Opinion: Let's hear more about how FCAT can help students

I was saddened but not shocked by Pinellas School Board member Mary Russell's decision to use her honor roll children to protest the FCAT. The first question that came to mind was: How did her kids do on the test last year? The second: Why do we never hear via the media any success stories concerning this test?

My son (now a sixth-grader) is a perfect example of what's right with the FCAT. Until this year, he had always received mediocre grades, mostly C's with occasional B's and the obligatory A in art or music. His teachers told me what I already knew, that he was extremely bright but didn't apply himself. Then came the fourth-grade FCAT exam. He received extremely high scores in reading and writing. His grades suddenly got a little better. Then his fifth-grade FCAT score won him an award for having the second highest reading score in his grade level. Also all his scores had gotten better than the year before.

So when Mary Russell claims "it isn't good for kids," I must strongly disagree. This year, my son is on the sixth-grade honor roll and shooting for the dean's list. This test has literally saved his academic career by motivating him (and his teachers) to rise to the level he was capable of. I would like to hear from more people with similar stories before the "Mary Russells" destroy this priceless tool before it has a chance to really work.
Rebecca Reed, Treasure Island

FCAT is put to punitive use

As a citizen, I applaud Pinellas School Board member Mary Russell's decision to have her two honor-roll sons boycott the FCAT. FCAT results are not simply used for information. The way the test is used puts too much stress on students and teachers. Teaching to the test takes away from other valuable learning. Third-grade students can be retained on the basis of this one measure. Scores are used to reward schools with high-performing students and punish schools with low-performing students. For example, teachers who choose to work at schools with higher-performing students receive a bonus, while teachers who choose to make a difference at low-performing schools do not. The scores are also used to create school grades based on test scores alone.

No child should be told that his or her school is an F school. No child should feel devalued because his/her test score was not high enough. It is not giving a test that is the problem. It is the punitive way the state has decided to use it. I hope more parents follow Russell's example.
Karen Evans, Largo

We need standards and accountability

Re: Board member: No FCAT for my kids.

Pinellas School Board member Mary Russell states, "But I disagree with the pressure. I disagree with the funding. It isn't good for schools, and it isn't good for kids."

Well, I disagree with that assessment, that is, I agree with the FCAT. I, along with the overwhelming majority of Florida parents, will send my children to school on March 3 for FCAT testing.

As a parent and a Pinellas School Board member, I support setting high expectations for all of our children with the Sunshine State Standards. I support holding school districts, schools and individual classrooms accountable for preparing our children to meet and exceed these standards. How is that "not good for kids"?

As a taxpayer, I support accountability. We spend more than $1.2-billion tax dollars in Pinellas alone for public education. If we fail to test our students, how will we know if our money is well spent and, more important, if our children are being well educated? As for the common concern about teaching to the test, if you are testing what you want the students to learn, then what's the problem?

Floridians overwhelmingly re-elected our governor, and the centerpiece of his first term was education reform. Not only do I support his reforms, as an elected official, I have also sworn to uphold the law. The FCAT is mandatory under Florida law and I will enthusiastically uphold this law.

I casually asked my third-grade daughter what she thought about the upcoming FCAT. She said nonchalantly that she really hadn't thought about it too much, that it probably wouldn't be any different from the practice tests. She doesn't sound "pressured" to me. Unfortunately, an increasing number of our students come to us with all types of challenges: disabilities, limited English, behavior problems, mental illness and homelessness to name but a few. They each deserve our best efforts to give them a high quality education with high standards and accountability.
Nancy Bostock, member, Pinellas County School Board, St. Petersburg

Parents should just say no to FCAT

Pinellas School Board member Mary Russell deserves congratulations for standing up against something she knows is wrong. Everyone knows that FCAT should be used as a diagnostic test only. It is not designed to determine whether a student passes or not. Politicians have given FCAT more value than it deserves.

Of course, the creators of the test love it, and they are making millions of dollars every year off of it. I only wish that every parent in the state would have the guts to refuse to put their children through the unnecessary stress of taking the tests. We are always telling the kids to say "no" to drugs. How about parents just saying "no" to the politicians in Tallahassee?
Margaret Hyde, Clearwater

FCAT deserves support

Re: Board member: No FCAT for my kids, Feb. 23.

