Fourth-graders in the county, on average, beat the statewide averages in writing. But the news was not so good for the county's eighth- and 10th-graders.
By JENNIFER LIBERTO and STEPHEN HEGARTY
Published May 3, 2003
Hernando County School District fourth-grade students are writing better than many of their contemporaries around the state, according to preliminary FCAT scores that started to trickle in Thursday and Friday.
But eighth- and 10th-grade students scored slightly worse than the state averages.
The writing scores for about 4,000 Hernando students in fourth, eighth and 10th grades offer the first peek at Florida's annual evaluation of its public schools. The highest score a student can receive on the essay is a 6.
Overall, district writing scores brought no surprises, because this year's students scored within 6 percent of 2002 students' scores.
District fourth-graders fared slightly better than last year's fourth-graders, with a 3.8 mean score, higher than the state average of 3.6.
District eighth-grade students also scored higher compared with last year's eighth-graders, garnering a 3.8, just shy of the state's average writing score of 3.9.
Tenth-graders fared a little worse, with a mean score of 3.5, lower than last year's 3.7 mean score and lower than this year's state average of 3.8.
"I'm more pleased with the elementary scores then the middle and high scores," said Elaine Wooten, curriculum coordinator for the school district. "But our district scores have gone up over the years."
Eastside Elementary School students garnered the most improved writing scores this year. The school's fourth-graders have historically scored among the lowest in the district on writing tests.
School children erupted in cheers and claps when principal John Finney announced the jump in scores this year, which beat state averages for the first time in seven years. They've ranged in scores from a 2.3 in 1997 to a previous high of 3.1 in 2000.
But this year, Eastside fourth-graders wrote 20 percent better essays than last year, with the mean score matching the state's 3.6, compared with the school's 3.0 score last year.
"We've got a ways to go, but we're bugging right along, and we're proud we produced the gain we had," said Finney, who couldn't point to a specific curriculum change that lead to the improvement.
The statewide writing test started a decade ago because Florida educators were unhappy with students' writing skills. The first scores showed what everyone expected: students had trouble organizing their thoughts on paper. School districts, stung by the early results, revamped their writing instruction with the test in mind and scores have steadily improved.
But some writing experts think the focus on the test has come at a cost.
Many teachers have resorted to a formulaic approach to writing. That strategy almost guarantees their students will meet the state's standard but discourages creativity.
"The danger of formulaic writing is everywhere and at every level," said Richard Sterling, director of the National Writing Project at the University of California at Berkeley.
Sterling headed the advisory committee of the Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, which recently issued a scathing report on the state of writing instruction in the United States.
Sterling said Florida deserved credit for its early emphasis on writing instruction.
Many teachers have resorted to a formulaic approach to writing. That strategy almost guarantees their students will meet the state's standard but discourages creativity.
Now after a decade of focused writing instruction in the schools, Florida students are doing much better on the test.
On Monday, the state is expected to release reading scores for Florida's third-graders and results from the graduation test taken by 12th-graders.
The Hernando County School District had received their third-grade reading scores Friday afternoon, said the district's testing specialist Linda Peirce. But she declined to share them immediately and did not return further phone calls.
