The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or the FCAT (Pronounced eff-cat), is the standardized test used in the primary and secondary public schools of Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. First administered statewide in 1998, it replaced the State Student Assessment Test (SSAT) and the High School Competency Test

High School Competency Test

The High School Competency Test, or HSCT, was a test used by all public high schools in the state of Florida from the early 1980s until the implementation of the FCAT in the late 1990s...

 (HSCT).

Administration and use

The FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) is administered annually, in late February and early to mid-March as well as April, to all public school students in grades three through eleven. Students in grades three through ten are required to take the reading and math portion every year. Private and parochial school students are not required to take the FCAT; most of these schools administer another standardized test instead, such as the Stanford Achievement Test

Stanford Achievement Test Series

The current Stanford Achievement Test Series, usually referred to simply as the "SAT 10", is considered the benchmark of excellence in standardized achievement tests utilized by school districts in the United States for assessing children from kindergarten through high school. First published in...

, which is exactly the same as the FCAT NRT, formerly taken by public school students. FCAT Science is administered annually to public school students in the fifth, eighth, and eleventh grades. In the fourth, eighth, and tenth grades, public school students take the FCAT Writes exam (formerly called "Florida Writes!" and "FCAT Writing+"); unlike the other tests, the FCAT Writes exam is administered in early February to allow adequate time for scoring before the end of the school year.

Students' results from the FCAT are compiled to generate a grade for each public school. Under this plan, public schools receive a grade from A to F, depending on student performance and the degree to which the bottom 25% of the school has improved compared to its past performances. The higher a public school scores, the more funding it receives.

Promotion and graduation

When originally introduced, students in fourth grade were required to pass the reading portion of the test in order to be promoted to the fifth grade. After passage of the No Child Left Behind Act

No Child Left Behind Act

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...

 by the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 in 2001, the mandatory passage was moved from fourth grade down to third grade, so as to align Florida with federal statutory requirements. In addition to the third grade requirement, public school students in Florida must also pass the tenth grade FCAT, not only in reading, but also in mathematics, in order to be eligible to receive a high school diploma. Grade 3 and graduation are the only two instances in which federal or state statute require passage of the FCAT; it is given at the other grades for the intention of providing diagnostic information, both on students and schools. However, many counties in the state have adopted other promotional requirements tied to the FCAT, but these are at the discretion of each individual county school board.

Options after failing the FCAT

A student failing the tenth grade test—that is, the test required for graduation—is allowed approximately five additional opportunities to pass it prior to graduation. Originally, students were given four more chances to pass the test after failing it in 10th grade—in October and March of both their junior and senior years in high school. However, starting in 2006, students were provided an additional test administration during the summer between school years. Students, however, may not retake the Grade 10 FCAT during the summer between their sophomore and junior year because additional time is needed for remediation. If students do not pass the FCAT prior to their scheduled graduation, they may continue to retake it until they pass it to earn a standard high school diploma.

If a student completes the minimum number of credits for high school graduation, but does not pass the FCAT, he or she may still be allowed to graduate with a certificate of completion. Students may substitute the appropriate subject-area score from either the ACT or SAT. A score of 18 on either the Reading or Mathematics sections of the ACT

ACT (examination)

The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test...

 or a 280 on the Reading and a 370 on the Mathematics sections of the SAT

SAT

The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...

 can be used to waive the FCAT requirement after the student has failed the 10th grade test at least three times. Students may earn the concordant passing score prior to taking the FCAT Retake Reading or Mathematics examination three times, but they cannot substitute it in lieu of the passing FCAT score until they have taken the FCAT Retake Reading or Mathematics examination three times. In any case, students will receive a Certificate of Completion that allows for admittance in any state community college for which they have met all graduation requirements apart from passing the FCAT.

Students may also transfer their credits to a private or out-of-state school. Several high schools in North and South Carolina regularly market in Florida on radio stations annually during the spring and early summer, advertising their 'service' that is available to 'graduating' Florida high school students who for whatever reason failed to pass the FCAT and were unable to receive a high school diploma, despite having excellent grade point averages and having completed all course requirements for a high school diploma.

