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Schools

Survey highlights principals' doubts about FCAT

Polls indicate wide disapproval not of tests, but of how they're used.

By RON MATUS
Published February 3, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test helps boost student achievement, but it also cuts into teaching time for history, foreign languages and other subjects, say two-thirds of school principals who responded to a new survey.

About 80 percent of the principals deemed unfair the state's practice of awarding bonus money to schools with high or improving FCAT scores.

"I think you'll see data in there indicating that we've come to a very FCAT-centric system," Rick Edmonds, FCAT Project director for the Florida Forum for Progressive Policy, said at a Thursday news conference announcing the results.

"Ninety-eight percent of the principals said their teachers are under pressure to raise test scores, and 70 percent said other subjects are getting squeezed out as a result of test taking and test preparation."

The response from FCAT supporters: Don't expect much change.

"You're not going to make everybody happy," said Rep. Ralph Arza, R-Hialeah, who heads the House PreK-12 Committee.

"We're not hearing (complaints), and we meet with principals all the time," said Florida Education Commissioner John Winn, who questioned whether the survey results were skewed by a limited response rate. "Most principals I've talked to who understand how it all works think it's pretty fair."

The survey was mailed statewide last year to 1,750 Florida principals who were randomly selected. Four-hundred thirty-one responded, giving the survey a 4.5 percentage point margin of error.

The project was financed by Winter Springs businessman Al Kamhi, a former aide to then-U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat. Forum members include Edmonds, a former director of affiliates for the Times Publishing Co., which publishes the St. Petersburg Times, and former Democratic House Speaker Jon Mills.

Overall, the survey shows principals generally view the FCAT - which became the foundation of Gov. Jeb Bush's education initiatives when he was elected in 1998 - as a good test that has been misapplied and overemphasized.

The FCAT tests reading, writing, math and science. Schools are graded based on student scores.

"We are becoming factories of FCAT takers who hate school," one principal said.

"We don't have time for science and social studies," said another. "There is too much testing. We are teaching to the test."

Teaching state standards is "how you really prepare kids for the test," Arza countered. "This whole thing of focusing so much on the FCAT, that's an instructional problem, not an FCAT problem."

The report offered several suggestions, including shortening the two-week window in which the tests are given, restoring balance to the curriculum, and modifying the test-taking requirements for special education students and those who speak English as a second language.

It also recommended that the $100-per-student bonus awarded to high-performing schools be scrapped and redirected to other programs. Last year, 1,502 schools received $134-million in bonuses, which are divvied up, and often squabbled over, by committees at each school.

"Educators, who emphasize teamwork at the school and district level find these "high-stakes' financial incentives divisive and unwelcome," the report said.

Former K-12 Chancellor Jim Warford, now executive director of the Florida Association of School Administrators, questioned that recommendation, saying many principals want to change the distribution system for bonus money but not scrap the practice altogether.

The forum is "taking a little bit of a political stance here," he said.

But he also said the survey results are a sign that the current FCAT-based system needs to be tweaked. Principals "most clearly understand that the FCAT and accountability must continuously improve," he said.

Among the survey results:

79 percent of the principals who responded said students take too many tests.

67 percent said teachers have little time to teach anything not on state tests.

45 percent oppose using the FCAT to determine whether a student should be held back a grade.

51 percent support using the FCAT as a high school graduation requirement.

Only 18 percent agreed with the notion that the federal No Child Left Behind Act reinforces Florida's testing and school grading program.

Times Capital bureau chief Steve Bousquet contributed to this report. Ron Matus can be reached at 727 893-8873 or matus@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 3, 2006, 01:23:04]