Flaw Mars '06 FCAT Scores

By MARILYN BROWN The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 24, 2007

TAMPA - Last year's third-grade reading scores seemed too good to be true - and they were, Florida Department of Education officials confirmed Wednesday.

Now, before the department calculates this year's school grades, it has to recalculate 2006 third-grade Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores, Florida Education Commissioner Jeanine Blomberg said. That's likely to delay this year's school grades.

Blomberg also confirmed that some of this year's fourth-graders were promoted based on those inflated third-grade FCAT reading scores. The scores may have affected some schools' 2006 grades, but they won't be changed, she said.

Officials were busy Wednesday downplaying Florida's nearly flat 2007 reading, math and science test scores, quickly upstaged by last year's faux pas that will affect the reading scores of 204,000 third-graders. Parents eventually will get the corrected scores, Blomberg said.

Although the domino effect on the state's massive testing system will take awhile to play out, response Wednesday was swift.

"It doesn't raise my confidence, I can tell you that," Gov. Charlie Crist told reporters Wednesday in Tallahassee.

"I just got briefed by the commissioner, and it sounds like some of the questions may have been a little too easy last year," Crist said. He stressed that he needs more information before passing judgment, but acknowledged that the FCAT might not merit its current emphasis in grading schools and children.

"I think we have to conduct a complete review of how it's graded, and the people who are part of that, and the kind of questions they decide to put forward," he said. "Face facts: It's got to be accurate; it's got to be fair. We will do everything in our power to make sure that in this administration it is."

House Democrats and the Florida Education Association, the state teachers union, called for immediate reform of the state's accountability system. That system's champion, former Gov. Jeb Bush, even weighed in.

"As we hold our schools accountable to student learning, we should also hold the department of education accountable for ensuring the integrity and validity of the FCAT," Bush said in a prepared statement.

Statewide, 75 percent of third-graders were deemed to be proficient in reading in 2006, a percentage celebrated until it dropped to 69 percent in 2007.

Weighting Troubles

The inflated 2006 third-grade reading scores were because of errors in making the 2006 test equal in difficulty to the 2005 test, said Cornelia Orr, administrator for the Education Department's Office of Assessment and School Performance. That includes evaluating the weight of certain questions and their placement on the test.

"It needs to be rescaled," Orr said on a media conference call. "This was not intentional or deliberate."

Responsibility lies with department officials and the test creator, Harcourt Assessment, she said.

Because individual student growth in reading from year to year is an element in calculating schools' grades, the new scores will have some effect on this year's grades.

"Right now, we don't know what effect it will have," said John Hilderbrand, Hillsborough schools' director of assessment, accountability and evaluation. He and others knew there was a problem last month when the state released this year's third-grade state and national test scores and the state scores dropped dramatically in contrast with improving national results.

Superintendent MaryEllen Elia said she was one who took the concerns to Blomberg, which resulted in the decision to recalculate.

As to why no one questioned the high third-grade scores last year, Elia said: "Nobody was going to jump up and get upset when you did well."

Overall, Hillsborough's scores are increasing steadily when this year's third-grade drop is excluded, Elia noted, although sixth grade reading and math and ninth and 10th grade math are slightly down, mirroring state drops.

Statewide, the percentages of students deemed to be proficient in reading and math at all grade levels improved slightly between 2006 and 2007. In high school, just 38 percent were deemed proficient in reading compared with 37 percent in 2006, for example.

The percentages proficient in science increased more in one year but fell below state expectations, officials said, even for a new test started in 2003. Scores showed 42 percent proficient in fifth grade, 38 percent in eighth grade and 37 percent in 11th grade.

Blomberg noted a growing gap in scores of minority versus white students across all grade levels in reading and science with the exception of middle school black students, which remain steady.

"The widening is a definite concern to us," Blomberg said.

School Grade Effects

The release of FCAT scores in May precedes the more dramatic school report card of state and national status that follows in June. This year fewer A and B graded schools are expected, officials said. The lower grades will result from factoring FCAT science test scores into school grades for the first time this year, said Juan Copa, director of the department's office of evaluation and reporting. Another new factor is including individual student growth in math.

Grades translate into extra money for schools that retain an A or improve a letter grade. Failing a national measure repeatedly allows some students to transfer schools or get private tutoring.

As to more failing schools, "I'm not going to predict," Copa said.

The state's formula to determine school grades is complicated and won't include all test scores reported Wednesday. Some scores of students won't count because they were not at a school long enough, have severe disabilities or don't speak English. Districts have two weeks to correct errors, including 1,500 Hillsborough tests with improper student numbers. Some schools will gain points because high percentages of students improved even if their scores are not as high as other schools.

Some principals were encouraged Wednesday by their test scores, realizing that if their fourth-graders did well, last year's inflated third grade scores may not come back to haunt them.

Seventy-two percent of fourth-graders at Egypt Lake Elementary in Tampa are deemed proficient in reading this year compared with 46 percent last year. Impressive gains in all grades except third bode well for the school graded D last year, Principal Lydia Sierra said.

"We had lots of assistance from the district," she said, including money for after school tutors and extra teacher training. And, "Our third-graders last year were a very good group of students.'

Another school that appears to have held its own is Riverview Elementary, a C school where 72 percent of fourth-graders showed proficiency in reading, up from 57 percent last year. Teachers there team up, one teaching reading and writing and another math and science to the same class. It also recruited six retired teachers who volunteer, teaching basic skills.

"We identified every child who needed extra services and we gave them extra services," said Principal JoAnn Collings.

Reporters Catherine Dolinsky, Courtney Cairns Pastor and Linda Chion Kenney and researcher Buddy Jaudon contributed to this report. Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.