These students joined in graduation, but have yet to pass the reading test. They sit in a review class, trying their best.
By MELANIE AVE, Times Staff Writer
Published July 3, 2005
TAMPA - With her parents cheering from the audience, Ashley Dean joined 400 classmates in May at her high school graduation.
She had passed all the required courses, earning a 2.5 grade point average and 24 credits - six more than the state's minimum.
But when Dean walked across the stage, all she received was a certificate of completion. No diploma.
The reason: Dean failed the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test three years in a row.
So now, in the middle of summer, the 18-year-old sits in Chamberlain High School, preparing again for a test she was supposed to pass in the 10th grade.
Dean is among several thousand Tampa Bay area high school students - including 1,500 in Hillsborough County - enrolled in a voluntary FCAT review class. They are working to avoid arguably the harshest aspect of the state's school accountability program - a graduation with no diploma.
It doesn't seem fair, Dean said, bending over yet another of the practice exams that are a staple of the four-week class, which ended recently.
"I'm good with class work and homework," she said. "I'm not really good at taking tests."
Dean wonders what her future will be like if she can't earn a diploma.
Could she still achieve her goal of becoming a pharmacy technician, which requires special training and certification? Or will she be working minimum-wage jobs the rest of her life?
In one more day, Dean will take the test again. A copy of her diploma is waiting in the school's front office, down the hall and to the left, in case she passes.
* * *
High-stakes tests like the FCAT have become increasingly common in the United States. About half of the states have mandatory graduation exams, though some had to be made easier after embarrassingly large numbers of students kept failing.
Whether such tests are having an impact on graduation rates is unclear.
"There doesn't seem to be conclusive agreement," said Jennifer Dounay, an analyst with the Education Commission of the States.Florida students get their first crack at passing the graduation test as sophomores. Students who are still trying to pass it their senior year usually fail. This year, 80 percent of the 18,904 seniors who took the reading test flunked, as did 65 percent of the 11,593 seniors who took the math test.
The state says the overall failure rate on the test is about 10 percent. That's similar to the results for the state's previous graduation test, which was considered much easier than the FCAT, said Cornelia Orr, director of assessment and school performance for the Florida Department of Education.
"That says students are rising to the expectations," she said.
The test certainly has spurred changes.
Reading teachers, once unknown in high schools, have been added to many in the Tampa Bay area. So have intensive math and reading courses.
"People ask me, "You're a reading teacher? In a high school?"' said Chamberlain reading teacher Erin Doyle. "I'm like, "Yeah,' but it's not like these kids don't know how to read. Some of them just struggle with comprehending what they read."
Pinellas County schools also have summer review classes for failing graduates, but administrators there are trying to intervene earlier. This fall, freshmen and sophomores will be placed in reading classes tailored to their skills, said Susan Bailey, the district's director of high school education.
"We want to make sure every student earns a diploma in four years," she said.
In Hillsborough, the review course, called the FCAT Academy, focuses heavily on test-taking techniques. Students are told to look over the questions before reading a passage. They are instructed to underline key words.
Almost 20 percent of the county's students who still haven't passed the test are enrolled this summer in review classes, which are being held in 15 high schools. Attendance is mandatory, and students must stay for three hours a day.
Dean said she hasn't missed a minute.
* * *
It's 7:30 a.m., and more than 60 teenagers are sitting two to a table in the Chamberlain High cafeteria. This is the last day of test prep before the real exam.
Some of the students joke around. Most say little.
Dean makes small talk with her table mate, 19-year-old Darvette Rushing, who graduated from Chamberlain a year earlier. She came back to try again for a diploma. She is working in the real world now and doesn't like what she sees. She is wearing a purple Popeye's chicken uniform.
She earns minimum wage. Her paycheck, she says, is pathetic.
"I want to be in an office with air conditioning," she says. "I gotta get my diploma. You can't even work at McDonald's anymore without a high school diploma."
Teachers pass out a practice test. The students are told to read several stories and answer multiple-choice questions about them.
Dean and Rushing can barely look at the test. They are soooooooo sick of taking them.
"I was just so close when I took it last time," Rushing says. "I missed it by six points. When I found out, I was so devastated I couldn't even go back to class. I spent the day in the guidance office."
Teacher Jane Flynn tells the students to take their time. Unlike the first time they took the FCAT, there are no time limits on retests.
Reading teacher Doyle tells them to read the title of each passage, look at the pictures and read the cutlines underneath. She urges them to write notes in the margin.
"Nobody says you have to read the entire passage before you start answering questions," Doyle says.
Dean begins reading. An hour later, she proclaims, "So far so good."
But a review of her answers on the first story is not so good. She misses four of four.
"Guys," Doyle says, "this was a really tough article."
Dean has struggled with test-taking since elementary school. At one point, her parents enrolled her in the Sylvan Learning Academy. In high school, she took intensive reading and math classes and spent weekends drilling herself on the computer.
She struggled with the math FCAT, too, but passed it in the spring.
"She's worked so hard," Flynn says.
Dean does better on the next practice test, but stumbles over the third.
With the class nearly over and practice tests complete, Flynn walked to Dean's table.
"How'd it go?" she asks, giving her a pat.
"Better than expected," Dean says.
"Tomorrow remember," Flynn says, "stay calm."
* * *
Flynn said students fail the FCAT for many reasons.
Some don't take it seriously. Rushing claims she didn't until graduation approached.
Others fail to grasp the basic foundations on which the test is built, such as vocabulary. Some get too stressed, or are having other difficulties that interfere with their performance.
"It's a very stressful time when the scores come back," Flynn said, "and not just for the kids. The teachers, too. When they don't pass, we feel as devastated as the students."
Some students who fail continuously are encouraged to get their high school equivalency degree, which allows them entry into most community colleges. They also can get a regular diploma by earning an adequate score on other college entrance exams, such as the SAT and ACT.
Dean is holding out for the diploma. If she gets it, she wants to frame it and hang it on the wall.
On test day, a bit sleepy and stressed, she takes about four hours to finish the test.
She calls her mom at noon and said she feels more confident about how she did than during the last go-round.
There's not much time to fret because she has a job interview at a nearby CVS drugstore. She's hoping to at least get her foot in the door and then figure out how she can become a pharmacy technician - with or without a high school diploma. She wants to enroll at Hillsborough Community College.
She and the others must wait until August for the test results, which come to their homes.
Said Dean's mother: "We pray this time she makes it."
