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The FCAT learning curve

With high-intensity teaching geared to the FCAT, it's ironic that young students get a break - and a taste of what they've lost - only during testing weeks.

By SHARON KENNEDY WYNNE
Published March 5, 2007

My third-grader took his first round of the FCAT last week and is facing the next round this week. He couldn't be happier.

The teachers are giving the kids a break from homework for these two weeks - a big deal at his back-to-basics fundamental school that prides itself on lots of assignments.

During these two weeks the children get recess every day to clear their heads - a rarity - and very often get an afternoon snack to recharge their batteries, another treat.

At first, I joked about my son thinking the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test is a better deal than his regular school day. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized the kid was on to something.

I know the arguments against the FCAT. The devotion to this test puts enormous pressure on cash-strapped schools that lose money if their kids lose test points. Little wonder the Pinellas County School Board last week told the state to keep its $6.1-million in bonuses for teachers that were tied to the test scores, and Pasco County did the same. The teachers themselves voted to reject the money, saying it was divisive and unfair to use FCAT scores as the chief measure of performance.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush has argued that using the FCAT has goaded public education to improve, and reading scores of elementary school students in Florida have risen at one of the fastest rates in the country.

It has been difficult to reach the same level of achievement in high school, where the FCAT bar is higher than in the lower grades. Fewer than one in three Florida students who were in third grade when Bush's high-stakes accountability program began in 1999 were meeting the state standards for their grade level in 2006.

Data aside, the biggest gripe from teachers and parents is how FCAT pressure robs students of time for anything but subjects on the test.

How strange that our children get a taste of what they've lost during these two weeks when they're taking the FCAT. Two glorious weeks of recess!

I asked my son last week what the kids did at recess. His eyes lit up telling me of the medieval battle they acted out, with him as the king and his friends as dragons and knights. Imagine that, physical activity, high drama and even a little history, all from a gang of third-graders.

The Cartoon Network last summer launched a program called "Rescuing Recess" that encourages kids to write letters to their local and state leaders demanding that playtime be restored to their school schedule. My son was pretty fired up.

I'm ashamed to say I didn't even budge to help him find the addresses. I thought it was pointless.

When you are teaching to the test, there's no time for recess, no time for experiments that might not go anywhere. The "extras" that would make a more rounded student aren't on the test.

But they are in my son's education. At least for these two weeks.

Sharon Kennedy Wynne can be reached at wynne@tampabay.com.

[Last modified March 5, 2007, 10:15:02]