State: An FCAT for college juniors?

ORLANDO - All university students would be required to take a test before graduation as part of a plan being developed by state educators to determine how well students learn at Florida's public universities.

The test would be mandatory for juniors statewide as soon as next year, but individual universities would determine whether the students' scores would be tied to graduation.

The idea is to make universities accountable in much the same way Florida's public schools are. Public schools are punished or rewarded depending on their students' performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT.

"We may get some heat," said Steve Uhlfelder, a member of the Florida Board of Governors, which recently began overseeing the state universities. "Any time you create something new, you meet a lot of resistance."

Many aspects of the proposal have yet to be determined, but one thing is clear: The board has to act fast.

Under a new law, 10 percent, or $250-million, of the $2.5-billion the universities will get from the state next year must be tied to accountability measures. Members said Wednesday that they worry legislators will impose measures if the board doesn't come up with its own.

"Sometimes you have to put some pressure on," said Education Commissioner Jim Horne, who helped create the new law when he was a state senator. "You never will accomplish what you should do if you don't put dollars to it."

A standardized test is just one option under consideration.

The board wants to devise six ways to measure universities. That could include graduation rates; results of licensing exams, such as the bar exam for law students; and minority admission rates. Members also will consider surveying employers who hire graduates, asking other universities to do peer reviews and reviewing which schools graduate students fastest.

But because the state's universities are vastly different in size and scope, the schools would have to be judged against out-of-state peers and rated on improvement rather than which school has the highest score. About 260,000 students attend the state's 11 schools.

"Universities are completely different from K-12. They are much harder to measure," said Howard Rock, a Florida International University professor who sits on the board. "It's possible but difficult. We don't want to start grading A to F. That would be a disaster."

Universities already track dozens of measures, but state educators are talking about paring those down. They could use existing measures or develop new ones.

"Many standards are not appropriate today," board chairwoman Carolyn Roberts said. "We are going to have to lose some."

The option that garnered the most attention was a test that would be taken after two years in college. It already exists in Florida, but most students are exempt from the CLAST. The test began in 1982 to assess whether students had learned basic math and writing skills before earning an associate's degree at a community college or advancing to their junior year at a university.

But over the years, more students were exempt based on other test scores or grades. Others were allowed to take the test more than once. State officials estimate that only about 30 to 40 percent of students take the test, and about 80 percent pass.

If the testing plan is approved, Florida would apparently become the first state in the nation to implement a high-stakes testing program for higher education. It would cost about $4 a test and would likely cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement.

Most of the board members - including Uhlfelder, who proposed the new requirement - are appointees of Gov. Jeb Bush. Uhlfelder said he has long pushed for performance measures in higher education but said he never got much support until the governor made them an integral part of his education plan.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk