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Half Of Escambia 9th, 10th Graders Fail Reading FCAT
May 19, 2012
About half of Escambia County ninth and tenth graders failed the reading portion of the new, tougher FCAT 2.0 reading test. In Santa Rosa County, about one-third of ninth and tenth graders failed.
Students must pass the 10th grade reading test to graduate.
In Escambia County, 50 percent of ninth grade students and 49 percent of tenth grade students scored a passing 3.0 or above. In Santa Rosa County, 68 percent of ninth graders passed, while 64 percent of tenth graders had passing 3.0 or greater.
Scores for North Escambia area schools appear in the table below.
Comments
25 Responses to “Half Of Escambia 9th, 10th Graders Fail Reading FCAT”
I’m am trying to find some information if someone can help. My neice is a straight A student in 9th grade. She was going to take Honors English next year. She got her English teacher’s recommendation to take Honors English as well. Well, she got a 2 on the reading portion of the fcat. Now, they want her to take a lower grade English next year and a summer school course. The high school won’t help at all or answer any questions regarding it. Is there anything she can do to remedy this problem?
Moving there from out of state and having 1 full school year I can tell you our experience with our children. Spent half of the year trying to get them acclimated to taking a test with so much weight and the other half cramming so they wouldn’t fail. That summer we moved out of state simply because of the school systems. Now that we are in a very good state for public education my children have struggled all year trying to get caught up on what the rest of the country was learning. AND the word FCAT literally brings anexity almost immediately. With the limited interaction we had with FL teachers it seemed like thats all they were allowed to focus on. If FCAT goes away we would return in an instant otherwise we will wait till our kids graduate. And just to add my children were honor roll students their whole school lives until FL.
fault, their, a lot, that’s, a lot, wear, are, their, passing, test,
David considering some things which would’ve been counted off on the test, not even considering punctuation
MY opinion, some of ya are right, its not always the teachers fought. But I have five children that went through Northview High and we stayed up all night if we had to, to help our children. but we didn’t give our children cell phones they had to do there school work. Because I know alot of children stay on the phone 24-7. Now thats the parents fought. I know alot of negative words will come of this, but like they say, if the shoe fits were it. But there is teachers that do not do there work, and I think if the schools are not pass then give the text to the teachers to see if they can pass it, if they can’t then escambia county has a problem. And yes it does happen, there is child that just don’t care. I hope the students at Northview High will do better next year.
REGARDING:
“environment, culture, parental involvement, and economic status are ”
On average: better home environment, more cultured or more likely simply a culture which values education and individual effort, more loving parents or at least present parents who don‘t teach harmful attitudes, possibly even married to each other, better economic status due to culture of work ethic and eschewing substance abuse.
Results are the same no matter how we try to explain it away.
Assume bad test, still better is better. They won, we lost.
David contemplating the shame
It’s a major mistake to think that the students in Santa Rosa county are smarter than the students in Escambia county simply based on the FCAT results. There are more factors that come into play– environment, culture, parental involvement, and economic status are just a few.
Our problem is not the FCAT. Our problem is children that Aren’t brought up to put forth the initiative to pass the FCAT from first grade all the way to 10th I never had a problem passing the tests.
At least they’ll still qualify as spell checkers for the PNJ.
All kidding aside, I can’t wait for the day that Florida resumes teaching in-depth subject matter, instead of teaching to simply pass standardized tests. This is doing our children a huge disservice.
Ok people FCAT is not what our kids need! In my opinion the whole education system needs to be redone and looked at in a different light….children are not getting what they need with the current system. Something needs to change!
Terry wrote, “Something is wrong when honor students in high school have to take remedial classes in college their first semester there.”
With your observation, then it should be apparent that there is no honor in honor classes. To allow someone to earn a passing grade when one is not deserved just dumbs down the system.
***THE DOER*** maybe not so confident in your teaching abilities? Let me tell you from first hand knowledge, not all teachers are doing their job. Some will lie about kids to get them out of their class, let papers get lost then say the child didn’t turn them in. (And that is when there are others in the classroom that witnessed the child turning them in.) They will write snide remarks on graded papers and then pass them back out. They will let some student get away with anything and then others can do the same thing and get punished for it. Oh, I could go on and on. I’m not saying that all teachers are like that, but some of them are. I for one say lets go back to teaching like it use to be so kids will be ready to go to college. Stop teaching FCAT. Something is wrong when honor students in high school have to take remedial classes in college their first semester there. But hey..that is just my two cents…
I would like to BOYCOTT the FCAT. Then maybe our law makers would do away with it completely. There is a better, more simple way to test students.
It’s nice to put the blame on teachers and others in the school system. How many parents are taking the time to do home work with their kids? Learning has to start in the home and be done on a regular basis all most every day. It’s one thing to play pitch or to pass a football with your kids, helping them to learn to read and write is another. The sad part is there are parents who can not read or write so they can offer little or no help. At one time I was part of the interview team for new people to work for the city. We had them tested at PJC to see what their reading and writing levels were. We had people with high school or more education that could only read and write at a six to ninth grade level. The teachers are over loaded and when “no child left behind” came alone it got worse.
