Governor Jeb Bush has "heard concerns" about the FCAT, according to this article. What a great headline. He has "heard," but did he believe the claims of protestors that the test is inherently unfair? Did he allow protestors to continue their claims that the FCAT alone is holding thousands of kids back? Doesn't sound like it:
...faced with a boisterous crowd outside his office, Bush finally relented, first suggesting that a group of parents and students meet privately with him.
That offer was rejected when [Senator] Wilson was blocked from walking into his office, and Bush emerged, his staff leading Wilson and the protesters into a conference room.
Bush arrived to applause, telling the protesters that their beef lies back at home -- with the Miami-Dade County school district. Schools, Bush said, are allowed to promote children to the fourth grade, even if they failed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test -- if the student can demonstrate, by other means, a certain reading skill.
''If the principal and teacher believe that the child has achieved what the expectations are, then that child can be promoted,'' Bush said, suggesting that Wilson, as a school district employee, should be familiar with the regulations...
Heh. Apparently, the protesters who are screaming that the FCAT is holding so many kids back aren't being too forthcoming with the fact that the portfolio option can be used to pass a third-grader who flunks the FCAT. These portfolios provide alternate reading passages and items, along with other test options. But not that many teachers took advantage of this - it tended to be used only with the students with really low FCAT scores who were nonetheless reading well (according to their teachers). Only 256 bypasses were submitted to the Miami-Dade school, and 200 of them were accepted.
The remaining flunkers, we might assume, were judged by their teachers to be unable of passing the alternatives; i.e., not reading at grade level. Thus, their retention in third grade is not the testing-related injustice that the protestors would have you believe.
Posted by kswygert at August 13, 2003 09:34 PM