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Schools

County racks up FCAT gain in writing

Fourth- and eighth-graders improve, but 10th-graders are in the county's only class to score above the state average.

By EDDY RAMIREZ
Published April 21, 2006

INVERNESS - Citrus fourth- and eighth-graders made significant gains over last year in writing, but still performed slightly below students elsewhere in Florida, according to the 2006 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Tenth-graders were the only class of Citrus students who closed the gap with other students in the state, scoring 1 percentage point higher than the state average.

"We are very pleased, ecstatic really," said Gina Tovine, the school district's research and accountability director. "The improvement we have made has been dramatic."

The results of the FCAT writing test, which students took in February, were released Thursday. In the coming weeks, the state Department of Education will also release scores for the science, reading and math tests, which help determine student promotion at the third-grade level and whether a high school student can graduate with a diploma.

The FCAT writing test isn't weighted as heavily in the formula for determining schools' overall grades, but it serves as a good indicator of which schools are meeting state accountability guidelines.

In Citrus, 79 percent of 10th-graders, 81 percent of eighth-graders and 75 percent of fourth-graders earned passing scores of 3.5 and higher on a scale of 1 to 6.

At Crystal River Middle, the number of eighth-graders who scored at grade level or above increased by 20 percentage points compared with last year's results. Tovine, who served as that school's principal until December, said Crystal River Middle has made significant changes, including hiring a writing coach and bringing literacy experts to help students and staff members.

"We were devastated after last year's writing scores," Tovine said. "We really worked hard this year to make improvements."

Lecanto Middle School was the only middle school whose students performed better than eighth-graders elsewhere in the state. Eighty percent of its eighth-graders scored at grade level or above, an increase of 19 percentage points.

At the elementary level, all but three schools showed improvement. Rock Crusher Elementary students outperformed all other Citrus fourth-graders as well as fourth-graders elsewhere in the state. Eighty-nine percent of the school's fourth-grade class scored 3.5. or above, an increase of 20 percentage points over last year's scores, the largest increase of any Citrus elementary school.

Homosassa Elementary had another disappointing year. Of the 49 fourth-graders who took the test, 59 percent scored at grade level or above, the smallest passing rate of any school in the district. Last year, 65 percent of Homosassa fourth-graders performed at grade level or above.

Mark Brunner, the district's coordinator of area schools and elementary education, was expected to stop by the school today to have a talk with principal Regina Allegretta.

Overall, Brunner was pleased with the results. He said the gains, especially at the secondary level, reflect the hard work of teachers and students.

Citrus students have traditionally struggled with their writing. Although important, school officials say writing has always taken a back seat to reading and math. That has started to change.

After last year's FCAT writing scores showed that Citrus students lagged significantly behind students elsewhere in the state, the district encouraged schools to revamp their writing curriculums.

Some elementary schools, like Floral City and Crystal River Primary, have scheduled additional time to help students with writing. In addition to 90 minutes of reading daily, students at Floral City, for example, also devote 30 minutes daily to writing practice.

At Crystal River Primary, fourth-graders have a language arts class that helps students with grammar and structure. The reading class emphasizes comprehension skills and vocabulary. Teachers put students through writing boot camps.

Edith Speight, principal of Crystal River Primary, said the schools' five fourth-grade teachers benefited tremendously from having a writing coach. The school had three new teachers, including two in their first year.

"We're taking the focus of literacy, and that just doesn't mean reading. It also means writing," Speight said.

Nancy Simon, principal of Rock Crusher Elementary, said she was pleased with the overall performance on the writing test. She was particularly impressed with her students' performance on this year's "Writing Plus," a combination of the standard essay section with a new multiple-choice section. The multiple-choice questions were designed to measure skills such as writing focus and organization.

"My students were cheering and screaming because they did so well," she said. "Now we have to wait and see how well we did in the reading and math tests."

Eddy Ramirez can be reached at 860-7305 or eramirez@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 21, 2006, 01:41:14]