Exceptional education students

Exceptional education (ESE) students are also able to waive the FCAT requirement to get a Standard High School Diploma. Those ESE students wishing to obtain a regular high school diploma must score a passing grade on the FCAT or receive a waiver for the FCAT. In order to get the waiver, ESE students must prove that they have taken several steps to try to pass the FCAT and must also show that they have improved every time they have taken the test.

The FCAT is either machine-scored or hand-scored, depending on the section. Multiple-choice and gridded-response questions are machine-scored. Performance tasks, such as short-response, extended-response, essay items, are hand-scored. Like several other standardized tests, the raw score does not directly reflect the final score; some questions are considered to be of a higher difficulty level than others and, therefore, carry more scoring weight. This type of
scoring is called Item Response Theory

Item response theory

In psychometrics, item response theory also known as latent trait theory, strong true score theory, or modern mental test theory, is a paradigm for the design, analysis, and scoring of tests, questionnaires, and similar instruments measuring abilities, attitudes, or other variables. It is based...

 (IRT).

Criticism

Though the system is designed to reward public schools for excellence in teaching, many educators and community members have criticized the program, claiming that the program takes funding from schools which need it most. It has also been criticized by many students and teachers because the schools put too much emphasis on the FCAT and not enough on preparing students for the real world. The parochial and private schools of excellence, recognized under federal guidelines separately from state guidelines, and proclaimed as superior by the Federal Government, in fact receive no public funds and are exempt from requiring their students to take the FCAT.

The FCAT tests have also come under fire from education groups and parents for encouraging teachers to teach students how to pass a test, rather than to teach students the fundamental material in the core subjects such as English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. Another point of criticism on the FCAT is that all students of the same grade take the same test, despite the fact that different students are enrolled in different courses. To compensate for this, in many schools, teachers are directed to cover FCAT skills, regardless of what subject they are supposed to be covering.

Retired teacher and Lakeland, FL political activist Carol Castagnero has been a harsh critic of the FCAT and ran for several offices to highlight her opposition to the exam. Castagnero called the test "unconstitutional" during her 2006 campaign for Governor

Florida gubernatorial election, 2006

The 2006 Florida gubernatorial election took place on November 7, 2006. Governor Jeb Bush was term-limited, and could not run for re-election. Republican Charlie Crist, the state's Attorney General, won the election for Governor of Florida.-Democrats:...

 and stated during her 2008 Congressional campaign

United States House of Representatives elections in Florida, 2008

The 2008 congressional elections in Florida were held on November 4, 2008 to determine who will represent the state of Florida in the United States House of Representatives. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; those elected will serve in the 111th Congress from January 4, 2009 until...

that "children are being terrorized with a test called FCAT."

Unlike many other standardized tests, the FCAT has fill-in-the-blank questions, as well as long answer. Many problems on the Math section ask the student to show their work; they are graded for the process as well as the result. The students are asked on these problems to write as if they were teaching someone how to complete the problem. Teachers must spend time with the students so they can put the appropriate amount of information for each question type legibly, and parts of each of the tests must be graded by hand. The math section has relatively few 'logic' problems and more 'process' problems that ask for multiple numeric computation steps. A 4-function calculator is included in the test materials.

Long-form questions are also found in the reading section. For the reading section, the students are often asked to infer things that were only implied by the reading selection, creating long-form questions that may have multiple correct answers.

Teachers sometimes have access to a given years' FCAT test well before the intended test date. There are concerns that some teachers teach the exact problems on the test in the time leading up to the test, but no one specifically has been accused. Because the FCAT is a high-stakes test, the incentive for teachers to do this is high, and the incentives for principals to hide this behavior is even higher.

FCAT Explorer

FCAT Explorer is an internet-based tool designed to help Florida students in grades 3 to 11 pass the FCAT by focusing on mastery of the Sunshine State Standards through several interactive programs. Each student is given a unique username and password to access these programs, and schools in Florida often set aside time during the day to work specifically on FCAT Explorer.

External links

• FCAT Home Page
• FCAT Reports View reports of scores by county and/or grade level
• FCAT Explorer
• FCAT Online
• FCAT Test Maker FCAT Test Maker is Florida's leading provider of FCAT Practice Tests, Progress Monitoring and Formative Assessment tools.
• FCAT Parent Network This site provides parents with the earliest possible access to their student's FCAT results.
• Florida Department of Education
• Interactive Map of Florida FCAT Scores by School, District and Zip Code