The dreaded F fails to appear

Several Hillsborough school officials had pledged to take a 5-percent salary cut if any school earned the low grade.

By SARAH SCHWEITZER

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 22, 2000

TAMPA -- Hillsborough County school officials breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday with the release of FCAT writing scores that guarantee every Hillsborough public school will pass the state's A-plus grading plan this year.

The writing scores are the first results from this year's FCAT exam and had been much anticipated at the district's downtown offices, where several high-ranking officials, including Hillsborough schools Superintendent Earl Lennard, had pledged to take a 5-percent salary cut if any school earned an F.

"We are elated," said Jim Hamilton, an assistant superintendent. "This is an indication of a variety of things, one of which is that our schools take very seriously the teaching of writing and the assessment of our students."

An F-grade is awarded to schools that earn unsatisfactory grades on all three components of the FCAT: reading, writing and math. Eleven schools across the state earned scores low enough on the writing portion to put them in danger of earning an F under the A-Plus plan.

While the release of the writing scores ensures that Hillsborough will have no F schools for the second time in the A-Plus plan's two-year existence, it gives little indication of which schools will earn A's, B's, C's or D's.

Schools are expected to learn those grades in the next couple of weeks when scores on the reading and math components of the FCAT are made public.

Hillsborough relished the distinction of earning one of the highest average writing scores among eighth-graders in the state. Only two small laboratory schools did as well as or better than Hillsborough's 4.0 average for eighth-graders, according to the state Department of Education.

The state average for eighth-graders on the writing portion of the test was 3.7.

Hillsborough students in fourth-grade and 10th-grade also fared better on average than other students in the state, particularly in the large school districts.

Tenth-graders across the state averaged a 3.9 while Hillsborough 10th-graders averaged 4.1. Hillsborough fourth-graders averaged a 3.4 while the state average was 3.2.

The district also surpassed its writing scores from last year, jumping nearly half a point in every grade level, according to Department of Education data.

The writing portion, which was administered to fourth-, eighth- and 10th-grade students on Feb. 15, consisted of one of two writing assignments.

For example, eighth-graders were asked to explain why a day was special to them, or explain to a teacher why a locale would make the perfect place to visit on a field trip.

District officials cautioned against reading too much into the average increases. John Hilderbrand, the director of assessment, accountability and evaluation for the district, said analysis and dissection of the scores are needed before any conclusions can be drawn.

"It isn't as clean as it looks," he said.

For one, he said, comparing this year's data with last year's is not fair since it is not known whether more special education students and students without a command of English were counted this year than last.

In addition, he said, since state averages also went up, the question remains: Did students get better at writing or did the test get easier?

For many principals, the numbers, lingering questions aside, seemed magically perfect Wednesday.

"Yes!" Jean Hamilton, principal of Hyde Park's Wilson Middle School exclaimed when told of her school's score of 4.5. "I knew my youngsters would do real well because they worked real hard and teachers worked real hard, but this is just great."

Debra Arias, the principal of Sulphur Springs Elementary School, which landed on the state's dreaded "critically low performing" list three times because of low test scores, rushed home from work to flip on the television news, hoping to glean any scrap of information about her school's performance.

Her reaction to learning that her school would not be an F school?

"Relief," she said. "Total relief. In my heart I knew how hard we had all worked and I had seen all the growth, so I felt conflicted because you never know."

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