John O'Connor is the Miami-based education reporter for StateImpact Florida. John previously covered politics, the budget and taxes for The (Columbia, S.C) State. He is a graduate of Allegheny College and the University of Maryland.
Earlier this week we wrote about “Happy Scientist” blogger Robert Krampf, who criticized some of the questions, answers and background material on practice materials for the FCAT science test.
Krampf argued the test presented one multiple choice answer as correct, when a number of the answers were scientifically correct.
Krampf took his concerns to the Florida Department of Education, who told him the questions had been approved by a committee. An agency employee told Krampf that though one question had multiple answers that were scientifically correct, only one answer was included in the 5th grade curriculum.
StateImpact Florida readers showed no mercy towards the test. Here’s fcatastrophe:
Gov. Rick Scott's deadline for deciding the future of USF Poly is near.
Gov. Rick Scott is in a tough position when it comes to signing or vetoing legislation that would create a Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland independent from the University of South Florida system.
The decision is due Saturday, but the Lakeland Ledger and others have reported Scott will announce his decision today.
The consequences for signing the bill (or allowing it to become law without a signature) is that Scott risks angering his most loyal supporters — Florida’s Tea Party activists. If Scott vetoes the bill, the ghost of Polk County Sen. JD Alexander could haunt from his term-limited grave.
So what will he choose, and why? Here’s five possibilities.
Some St. Johns County students had trouble logging in to take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test online, according to the St. Augustine Record.
Florida is expanding the use of computer-based testing. The problems were with test contractor Pearson, school officials said. Pearson is being paid $254 million over four years to administer the FCAT.
But coupled with problems a science teacher and blogger found with practice material questions, it got us wondering just how many issues students, schools and teachers are having with the FCAT.
We’d like to hear your stories about what has worked and, especially, what is not or has not worked with the FCAT. Heard of any errors? Please post them in the comments, or email us at joconnor AT stateimpact.org. Well check them out and let you know what we find.
A science blogger has found problems with Florida's FCAT science test.
“The Happy Scientist,” blogger Robert Krampf, notes a number of problems with practice questions for Florida’s 5th and 8th grade FCAT science exams.
Among the issues are correct answers that rely on incorrect definitions, and answers test designers consider incorrect but actually are scientifically correct.
An example:
A glossary of definitions (Appendix C) is provided for test item writers to indicate the level of understanding expected of fifth grade students. Included in that list is the following definition:
Predator—An organism that obtains nutrients from other organisms.
By that definition, cows are predators because they obtain nutrients from plants. The plants are predators too, since they obtain nutrients from decaying remains of other organisms. I have yet to find anyone who thinks that this is a proper definition of a predator.
Scott wrote in his veto message that the state’s colleges and universities will have to choose their priorities wisely. Scott’s main concern, he wrote, was maintaining high-quality programs while keeping the cost of higher education affordable.
Scott did not veto a tuition increase approved by lawmakers, but told reporters that he does not support more than a 5 percent hike. Scott also drew a line in the sand that lawmakers had to add $1 billion for K-12 education, though more than half of that money pays for rising costs and a shrinking property tax base and does nothing to replace several years of budget cuts.
A controversy over a question about the Arab perception of the creation of Israel prompted concerns that the questions might not be without bias.
In Florida, though, the test contractor must draft questions that meet a detailed list of standards set out by the state department of education and a panel of educators.
Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney said at a Palm Beach fundraiser Sunday that Republicans need their own version of the DREAM Act — one piece of a policy set designed to win over Hispanic voters, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The DREAM Act — according to the version proposed by Democrats that Congress has rejected — would allow young adult undocumented immigrants a fast track to citizenship by attending college or joining the military. Rubio’s version would require undocumented immigrants to go to the end of the waiting line, but would allow those immigrants to remain in the U.S. legally while waiting.
Maybe these two have some reason to get together and talk the idea over?
FCAT season starts this week, and one parent group is unhappy with some changes.
Students across the state are beginning the annual Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test season this week, and critics of the high-stakes test have some new complaints this year.
The Florida Department of Education has raised minimum requirements for the reading portion of the test. The goal is to improve performance long-term, but state officials admit that will mean more students will fail the exam in the short run.
Fund Education Now, an Orlando-based coalition of parent organizations, argues that the new standards are designed to fail half the students taking the test.
“We do not accept that any child must be automatically retained solely on the basis of one test, one day,” the group wrote in a press release. “We find the motives behind moving the FCAT 2.0 cut scores to be more about the ‘adults in the industry’ than the children, their teachers or their schools.”
That data showed that a pair of University of South Florida branch campuses pay higher average salaries than the main Tampa campus. The data also showed that the University of Miami reported the highest average professor pay in the state.
Readers felt the way we presented the data was misleading or “useless” without the proper context. We disagree, but that’s later.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (left) says he supports Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's (right) budget. Expect Democrats to make cuts to college financial aid an issue.
At a press conference in Tampa Thursday, Democrats ran out another line of attack on what the House budget would cut — college aid.
U.S. Rep Kathy Castor, a Democrat, and Hillsborough Community College president Ken Atwater raised the alarm about $170 billion in cuts to the federal Pell Grant program within the House budget.
HCC runs on outside financial aid, Atwater noted, with more than 18,000 students receiving some tuition assistance. The average Pell Grant at HCC is $3,200 a year. Florida residents receive the third-most Pell Grants of any state — $1.93 billion during the 2009-2010 school year, according to U.S. Department of Education Data.
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