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May 8, 2008 5:30 pm US/Eastern
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FCAT Essay Scores For Dade And Broward Improve
Statewide Results Of 4th, 8th, & 10th Graders Show Improvement
Writing Results Only
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
This year's results on the state's standardized writing test are virtually unchanged from last year. More than three-fourths of public school students still scored at or above the minimum standard, according to results released Thursday. Eighth graders did a little better in all categories while fourth- and 10th-grade students held steady or dropped a bit but the differences are all slight.
About 87 percent of Broward fourth-graders and 82 percent in Miami-Dade earned at least a passing score on the writing FCAT.
In Broward, 92 percent of eighth-graders earned passing scores on the essay test, as did 88 percent of Dade eighth-graders. Tenth-graders also were successful, with 84 percent passing in Broward and 77 percent passing in Dade.
Some schools showed remarkable improvement. Winston Park Elementary in Coconut Creek gained 13 learning points.
Principal Carolyn Eggelletion told CBS4 Joan Murray she was overjoyed when she heard the news. She credits "quality teaching and quality teachers" for the gains.
Writing teacher Bernadette Sloan says "we had a wide open platform to bring all of it to the children and it worked. That's the beauty of it."
Click Here to see a sample of a 4th grade FCAT writing question.
Click Here to see a sample 8th grade FCAT writing question.
Click Here to see a sample 10th grade FCAT writing question.
It's the first round of scores to be released this year by students in fourth, eighth and tenth grades who took the writing portion of the FCAT exam in February.
The first round of scores will count toward schools' grades, but won't affect whether a student graduates or gets promoted to the next grade level.
Fourth grade students had to write either a narrative essay, which tells a story about a topic, or an expository essay, which is a story that explains something. Eighth and 10th graders had to write an expository or persuasive essay, which is writing to persuade on a topic.
The lowest score is a 1, the highest is a 6.
In March, students in third through tenth grades took the reading and math portions of the FCAT. Fifth, eighth and eleventh graders took the science portion.
Gov. Charlie Crist, a former education commissioner, has promoted a de-emphasis of the FCAT in school grades, but he has not yet indicated whether he will sign a package of education bills into law which the legislature approved when its session ended May 2nd.
Educators across the state hailed the changes approved by the lawmakers, some of which would downgrade the exam's emphasis when it comes to calculating the grades given to the state's high schools, in addition to possibly moving the tests later in the year to give children more time to learn the subjects.
Once the individual results of students are released, parents will be able to view those results through the FCAT Parent Network at www.fcatparentnetwork.com. Parents won't be able to access those results without a login and password that should be provided by their child's school.
The following is a list of the dates when results should be made available on the FCAT Parent Network.
- Grade 3 Reading & Mathematics (expected to be available: late May 2008)
- Grades 4-10 Reading & Mathematics (expected to be available: mid June 2008)
- Spring Grade 10 Reading & Mathematics Retake (expected to be available: late May 2008)
- Grades 5, 8, & 11 Science (expected to be available: mid June 2008)
- Grades 4, 8, & 10 Writing+ (expected to be available: mid May 2008)
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