The state Board of Education approved a new set of passing scores for Florida's standardized test on Monday designed to ensure students are ready for college, but which could also have the effect of more students failing.
The board voted unanimously in favor of the new scores for the revised Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in math and reading during a conference call. Under the new scores, the percentage of students not earning a high enough score to advance to the fourth grade or graduate from high school is likely to increase.
According to state estimates, the number of students not passing the third grade FCAT reading exam required in order to advance to the fourth grade would rise from 16 to 18 percent. Meanwhile, the number earning a high enough score to pass the 10th grade exam, required to graduate, is slated to decline from 60 to 52 percent.
Barbara Foorman, director of the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University, said the new scores will help counter a problem seen in the current FCAT scoring: High numbers of students pass in the elementary and middle school grades, but then find themselves unable to pass the high school FCAT exam.
Increasing the rigor of the third grade exam, she said, will help make sure students are prepared for the content they encounter in later grades.
"If you have more rigorous standards in the lower grades, it puts the attention not just on passing third grade FCAT, but on kindergarten, first and second grade, which is the time you can have successful remediation," Foorman said.
The immediate effect, however, could be a significant increase in the number of students not passing the test in the lower grade levels, which means more students enrolled in summer remedial education or being held back at third grade.
"It's going to be a shock to the system," Foorman said.
State Rep. Dwight Bullard, a teacher and ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee, called the board's action disappointing and the FCAT an "irrelevant examination."
"It's even more appalling that now they want to make the test even harder for students to pass," the Miami lawmaker said in a statement. "I find these efforts folly."
Bullard said Florida should focus instead on helping students get a well-rounded education.
The new scores follow the recommendation Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson issued earlier this month, including a passing FCAT 10th grade reading score that is two points higher than what a panel of education and community leaders had recommended. Education Department officials say the raised score will help reduce the high rate of students who need to take remedial education in college, and note that students can take the test again if they do not pass on a first try.
State Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, CEO of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, said the new scores would have been more aligned for elementary, middle and high school students had the board adopted the recommended cutoff points issued by the panel of educators and two other committees.
Montford said he is concerned about projections showing that more high school students will not pass the exam. He said that could have the effect of more students needing to take remedial classes and missing out on electives.
"There's an expense to that," Montford added. "The state has got to step up and fund those additional remediation classes."
Teachers will also be affected by the new scoring system; under a wide reaching education law passed earlier this year, their evaluations will be tied to how much students advance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
Sam Whitten, assistant director for assessment and accountability at Hillsborough County Public Schools, said the panel's recommended cut score for the reading exam would have increased the number of students who fail by about 8,000 students. With the higher score adopted by the board, that number is slated to rise to about 15,000.
"Finding out the cut scores and the criteria in the middle of a school year is difficult for schools to prepare for," Whitten said.
Students first took the revised FCAT, which is designed to test students on the more rigorous Next Generation Sunshine State Standards, in the spring. It has been a decade since the FCAT cut scores were last adjusted.
