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If they can't disprove early data saying they didn't test at least 90 percent of eligible students, they'll drop a grade.
By KELLY RYAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 18, 2000
At St. Petersburg High School, students were reminded about the FCAT through school newsletters, church bulletins, in-house television skits and intercom announcements. Students who showed up on the day of the test were rewarded with breakfast and ice cream.
The state's preliminary data show that 89 percent of students at St. Petersburg High took the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. But the rules of the state's controversial A+
grading plan require that each school test 90 percent of eligible students -- or automatically lose one letter grade.
St. Petersburg High is one of five Pinellas schools that appear to have fallen below that 90 percent FCAT attendance mark: Tarpon Springs High also is listed at 89 percent, Pinellas Park High at 88 percent, Largo High at 80 percent and Oakhurst Elementary at 74 percent. Blanton Elementary, originally listed at just 51 percent attendance, got the news late Wednesday afternoon that a mistake had been corrected and they are now listed at 97 percent.
Just eight St. Pete High students could mean the difference between a C grade, which the school earned last year, and a D. School officials are scrambling to prove that the state must have gotten the numbers wrong.
"We're talking about eight students, eight students out of 463 that could affect that drastically what the school's grade is," said Linda Benware, principal of St. Petersburg High. "Newsweek just rated us the 28th-best high school in the nation. We know we're an excellent school."
The much-dreaded but all-important FCAT scores now are not expected until mid-June, two weeks after most school districts close for the summer. The scores are used to determine what grades schools get and which students are promoted to the next grade.
Preliminary information from the state showed that a number of schools around the state didn't have 90 percent participation.
Local districts were notified so school principals could check and double-check the computations to try to head off lowered grades.
Those checks were easy at some schools like Blanton, where principal Deborah Turner said it was quickly clear that some of the school's tests had been misplaced between testing day and arrival at the grading contractor.
The testing contractor found the missing tests Wednesday and graded them -- resulting in a 97 percent FCAT attendance rate.
Turner was ecstatic.
"We're okay now," said Turner, whose school earned a C last year. "We're working so hard to get a B rating."
Officials say missing math tests also may account for Oakhurst's low participation rate, since nearly 100 percent of students took the reading and writing tests.
Alex Epanchin, Pinellas' director of testing, said the district also got a list of the schools whose FCAT attendance was above 90 percent but below 95 percent -- making it impossible under state rules for those schools to earn A's.
In Pinellas, 11 elementaries, eight middles and 10 high schools fell into that category and also can challenge the state's numbers.
It was the schools in the below-90 percent category that panicked, Epanchin said. He is trying to calm their worries by working with the testing contractor and preparing lists of every student who should have been tested at each school.
At the state's request, he also is analyzing a list of more than 3,000 students whose identification numbers didn't check out in the state's computers.
"There are such high stakes," he said. "Folks are worried. I hope it's mostly for naught."
Line by line, Benware's staff at St. Pete High will compare the list of students the state says were supposed to take the FCAT with the list that actually did. She wants to know whether students were absent for legitimate reasons, such as illness or death in the family. She's checking to see whether special education students, whose scores don't count toward school grades, are on the list.
What if the research still shows only 89 percent took the test?
"It will really upset a lot of us, myself included," Benware said. "It certainly leads you to question the state's accountability system when this could happen."
In Hillsborough County, Sam Whitten, the director of assessment, said preliminary data suggested that two schools, Young Magnet School and Walker Middle School, had not made the 90 percent attendance mark. But further research showed that a paperwork glitch contributed to the calculation.
Both schools now are expected to meet the attendance requirement.
"We are confident that we'll have no schools that didn't make the 90 percent mark," Whitten said.
-- Staff writer Sarah Schweitzer contributed to this report and information from Times wires was used.