St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler takes a look at all the recent FCAT numbers:
The most important news was that for the first time, more than half of Florida's kids in grades 3-10 are reading at or above their grade level. To be exact, it is 51 percent.
A naysayer might look at the same number and say: That's terrible! You mean that 49 percent of Florida's kids are NOT reading at their grade level? Indeed, as if on cue, Florida's Democrats issued a statement finding fault. "Victory!" sneered the Democrats' sarcastic headline. "Half of Florida Kids Can Read!!!"
Does this mean the Democrats agree that the FCAT Reading test does in fact test genuine reading skills? Hee hee.
Really, I thought Bush was fairly frank and realistic about the numbers he presented. For the most part they represent slow and incremental improvement...The best news in Bush's numbers came in the lower grades, where the most emphasis has been placed on reading.
But that is a nice way of saying that the latter grades ... well, stink.
There also still is an enormous performance gap between white and minority students. Only 32 percent of black kids are reading at grade level and 42 percent of Hispanics, compared to 63 percent of white kids. The numbers for math are similar.
In other words, a black kid in Florida is still only half as likely as a white kid to be reading at grade level. Find all the economic, cultural or educational excuses you want - this is a bedrock problem for Florida.
Do the Democrats have a solution to that, other than tossing the tests which spotlight the reading gap?
Posted by kswygert at May 11, 2004 02:23 PM