More than 20 area schools transferred high numbers of struggling students just before the crucial test.
By RON MATUS
Published June 17, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Area school officials say they are stumped by a list of institutions the state says may be transferring students to improve FCAT scores.
More than 20 schools around the Tampa Bay area are among 159 statewide being investigated by the state Department of Education, which fears some of them transferred large numbers of struggling students before the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in February and March.
When students are moved from one school to another shortly before taking the FCAT, their scores do not count toward either school's grades.
But to assume a high rate of transfers means cheating is "a big leap," said Mark Hart, spokesman for the Hillsborough district, which has 15 schools on the list.
A more likely explanation, he said: inner city schools that serve poor neighborhoods with transient families and rural schools that cater to children of migrant farmworkers. Those schools naturally have high turnover rates.
"You really have to use due caution interpreting the data if you don't know the nature of the community served," Hart said.
The Education Department's investigation is expected to be finished by August.
This is the first year the agency looked at transfer rates to see whether schools were doing an end-run around the FCAT, said department spokesman MacKay Jimeson.
"The department loves accountability," Jimeson said. "This was just an opportunity to make sure we continue to see what's going on in our schools."
The department flagged every school in the state where 5 percent or more of the students transferred out in a 19-day period preceding the test in February and March. The average transfer rate statewide is 1 percent.
More than 20 schools had transfer rates above 20 percent.
The department list includes scores of alternative schools where students are temporarily assigned because of disciplinary or academic problems, and charter schools that serve at-risk students.
Of three Pasco schools on the list, two are alternative schools and one is a charter school.
High turnover rates there are no surprise, said Pasco schools spokeswoman Lori Yusko.
The seven representatives from Pinellas include two programs - one for dropout prevention, the other for students recovering from illnesses or injuries - and one vocational school.
Without a close look at enrollment data, it's tough to say why four traditional schools are on the list, said Jim Underhill, a planning specialist in the district's student assignment department. Last year, nearly 2,600 of the district's 112,000 students transferred.
But with all transfers requiring a parent's okay, foul play is far-fetched, he said.
"The parents would have to be in on it," he said.
The Education Department has focused most of its attention on Polk County, which has more than 60 schools on the list.
Last week, a top-ranking department official, kindergarten-to-12th grade Chancellor Jim Warford, said he had "grave concerns" about the Polk numbers, but in Miami on Tuesday, Education Commissioner Jim Horne appeared to backpedal.
"We may find," Horne said, "there's really nothing to it."
- Times staff writer Donna Winchester contributed to this report. Ron Matus can be reached at 727 893-8873 or matus@sptimes.com
STUDENT TRANSFERS
These Tampa Bay area schools have been tagged by the state Department of Education for having a high number of student transfers in the weeks preceding FCAT testing in February and March:
