May 29th

Florida test scores skyrocket...I mean, plummet

Florida's test scores seem to bounce wildly up or down, depending of whether or not it's an election year. Last year it was and reading scores jumped a mile in the air. Former Sec. of Education John Winn swears he ordered three different investigations and found nothing amiss.

This year, scores plummeted. How predictable! According to the Miami Herald, the state is rescoring 204,000 tests. That seems to be the only proven way to boost scores in Florida.

'They definitely double- and triple-checked it'' last year, state Education Department spokesman Tom Butler said. ``It was a large increase and it was highly plausible that reading initiatives were taking root. It's not until you experience a large dip that we did this year that we're able to look back and say `OK, our initial conclusion was false'.''

That's right. Last year's questions (investigated 3 times by Winn) were too easy. That had to be it, since the curriculum didn't change. It's probably safe to say that the state hasn't ditched the former gov's brother's "scientific," "research-based," Reading First-approved curriculum with its built-in "scientific assessment." The teachers are basically the same. Probably not as many this year. And the schools are the same--no changes there in the last 75 years...

If anything, scores should have risen again since the state-mandated reform program is still in effect. But, they didn't.

State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said Friday he wants the Senate education committee to investigate problems with the FCAT on its own. Gaetz said he supports the state's accountability system, in which everything from promotion to fourth grade, high school diplomas, teacher bonuses and school rankings hinge on FCAT results.

Yes, sorry, teachers. No bonuses this year. And sorry, schools, your rankings will drop. Parents can transfer to other schools and you lose NCLB funding. But that's life in the dizzy political world of Florida testing.

Quote of the week--Linda Darling-Hammond on testing madness

"I think what politicians are hearing right now is that tests are driving the curriculum and narrowing the way kids learn, so there is a lot of pushback from parents and teachers," said Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford University who has studied assessment systems in dozens of states. "There's more receptivity to the possibility of a different approach to assessment than there might have been five years ago."--L.A. Times