Shamika Jeff, posing with her younger brother, graduated from Miami Central High School on June 5, 2012. The 18-year-old says she did not go to the entire last week of school.
Florida students have already taken all the big tests. They’ve finished their homework. But some students are still in school.
So what do teachers and students do during the final days of class?
Educators throughout Florida say teaching should be going on every day students are in school.
But students say that isn’t usually what happens.
“In class I just hang out with friends and just remember all the memories that we had,” says Sophonie Pierre, a 7th grader at Plantation Middle School in Broward County.
“Our teachers they just let us enjoy it and talk.”
Several districts — Alachua, Broward, Osceola and Palm Beach schools, among others — have approved the resolution (read a version here) and many others may follow.
But even as school boards vent their spleen about the test, more is riding on FCAT results than ever.
Here’s five reasons why the FCAT protests are not likely to accomplish much.
Palm Beach and Broward county school boards have already approved a similar resolution. Alachua, Flagler and Pinellas boards are weighing the measure.
The resolution is based on one authored by Parents Across America, a group that opposes so-called high stakes testing the privatization of public education. More than 400 Texas school boards have approved the resolution.
Read the Hernando County school board version after the jump:
College Board Vice President James Montoya (front center) announces the release of the 'Repository of Resources for Undocumented Students' at a College Board event in Miami, Fla.
Editors note: This post was written by WLRN reporter Luc Cohen.
Undocumented high school students have a new tool to help them with their college admissions process.
Florida students did better than expected in reading and math, according to a Florida Department of Education analysis of the latest batch of Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results.
Results for 2012 FCAT 2.0 Reading show 59 percent of students in grades 4 through 8 scored a 3 — considered ‘satisfactory’ — or above. In FCAT 2.0 Mathematics, 57 percent of students in grades 4 through 8 scored a 3 or higher.
The test is more demanding than its predecessor. This school year was the first time new achievement levels were in place.
The 2012 scores are roughly equal to last year’s scores, after the state education department compared the old scores to the new scale.
Pinellas County schools superintendent John Stewart.
Pinellas County schools superintendent John Stewart isn’t sure how the state calculates the number of chronic absentees but says getting students to school more often is a priority, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Pinellas County schools ranked first among Florida’s urban school districts for the percentage of students missing at least 21 days of school, according to a StateImpact Florida analysis. Nearly 18 percent of Pinellas students were chronically absent, according to state data.
Those days add up quick — 467,586 days last year, or the equivalent of nearly 2,600 school years.
Stewart disputes that ranking, saying he doesn’t know how other districts report absenteeism. But Stewart wants students in school more often.
A former employee with Pearson, the company that created and scores the FCAT, says the people who score the essays also lower their grading standards to produce the test results states predict their students will get, though Pearson denies the practice.
We spoke to Todd Farley, author of the book Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry.
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