Jun 19, 2007 9:57 pm US/Eastern
School Grades Won't Use F-CAT Reading Test
Test Criticized As Too Easy Dropped By State Board Of Ed
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MIAMI (CBS4) ―
A third grade reading test given as part of the F-CAT exam will be tossed out, and the results won't be used to determine letter grades assigned to Florida schools, following a decision Tuesday by Florida education officials.
The State Board of Education unanimously approved a one-year change to its letter grade calculations, eliminating third grade reading results from the scoring in most cases.
Inflated scores from the test, which critics said was not an adequate assessment of student reading skills, could have caused some schools to get a higher grade had the results been used.
The F-CAT is the primary measuring stick used to give letter grades to the state's schools, but officials have been struggling with a too-easy third grade reading portion of the 2006 test.
That problem, announced in May, led to inflated scores for many students and their schools and complications in calculating 2007 letter grades.
The school grades are used to determine both rewards for high-scoring schools and sanctions for failing ones, so changes are high-stakes.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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