Re: FCAT : from the Orlando Sentinel

["Art Burke" <aburke@vansd.org>]

Most people think that teaching, studying, and working, not tests, aid
learning.  Art

>>> QCao009@aol.com 01/13/03 05:23AM >>>
FCAT-style tests don't aid learning much, studies find

By Leslie Postal | Sentinel Staff Writer 
Posted January 13, 2003 

High-stakes school tests such as Florida's FCAT do little to increase 
"genuine learning" and could be doing more harm by causing dropout
rates to 
climb and forcing more students to settle for alternative diplomas, two
new 
studies show.

The tests, used to hold schools accountable and to determine whether
children 
can graduate or be promoted to the next grade, are an increasingly
popular 
method of public-school reform. Twenty eight states have adopted
high-stakes 
tests, and they will be required nationwide after President Bush's "No
Child 
Left Behind" education plan is fully implemented.

But Audrey Amrein, an Arizona State University researcher, said the
tests 
make for good politics but aren't helping children much.

"The positive consequences of high-stakes tests are minimal," said
Amrein, 
one author of the two studies. "And that's contrary to public
opinion."

The Arizona State studies quickly drew criticism from some testing
advocates 
and likely will become more fodder in the debate about whether these
programs 
improve schools or hurt students when so much rides on a single round
of 
tests.

In Florida, students' scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment
Test are 
used to grade public schools, hand out school reward money, help decide

whether third-graders are promoted and determine whether high-school
seniors 
earn diplomas.

The new studies were funded by the Great Lakes Center for Education
Research 
and Practice, a think tank supported by affiliates of the National
Education 
Association, the teachers union leery of high-stakes testing.

The researchers noted that scores on state tests have gone up since
their 
introduction, but students are falling behind in other areas,
suggesting that 
children didn't learn anything more than how to master the narrow
curriculum 
tested on those make-or-break exams.

In some states, scores on national tests, such as the SAT, Advanced
Placement 
exams and the National Assessment of Education Progress, actually
dropped. In 
eight of the 12 states, or 67 percent, that participated in the
national 
assessment, for example, fourth-grade math scores fell.

Dropout rate up in 8 states

The studies also found evidence of increased "unintended and negative 
consequences" from high-stakes tests that are required for graduation.
The 
studies looked at 16 states with such programs and found that in eight,
the 
dropout rates increased, while they decreased in five. The results were

unclear for three states, including Florida.

Amrein said the studies looked at improvements on state tests and then
asked, 
"Is this because genuine learning is occurring?" She and co-author
David 
Berliner, an Arizona State professor, concluded, "no."

But many of the conclusions about Florida were not clear-cut.

Florida did not participate in the national assessment tests the
studies 
reviewed, and the studies used state data based on the old High School

Competency Test. The 10th-grade version of the FCAT has since replaced
the 
competency exam.

Still, the studies found some evidence, though it was "weak," linking
the 
state's high-stakes exams with increased numbers of Florida students
leaving 
high school without diplomas from 1990 to 1998. And they found "strong"

evidence linking the exams to increased numbers of young people
obtaining 
GEDs from 1986 to 1999.

Those negative consequences likely will increase in Florida, Amrein
said, now 
that the harder FCAT is the required graduation exam.

This year's seniors are the first who must pass FCAT to earn a diploma.
More 
than 12,700 seniors, or about 9 percent of the students who first took
the 
exam two years ago, have yet to pass reading, and nearly 10,000, or
about 7 
percent, haven't passed math -- failure rates local school officials
say are 
three to five times higher than with the HSCT. Those seniors have one
more 
chance to pass FCAT before spring graduation ceremonies.

Florida officials skeptical

Florida officials, however, dismissed the studies as having little to
say 
about the state's testing program.

"I cannot accept that study's findings for Florida," said John Winn,
deputy 
secretary of education for accountability research and measurement.

Winn noted that state figures show graduation rates have increased in
recent 
years and dropout rates have decreased -- just as FCAT scores have
risen. He 
also said students opting for GEDs rather than standard diplomas were
making 
a "lifestyle choice" that shouldn't be seen as a reflection of their
high 
schools.

Other critics complained that the studies -- the largest-ever since 
high-stakes testing became popular in the past decade -- drew faulty 
conclusions by comparing scores on state tests that everyone takes with

scores on tests such as the SAT that only college-bound students take.

"They're really testing very different populations," said Jay Greene, a

senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. "It's
really 
not an appropriate comparison."

Greene said it would be fairer to look at other tests given to the same

students. Florida, for example, gives a nationally norm-referenced test
at 
the same time as it gives its FCAT. On that national test, Florida
students 
have improved in the past three years, just as they have on the FCAT.

Finally, Greene argued that lower graduation rates, if accurate, aren't

necessarily a negative consequence.

"What we really want out of graduation is not just a diploma but a set
of 
skills," Greene said.

"If what high-stakes testing does is it reveals that a larger
percentage of 
students are lacking in those skills, that could be a good thing, even
if 
fewer students graduate," he said. "It tells us we were previously
masking a 
problem."

Teachers union weighs in

But Tony Welch, a spokesman for the Florida Education Association, the
state 
teachers union, said the studies raised a question many teachers have
asked: 
Do increased FCAT scores really mean increased learning?

"Then why are we so far behind in the SAT?" Welch asked, noting
Florida's 
2002 SAT scores were among the worst in the nation.

"That gap should make us all wonder," he said. "That gap should give us

pause," he said.

    



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