Counselors and others were overwhelmed with their part-time testing responsibilities.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published May 16, 2004
Shortly after the FCAT ended, Helen Clemente visited a class of first-graders to lead a stress-busting round of stretching and aerobics.
It was as much for her benefit as the students'.
"All the testing was over, and I just wanted to go and have fun," said Clemente, a guidance counselor at J.D. Floyd Elementary School who had spent much of the past several months doing anything but counseling.
When she started talking with the children, though, she came upon an uncomfortable realization. She had done so much preparing for and proctoring of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test that many of the students did not know who she was.
Clemente was more than ready for the news, announced days later, that the district plans to hire full-time assessment teachers to take over the role that many counselors and assistant principals have been doing part time. The 19 new positions would be paid for through a reallocation of existing state remedial education money.
"Testing coordinator was just a difficult part of the job," Clemente said. "I'll be really glad to give that to someone else."
When first approached with the reorganization idea, superintendent Wendy Tellone quickly saw the benefits.
A stickler for research-driven decisions, Tellone warmed to the notion of having a numbers cruncher at each school. That person, she reasoned, could analyze test results and use the information to determine how the school could best improve teaching and learning.
That task - with all the state and federal mandates for more data coming down - was becoming too big for one testing and accountability specialist in the administration office and part-time eyes on campus.
Sweetening the pot, she said, the district's remediation funds would be better spent. Equally important, she added, "it will allow counselors to get back to counseling."
District testing coordinator Linda Peirce said the change is needed.
"This job has gotten too big," she said Tuesday, as she sifted through the district's thousands of FCAT results, to make sure each student's scores correlated with their state identification numbers. "We've done a pretty good job in the past with getting the data to the teachers. But it's always been, what next? The assessment people will help to take it to the next step."
The position is modeled after a similar one in Citrus County schools.
Citrus elementary and middle schools have curriculum specialists, and the high schools have assessment specialists. They manage testing and individualized student academic plans on the campuses and work with teachers to hone instructional strategies.
This year, while other districts, including Hernando, bemoaned low performance among eighth- through 10th-graders on the FCAT, Citrus held steady or saw improvement. The county had 72 percent of its sophomores at level three or better on the math section.
"Overall, it makes a huge difference," Citrus research and accountability director Jan Morphew said. "Having someone in curriculum to work with teachers and do development is one of the big things that makes a difference for our district."
Hernando officials hope to find the same successes.
Assessment teachers in Hernando will have several responsibilities, Peirce explained. Each will get tests ready for teachers to administer and often proctor the tests themselves. That includes the FCAT and a variety of other standardized exams that students regularly take.
In addition, they will analyze test data, offer model teaching and coordinate training that is in line with what the data indicate is necessary to improve instruction.
"It's a very critical job," Peirce said.
After having received some lackluster FCAT results Monday, principals looked forward to the opportunity to have more consistent attention paid to testing.
"It's going to be very crucial, especially with disaggregating student achievement," Powell Middle School principal Michael Ransaw said of the new position. "That's one I'm going to take my time (selecting)."
Although personnel director Barbara Kidder has advised that the official job description does not differ from a regular teacher, she also has let principals know they should take great care to choose the right person.
"You wouldn't want to just stick a first-grade teacher in there just because you want to," Kidder said.
Ransaw, for one, planned to take that direction to heart.
He hoped to find someone with leadership and guidance experience, who understands testing and has the ability to make sense of the numbers behind them.
A tall order, no doubt. But Ransaw, like others, considers the position key to the future of his school and his students' achievement at a time when test results are counting more and more.
That's not to denigrate the people who did the work before, and they are aware of that. In fact, they're happy to give up the load.
"During the testing period, it will make my job a whole lot easier," said Betty Draper, Brooksville Elementary School assistant principal.
Draper volunteered to be her school's test coordinator but found the task forced her to work late after school and on weekends. It also kept her from interacting with students and staff members as much as she would like.
"It's about a month period where testing takes precedence over everything," she said.
Clemente found that more of her time was being eaten by testing requirements. As a result, group counseling, meetings with families and the like were pushed to the sidelines.
Several times, she had to tell students she was not able to meet with them. She feared they might take away the message that the FCAT was more important than they were.
"That's been the most difficult part," Clemente said.
So she, too, looks forward to next year, when the assessment teachers arrive.
"I really didn't get into the classrooms a lot this year," she said. "They'll free us up to be counselors."
- Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at 352 754-6115. Send e-mail to solochek@sptimes.com