I strongly disagree with Pinellas School Board member Mary Russell's decision to keep her children from taking the FCAT. It is not possible for her to make the decision as a parent and not as a School Board member because the impact on the public will be from a School Board member and not from just a parent. If she truly wants her decision to be as an individual parent, then in my opinion, she would have to resign from the board.

As a high school guidance counselor and achievement specialist, I have worked with thousands of high school students to help prepare them for the FCAT. The sample questions we have been given are excellent. If the actual test questions are anything like them, it is a wonderful test. More than knowledge, the questions are designed to test a student's willingness to think about what he/she is doing. The FCAT has given us a means by which to help all students challenge themselves.

I am concerned that her decision and the disclosure of that decision could adversely affect the lives of thousands of students. Many students are working hard to prepare for the FCAT. Mrs. Russell has given them a reason to stop trying. They need encouragement to do their best, not an easy out. Students will be entering a highly competitive, stress-filled world. We do them a terrible disservice to not help prepare them to do their best.
Mrs. Dottie Gillick, guidance counselor, PTEC South Secondary School, St. Petersburg

What about good grades?

Re: Board member: No FCAT for my kids.

I, too, am a concerned parent regarding the new laws that were placed on the FCAT testing. It bewilders me how a child in third grade can complete a year of academic work, be on the honor roll (grades of B and above in all classes), and not be credited for it. In the new standards, a third-grade promotion is based solely upon receiving a Level 2 or higher score in the FCAT Sunshine State Standards Reading Test. If a student should fail this test, then the "good cause exemption" is taken into account. Nowhere in this exemption is the child's report card considered.

Parents need to rally together to appeal this new law. One test, one day, should not be used to base our children's academic achievements.
Barb. Farmer-Hundt, Seminole

Russell should resign

According to Pinellas School Board attorney John Bowen's reasoning on the FCAT, Mary Russell as a board member "must uphold the law," but it is okay for her as a private citizen to break the law.

I recommend that if Russell feels so protective of her children that she resign from the School Board to make sure that her kids are protected from all the pressures they may face

I will add that Mrs. Russell doesn't know anything about pressure unless she was exposed to that real pressure cooker, the New York State Regents Exams, which millions of kids like myself took and survived.
W. Nichols, St. Petersburg

Russell shows courage and good sense

Re: Official's boycott of FCAT ignites furor, Feb. 26.

Labeling schools, children and teachers as "failures" is a most effective way to extinguish motivation. Success breeds success. Since we do not all fit into the same mold, it is unwise and unjust to use one test to judge and label children, schools and teaching ability.

As educators, we struggle to teach in a technological world with our outdated equipment and textbooks. Our children, and schools, are being labeled as "failures," because they don't have students who are able to fit. Apparently Gov. Jeb Bush has not read the many studies that show that a child who fails even one grade, is much more likely to drop out.

I find it very contradictory that in a time when America is so strongly pushing for tolerance and understanding of differences, that we are insisting everyone be the same cognitively and developmentally, or else be labeled as failures.

I do not believe that the FCAT is a bad test, or that the skills and information necessary to pass are not valuable. I believe that the way it is being used is punitive, and that the true intentions behind the way it's being used have nothing to do with what is best for our children. I do not agree that teachers and schools are solely responsible for accountability for the progress an individual child makes, but that our government too, should play a role in making sure that people do not live in poverty and that their basic needs are attainable in a way that allows them to be more responsible. Parents certainly play a huge role in being accountable for their children's education as well.

I applaud Mary Russell for her courage and good sense, and I think it will be interesting to see how many will follow. You go, girl!
Brenda Wallis, Dunedin

FCAT is a learning experience

Why take the FCAT?

In order to get into a good college, your children will have to perform well on a college admissions test, such as the SAT or the ACT. If they perform well, they may receive an academic scholarship. If your child is a great athlete with an opportunity to attend college on a sports scholarship, he/she will have to take tests and meet minimum requirements in order to qualify to play. If your child wants to go into the armed forces and get into a competitive field, he/she will have to do well on an aptitude test

If your child doesn't do well on tests, what better place to practice than in school? Whether you agree with how the FCAT results are utilized or not, the test is a learning experience. What separates this learning experience from just about all others is that it is universally relevant. Almost every child that takes the FCAT will be required to take a test of some sort later on in life. Maybe they will be better prepared either mentally or emotionally because of the experience they gain from the FCAT.
John McKnight, Largo

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