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Schools

Education chief decries 'shady attempt to discredit FCAT'

The commissioner says questions about qualifications are "a shady attempt to discredit" the state test.

By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published April 21, 2006

	Citrus County racks up FCAT gain in writing Hernando schools lift writing scores but still need to catch up Hillsborough County mirrors state FCAT trend Pasco students improve writing on FCAT Pinellas eighth-graders post FCAT writing gains

Education Commissioner John Winn gave a spirited defense Thursday of temporary workers who grade the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, calling recent questions about their qualifications "a politically motivated fishing expedition."

"This is some sort of a shady attempt to discredit the FCAT and the FCAT scorers and it is totally without merit," Winn said.

His comments, delivered at the beginning of a news conference to announce FCAT writing scores, come in the wake of recent news reports about the company that grades the test refusing to reveal its graders' identities.

CTB/McGraw-Hill, the company with the $86-million contract to grade the test through 2008, has said releasing the names of individual scorers would benefit the company's competition. It also said the names are exempt from Florida's public records law.

Winn vouched for the $10-an-hour workers, saying they must have bachelor's degrees related to the subject they are grading, undergo a week's training, and pass a qualification exam before they "go live."

"We don't let any scorers go through without meeting a high level of performance," Winn said. "Never in 14 years has a scorer not met the standard."

The issue arose when Sens. Les Miller of Tampa and Walter "Skip" Campbell of Tamarac, both Democrats running for higher office, asked the Education Department whom it hired to grade the tests.

The department sent Miller and Campbell a letter from CTB/McGraw-Hill on April 7 explaining that the names of the graders were "a trade secret."

Campbell then said that the state "has no clue who is grading these papers."

Stakes for FCAT performance are high. Schools with high scores are rewarded with thousands of dollars in state recognition money, while low scores can prevent third-graders from being promoted and deny high school students a diploma.

Schools that fail to show improvement as measured by the test risk losing federal money for programs to help struggling students. And beginning next year, teacher bonuses will be linked to FCAT scores.

But Winn assured reporters Thursday that the FCAT contract is "the most closely monitored contract in state government."

"We're not engaging in this activity willy-nilly," he said.

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