Teacher helps students cheat on FCAT
And speaking of Daryl Cobranchi (see below), who awoke much earlier than I did this morning), he caught wind of an interesting little FCAT scandal:
A math teacher at Florida A&M's Developmental Research School has been fired for copying and distributing portions of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as a study tool. James Saylor had been on paid administrative leave since April. He had admitted copying portions of the 2002 FCAT and giving them to students as practice for the 2003 exam, officials said.
Two story passages in the copied material were identical to passages in this year's 10th-grade FCAT reading test. State law prohibits the reproduction of a state standardized test.
Florida doesn't distribute tests after administration, and reuses items. Thus, providing anyone with past tests is copyright infringement and cheating.
Anyone want to start a betting pool on how much time elapses before the first article is published offering this teacher's mendacity as "proof" that high-stakes testing "causes" cheating? I say one week.