Passing state test for a diploma will get tougher

About 25,000 11th-graders who failed an FCAT retest will have to score even higher to pass in January.

By STEPHEN HEGARTY
© St. Petersburg Times,
published December 12, 2001

Nearly half of Florida's high school juniors who had to retake the state's graduation test can expect good news very soon: They passed on the second try.

For more than half, however, some sobering news: Now the task gets even harder.

Of the roughly 46,000 students who failed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test last school year when they were 10th-graders, 47 percent passed the reading portion of the test during the retake in October, according to figures released Tuesday by the Florida Department of Education. Forty-one percent passed the math portion.

Those passing rates are not very different from the passing rates for retakes on the state's old graduation test, the High School Competency Test.

"That was our goal -- a smooth transition," said JoAnn Carrin of the Department of Education.

This year's 11th-graders are the first group of students who must pass the rigorous FCAT to get a standard diploma. Previously, students had to pass the HSCT, which generally is regarded as a less demanding test.

In both cases, students have six chances to pass the test before graduation. In October, students who failed the FCAT graduation test last year got their second shot at it. If students continue to pass the test at the same rate, the number failing to pass the test after six tries would be whittled down to a couple of thousand statewide.

However, that passing rate might not hold for long.

Roughly 25,000 students still have to retake the test, and the next time they sit for a retake (in January), they will need to earn an even higher score to pass.

That higher passing score is expected to reduce the passing rate to about one-third.

"It may, but the kids will be better prepared, too," Carrin said.

Based on the October retake scores, if the higher standard had been applied on the reading test, the passing rate would have dropped from 47 percent to 32 percent. In math, the passing rate would have dropped from 41 percent to 34 percent.

In some Florida school districts, 11th-graders struggled with the test retake. For instance, in Miami-Dade County, only 35 percent passed the reading portion on the second try, while 28 percent passed the math section.

Tampa Bay area students did better than the state average. In Citrus County, 65 percent of the 11th-graders passed reading on the second try, and 60 percent passed math. In Hernando, 58 percent passed reading, 50 percent passed math. In Hillsborough, 51 percent passed reading and math. In Pasco, 53 percent passed reading and 43 percent passed math. And in Pinellas County, 51 percent passed reading on the second try, while 48 percent passed math.

Retake test results are being sent to school districts this week. Individual results should be sent to students soon.

The high stakes of the graduation test led to a lawsuit last month. One Pinellas County mother, whose son failed in his first attempt at the 10th-grade FCAT, filed a lawsuit to see her son's FCAT test booklets so she could learn where he needed assistance. The future of the lawsuit is uncertain. The mother, Betty Shields of Largo, died last month. Because individual results have not been received, it is unclear whether her son passed the test on his second try.

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