K-12 News: Florida State Testing

I was talking to my grandparents who live in Florida a few nights ago and my granddad happened to mention that there was an article in the local newspaper about Florida’s state testing in the school systems. The state is considering phasing out their current state testing in hopes of replacing it with something more along the lines of Virginia’s SOLs as well as many other states end-of-course tests.

Currently Florida uses a test called the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test or FCAT or short. This test is given every year in March for those students in third grade through eleventh grade. The test is multiple choice and is used to measure each student’s knowledge in all subjects based on the grade level standards. As the name states, this test is a comprehensive exam that is not aligned with any one specific course which requires students to recall and relearn information they learned in previous grades or classes. Students are required to pass these tests in order to graduate from high school. Teachers in Florida schools have to stop their regular teaching and spend several weeks teaching their students the material that will show up on the FCATs. I found a few articles where students were being interviewed on their thoughts about the FCATs and the new testing program. The common theme I found was that all students felt the FCATs were very stressful and just one more thing they had to worry about studying for and passing.

Florida state legislators are purposing a bill to phase out the FCAT testing and replacing it with end-of-course exams. This means that the students would be taking a test at the end of each subject course to test them just on the material that they learned that school year. This will make teaching and learning easier since teachers can just spend a few weeks reviewing instead of actually teaching new material. These end-of-course exams will also better allow teachers to see how their teaching strategies are working and whether or not the students actually learned the information throughout the school year. The end-of-course exam will give the state a better idea of their teachers’ abilities in the classrooms and what needs to be changing. Since the FCATs are not based on a single course, it makes it hard for school systems to see where the students are falling behind in the subject and does not leave room for those students to get help or have teachers change their teaching strategies.

The exams Florida is considering using now will be similar to Virginia’s SOL tests. These tests are given at the end of each course to test the students’ knowledge of what they learned in that class that year. All Florida students would have to pass these end-of-course tests in order to receive credit for the class and these courses would become graduation requirements. Therefore in order to graduate the student would have to pass all the required tests. However, if need be the students can retake tests in order to pass them. Florida state legislators have seen where this type of testing has been successful in other states and hoping that it will be a reality in the near future for their school systems.

All throughout my school career I hated taking the SOL tests. I never saw the point in taking these tests especially if you had performed well in the class. However, after taking all the education classes and reading this article I am finally beginning to realize that these end-of-course exams can be helpful. Once I become a teacher it will allow me to see what my students throughout the year and what they struggled with. It will help be see what I need to change the next year in order to help my students perform better on the tests and to understand the material better.

Here is a link for the two articles I found about the FCATs:

The Miami Herald

WTSP.com