Faults of FCAT

August 25, 2008

Jeb Bush's Foundation for Florida's Future is distributing DVDs titled "The ABCs of the FCAT: A Guide to Florida's Accountability System."

The FCAT, says Patricia Levesque, the foundation's executive director, "is transforming our public schools into world-class learning institutions."

The myriad e-mails I get from Florida's educators -- actual teachers of actual students -- call that claim preposterous. They say the FCAT:

*Emphasizes "minimum achievement" instead of maximum performance.

*Doesn't test the kinds of thinking skills that kids need to master.

*Is too secretive and open to political manipulation to trust published scores.

*Blames and shames educators for things over which they have no control.

*Is making healthy-minded kids hate reading, math and school.

*Plows resources into "marginal" test-takers, to the neglect of the best and worst students.

*Has handed control of education to politicians and corporate lobbyists.

*Perpetuates the myth that "top-down reform" works

*Wastes time, money, teacher passion and student potential at a criminal rate.

*Is blocking development of critically needed programs for the noncollege-bound.

*Reinforces an obsolete curriculum unchanged since 1892.

Anyone who argues that the FCAT (or any other paper-and-pencil test) can solve those kinds of problems and make Florida's schools "world class" either believes in magic or has a hidden agenda.

If Florida's parents really understood what's being done to their kids' brains by FCAT-addled education, their protest would jam U.S. Highway 27 from the Capitol steps in Tallahassee all the way to Perry.

MARION BRADY
Cocoa
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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinio...0,6439964.story