Missing FCATs test students' composure

If the still-ungraded reading tests taken by 45 Wharton High School students aren't found, they must endure them again.

By LOGAN D. MABE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 30, 2002

TAMPA -- Somewhere between a New Tampa high school, the state Department of Education in Tallahassee and a private grading service in Iowa, 45 FCAT reading tests have gone missing.

And the mystery may affect the academic futures of those 45 Wharton High School students.

"It's real stressful," said rising junior Kylie Errett, describing the three days of rigor that is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. "You're told your whole school career to do well on it because it's a graduating factor."

Students must pass all three portions of the test -- reading, writing and math -- to receive their diplomas.

The missing reading tests were from Wharton's 10th- and 11th-grade classes, said Hillsborough schools spokesman Mark Hart. "We don't believe it will affect the school's grade," Hart said. "However, if we can't recover the tests, they'll have to take them over because passing is a state requirement."

School officials only became aware of the problem when students began receiving incomplete scores. Rising junior Evan DuFaux received his math and writing scores, but no reading score.

"I know I scored really high on those; it's just the reading I don't know about," DuFaux said. "It's not that hard a test, but it just takes a lot of time. It's long, and it's a lot of work. You just have to keep thinking for three days."

That's why Errett and DuFaux want the tests to turn up.

"The school searched for them. Our office of testing and evaluation has searched for them as well," Hart said. "We believe the tests were lost by the firm that scores them, NCS Pearson in Iowa City."

NCS Pearson officials declined to comment, referring questions to the Department of Education.

"It's not unusual," DOE communications director JoAnn Carrin said. "Every year there are some tests that turn up missing for a period of time. Sometimes they've been mispacked in the wrong kind of box when shipping or misplaced at the school. Various things can happen."

Carrin said the FCAT generates some 3.5-million answer sheets statewide each year and losing happens with some frequency. "There are some others around the state that are missing," she said. "But typically they are all found."

DuFaux sure hopes so. "I don't really want to take it again," he said. "It's not that much fun."

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