. These revisions changed some of the exams' content and added a new end-of-course exam for high school students in algebra.
The FCAT exams are annual standardized tests in math and reading for students in third grade through 10th grade. There is also an FCAT writing exam, for fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders, and an FCAT science for fifth- and eighth-graders and high school juniors.
Scores are used to make decisions regarding students' course placement, and passing scores are required for high school graduation. The scores are also used to assign public schools A through F grades based on their students' performances. This grade helps dictate the amount of state funding the school will receive - something that may also be impacted by the stricter standards.
Students will still be scored on a scale of 1 to 5, with 3 being satisfactory, but it will take a better performance on the exam to get that 3.
For example, had the proposed grading system been in effect for last year's test, the percentage of third-graders scoring at grade level would have dropped from 78 percent to 56 percent on the math exam and from 72 percent to 57 percent on the reading exam. A similar effect would have been seen for students through seventh grade.
However, the percentage of eighth-grade students scoring at grade level on the reading exam would have remained the same, and for ninth- and 10th-graders, it would have increased from 48 percent to 55 percent and from 39 percent to 56 percent, respectively.
Dan Boyd, superintendent for the Alachua County School District, said the new grading scale was proposed in an effort to standardize the expectations of students from third through 10th grade.
Previously, for 10th-grade students to pass the FCAT reading exam, they would have needed a score that placed them in the 80th percentile in the United States, Boyd said. The 50th percentile would be average.
Boyd said though this may help high school students who struggle to meet graduation requirements, it could have the opposite effect on Alachua County elementary and middle school students.
He said the county is expecting to see an increase in the number of elementary and middle school students retained, as well as a decrease in the number of A schools in the county.
"It's hard to attain the bar when it keeps moving on us," said Karen Clarke, director of secondary curriculum for Alachua County.
If approved, these changes would accompany the new tests that will be unveiled in 2012, including end-of-course exams in biology and geometry.
In addition to the algebra exam, incoming high school freshmen must now pass geometry and biology exams after they complete these courses to graduate. These exams will constitute 30 percent of their final grades in these courses.
One problem with this system, Clarke said, is some schools in Florida may not have the technology or the money to use the computer-based testing system.
"There's been no funding from the state to increase that infrastructure," she said.
