Florida: Opinion: State-wide testing had positive consequences

Florida

May 16, 2015

Tallahassee Democrat

By Eileen Castle

Florida’s commitment to yearly state testing and accountability is critical to student success as public schools transition to the new Florida Standards Assessment (FSA). As a former principal, I want to clarify three points made in a recent article on that subject by Paula Dockery.

First, are student grades tied to their school’s overall grade? No. Students’ grades are given by their teachers. School grades are determined by school-wide performance on state-wide tests like FSA Math, English-Language Arts and Writing, FCAT Science and for some students, end-of-course exams.

Middle school grades also include the percent of students taking and passing high-school level courses. Likewise, high school grades include the percent of students taking and passing collegiate/vocational coursework, earning college-ready scores on national exams (SAT/ACT) and graduation rates.

Second, do Florida tests measure the learning gains of each student individually? Yes. Obviously, tests that are not given yearly can’t measure yearly learning gains. However, math and reading tests, which are given in third through 10th, report yearly learning gains for individual students starting in fourth and answer this question: Are students making a year’s worth of learning gains in reading and/or math for every year in school? Students have received individual learning gain scores on FCAT since 2001 and this will continue with FSA.

My experience as a Title I Elementary School principal exemplifies the value of learning-gain data. It helped me turn my D school into an A. Every year, we identified students making progress and those needing extra help. We met yearly to compare teachers’ learning-gain data, strategize and refine instructional practices. We made staffing and instructional decisions based on this data because student learning gains are directly related to teacher effectiveness.

Third, did high-stakes testing lead to teaching to the test? Not at Lake Alfred Elementary. We taught a standards based curriculum using five school-wide instructional strategies. Teaching assessed standards is not teaching to the test. It’s teaching students to read and write proficiently and to understand grade level math and science which they’ll need to compete in today’s economy.

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