Posted on 01/19/2011

By McClatchy Newspapers

Saying the FCAT creates more harm than good, a freshman state legislator said Tuesday she is championing a bill in the House that would do away with the annual state exams.

But, kids, don't get your hopes up. It's not the first time a bill has been introduced in the state Legislature to end the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test -- and each attempt has failed.

Still, Rep. Daphne Campbell is not deterred."There's too much pressure on parents, students and teachers,'' Campbell said outside North Miami Senior High School on Tuesday afternoon as she promoted her bill. "The bottom line is the FCAT is not helping.''

Campbell, a Democratic state representative for District 108, which includes North Miami, filed House Bill 71 in an effort to replace the FCATs with the High School Competency Test. The HSCT was used from 1990 to 2000 in Florida as a requirement for graduation. It was given to 10th-graders to ensure they could perform at an eighth-grade level.

"There was no pressure like there is for the FCAT,'' Campbell said. But proponents say the FCAT has given teachers a way -- if imperfect -- to measure students' year-to-year progress and to compare student achievement across the state. Miami-Dade School Board member Wilbert ``Tee'' Holloway said he believes the state needs to take another look at an accountability exam, but does not agree with going back to the HSCT.

"Children don't come in a one-size-fits-all model,'' he said. "There needs to be a better way to hold the children accountable for what they learn.'' Tom Butler, press secretary for the Florida Department of Education, said the FCAT has improved statewide standards. "Since the establishment of the current system, we have seen dramatic increases in our academic performance, especially among our minority and other underrepresented students,'' Butler wrote in an e-mail. Campbell said she agrees there needs to be accountability, but says too many students are failing out of school because they cannot pass the exam.

North Miami 10th-grader Monique Roberts, 15, said the FCAT does not test what students really learn. "It's like the test comes out of nowhere,'' she said. The FCAT tests students in reading and math from third- to 10th-grade. There are also science tests for students in grades five, eight, and 11 and writing exams for students in grades four, eight and 10. Criticisms over the years have led the state to make tweaks to the 12-year-old FCATs, including more rigorous math and reading exams. Now, the state is moving toward end-of-course exams for some high school classes, and new, more rigorous FCATs are being used at the elementary and middle school level.

State Board of Education Member Bob Martinez said he and does not see a chance of the FCATs being eliminated. "There's as much chance of that happening as having a snow blizzard in Miami every day during the winter,'' he said.