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Teachers grapple with the task of deciding how difficult the state's test of student achievement should be.
By STEPHEN HEGARTY
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 24, 2001
TAMPA -- For much of the day, the conference room full of teachers had been buzzing with questions, comments and jokes.
Then, team leader Kristen Ellington flashed a series of color-coded bar charts on the overhead projector. The room went silent.
Several teachers frowned. A few seemed puzzled. One touched her fingers to her lips and took a deep breath.
For two days, the teachers had been struggling to decide just how tough the state's sixth-grade FCAT math section should be. Which test questions should marginal students know? Which should all students know? The teachers took votes, recommending the minimum scores for each of five levels of achievement.
They would vote again, but now was the time to see results.
It was bad news.
If the requirements the teachers chose last week had been in effect last year, more than 4 out of 10 kids would have fallen into the lowest of five levels, their work labeled unsatisfactory. It would have been worse for Hispanic students: more than half fell into the lowest level. The results were even worse for African-American students: more than two out of three dropped to the bottom.
"Okay. What are you thinking?" Ellington said, gingerly breaking the silence. "Are you thinking about your cut scores? Are you thinking about what's going on in the classroom?"
"All of the above," said Daneri Gay, a teacher of gifted students from Miami-Dade County.
Ellington's simple question cut to the heart of the task at hand. If it appears that too many Florida children are doing unsatisfactory work, the teachers could simply change the minimum score needed to be classified in a particular level; all of a sudden those bar charts would look a lot better. Or the teachers could stick to their guns and rely on hard work in the classroom to bring kids along. That would take time.
About 75 teachers from around the state gathered in conference rooms last week in Tampa to wrestle with those questions. They were there to set math standards for grades 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9. (Standards for grades 5, 8 and 10 were set in 1998.) The decisions represented the first step in the process ofdetermining how many kids fail and how many ace the state's FCAT, which tests student achievement. Indirectly, the decisions will determine which schools fail or thrive under Florida's school accountability system.
"Do we keep it challenging?" asked Leah Abiola, a seventh-grade teacher from Palm Beach County. "Or do we look at . . ."
She peeked at the bar chart again.
". . . look at all those kids stuck in level one? We're caught between a rock and a hard place."
Pine View Middle School teacher Sharon Law studied the bar charts. "Nearly half our students in level one?" she said. "I guess there's plenty of room for growth."
When a student gets his or her FCAT results, the scores range from 100 to 500. But what is a passing score? What is an exceptional score?
That's what the teachers had to decide.
They had to separate scores into five categories or levels. The scores that fell into the lowest level would be failing. Those in the second level would be showing limited success. The top level is reserved for those students who can handle the most challenging work.
They relied heavily on a folder full of test questions, arranged in order of difficulty.
They scribbled in the margins. They underlined questions with blue and orange highlighters. They affixed lime green sticky notes to key pages. The goal was to draw lines separating level one from level two, and so on. A two-step question might have to be a level two. A three-step question involving geometry would probably be a level four, at least.
First, they did it with only the folder of questions -- and what they knew of their students -- to guide them.
Occasionally, they turned up their noses at questions and expressed their distaste.
Valerie Freeman, a middle school teacher from Alachua County, found a lot to dislike in a question about incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs.
"I just think when it's a math question, you shouldn't have wording that's going to throw them off because of their economic situation," Freeman said. "Incandescent? Are you kidding me?"
Later, Freeman reminded herself and her colleagues to think of all students.
"Okay. Is this a level two?" asked Freeman, studying a question that was illustrated with a drawing. "A lot of dropout prevention kids need visuals. Little things we take for granted, they don't. Sometimes the wording really gets them."
"Definitely," said Daneri Gay, who teaches gifted children. "A lot of kids look at a question with a lot of wording and think, 'Oh, yuck!' "
The toughest part of the exercise was when the teachers saw the probable impact of their decisions. Testing officials took the teachers' recommendations and plugged in the test scores from last school year. That enabled them to see how students would have done -- if the standards had been in place.
The results were sobering.
The teachers could take heart that the bad news on the bar charts was not the final word on standard setting. The teachers would have a few more chances to vote to change their recommendations.
After they were through, the recommendations were presented to a group of business leaders last week and now will go on to the Florida Department of Education. Eventually, Education Commissioner Charlie Crist will make his own recommendations, which will be voted on by the governor and the Florida Cabinet.
The teachers also could take heart that next school year -- when students and teachers know the sixth-grade scores count toward their school grade for the first time -- scores are likely to improve. That's what happened with scores in grades 5, 8 and 10; they started low and got better.
To some teachers, that gave them permission to stick to their guns. To others, it was little comfort.
Charlene Kincaid didn't have to raise her hand. The rumbling sound under her table caught everyone's attention as she stomped her feet in frustration.
"I know the bookmarks are high right now," the Santa Rosa County teacher began. "I know that. But in your heart of hearts what do we want these kids to be able to do?
"If we bump down too far now . . . what do we want to be able to say is a good level one kid or a level two kid? Don't we expect them to be able to do this?"
Valerie Freeman jumped in.
"Right," she said. "If we start out being too low, what does that say? It's like we don't think they can do it. The expectations will not be there. The growth will not be there."
In the end, the teachers setting standards for sixth grade stuck to their guns. They adjusted the scores a bit.
But based on last year's scores, their recommendations were very demanding. They would result in the biggest group of kids falling to the lowest level, 37 percent. Level two would have 28 percent, and level three, 23 percent. After 9 percent in the fourth level, that leaves only 3 percent in the top category.
On the third day, they got a chance to see the work the other teachers did. The ninth-grade teachers were pretty tough, with 43 percent in level one. But the sixth-grade teachers weren't far behind.
"As hard as this is, I have to say not one bit of conversation that I've heard makes me want to say, 'Okay, move it down,"' said Carole Halka, a math curriculum specialist from Broward County. "Not one bit."
"You know what I keep coming back to?" Leah Abiola said. "Over the years we expect to see improvement. The numbers are going to get better. They have to."