Okay. I’m going to put my two cents in. I’m an educator in Escambia County, Florida. I am highly qualified with a master’s degree in my field (not education), and another master’s degree in supervision and administration. I have over 20 years in teaching my subject matter. I have taught in both Alabama and Florida, and I have always, ALWAYS, had successful state-testing results in the area in which I teach. I consider it an extreme opportunity to teach your children at the high school level. Here is what I can tell you while I’m on the inside looking out. Teachers cannot teach children who don’t want to learn, and if you, as a parent, are seeing school as a free babysitter for your children, your kids pick up that same attitude and bring it into the classroom. Out of 150 students a day that I teach, I have had many who miss classroom instruction because of whatever reasons (suspensions, sickness, etc.), yet those same students are expected to test and hopefully do well. Parents need to do their share. If you see (beginning in elementary) that your child has a problem with math, get some math tutoring. Keep doing this, until he/she gets it. The same holds true for language and reading skills. Having the teachers for 50 minutes a day is not going to be the end-all to passing the state-required tests.
Of course education is always changing, but the basics are the basics. Two plus two is always going to be four, and a singular subject takes a singular verb. The State of Florida is wanting everyone to become college-ready. We are trying to teach these kids that everyone is equal and everyone has the capacity to go to college, and that college is the epitome of success. This is just a ridiculous way of thinking. We all know that it takes all types of people with all types of skills to make a society. What is wrong with being a person who earns a culinary arts degree or a person who is a skilled electrician? That is a great thing! But guess what? Our state wants these kids to be able to perform at collegiate standards, even when the kid is truly gifted at non-collegiate areas.
I agree. We need to get back to the basics, but trust me, your teachers are working diligently to do their parts (more than you can even realize) in helping to mold your children into successful members of society.
To think otherwise tells me you haven’t been into your child’s classroom in a while.
By the way, pay attention to Escambia County’s Parent Portal. It’s a great tool for checking to see how your child is doing in the classroom (and what is going on in the classroom).
No matter what else, we must resign ourselves to the fact that Santa Rosa County children are smarter than we are.
From Cab: “Part of the problem is schools don’t teach english and grammar or the other subjects included as they should. From the day school starts FCAT is drilled into their heads.” You are sooooo right, there is a big problem. As Cab has stated, FCAT is drilled into their heads………AND STILL HALF OF THEM ARE FLUNKING. I think, again, it goes back to the teachers. If the teachers had been doing their jobs for the last 30 years, the Feds wouldn’t have gotten their hands into it and screwed it up. Teachers haven’t been teaching…just passing everybody through to the next grade. I don’t believe that over half of the students are parts of the dumb masses.
DOE, Florida, parents, students, and taxpayers should be shameful of these results –this is after the test results were dumbed down to the least common denominator.
Something has to change; and it should start at home for parents and students, in the classroom for educators, and at the ballot box for the taxpayers.
These students, like those before them, will eventually graduate and later discover that they had been sold a bill-of-goods which has little redeeming value.
I have never understood why our kids take regular tests and exams during the year when the FCAT can fail them regardless of their report card or make them take remedial class the next year. Part of the problem is schools don’t teach english and grammar or the other subjects included as they should. From the day school starts FCAT is drilled into their heads. So much hype surrounds the test the kids are stressed months before they ever take it. When I was in school we had to write for the Gordon Rule and other projects that helped our skills. We took regular tests during the year and exams. Go back to the A B C’s..
AMEN SAM!!
If the state of Florida would grade them on just reading our scores would be higher, but they don’t, its s mind game. That is why math scores are usually good and reading is so low. I promise most adults could not pass it. Principals, teachers,etc.need to be able to teach kids to prepare them for college instead if having to teach how to pass a stupid mind game called the FCAT. Nothing seems to matter anymore but that, and that is what is wrong with the state if Florida school system.
The dream continues.
When is the wakeup call?
I would like to see if some adults could pass this test. If they can, then we need to get our students back to some serious study habits…less texting more studying!
too much texting, too little writing full sentences. don’t lower the grades. quit teaching the test and teach the subject. it’s called english, spelling, grammar.
what i will never understand is why the state doesnt tell the feds to butt out of our schools. the funding is too hard to resist so we tow the line with their standardized testing and no child left behind bull? this is bullying by the federal government to the detriment of our childrens education, plain and simple. and here is the kicker folks: we dont get that much funding from the federal government. not nearly enough to have them ruin our education system, which is what they have effectively done. lets tell them to take their funding and their testing and shove it. it is not worth it what ever it is. we need to go back to simply teaching reading writing and arithmetic with some art and music thrown in for some culture and let that be that, our teachers can go back to doing what they love and were called for: teaching. the kids can go back to being happy and educated.
I wonder what percentage of adults could pass it.