Comments on: Local FCAT Scores Mixed; Some North Escambia Schools Soar

By: Panthers

Panthers — Tue, 27 May 2014 02:47:59 +0000

Nice score Pine Meadow Panthers!

By: Predra

Predra — Tue, 27 May 2014 00:07:44 +0000

When will parents find out the scores. Some children have been told their scores will determine if they go to the next grade.

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 26 May 2014 15:29:12 +0000

Congrats Molino Park 3rd Grade Teachers!!! Good for you….

By: John

John — Sun, 25 May 2014 13:53:11 +0000

I could tell you how to fix the Escambia County School System but I would be run out of town.

By: John

John — Sun, 25 May 2014 12:38:45 +0000

Give all the teachers the FCAT and post their scores. Oh! that won’t happen as they are afraid half the teachers will FAIL!!!!!!

By: M in Bratt

M in Bratt — Sun, 25 May 2014 12:37:09 +0000

Would somebody please fix the Escambia County School System. Our kids consistently score 20% or more behind Santa Rosa County Schools. It’s amazing what crossing the bridge to Santa Rosa will do for teachers ability to teach kids to read and add and subtract

By: Robert S.

Robert S. — Sun, 25 May 2014 12:34:56 +0000

Thank you for helping me make sense out of these scores.
Of course Parents, Teachers, School Workers, Administrators and Students have all played very important roles in achieving the good scores for the North End students.

Noticed the other day in the NorthEscambia report on the legislature’s progress (This Week in…) that our lawmakers and education overseers are removing all references to “Common Core” from student testing / school grading for 2014-15 and forward and replacing “CC” with “Florida Standards”.

This is seemingly done to ease the concerns of those who were worried that “Common Core” carried too much connection to federal intervention into local control of education. Sort of a “re-branding” of Common Core and allowing some state and local input to the future evaluations.

Parents, Students, Schools you ALL provide an Excellent Opportunity for our students to learn and prepare themselves for the future. Thank You.

By: Single Father

Single Father — Sat, 24 May 2014 20:51:12 +0000

Everyone says Congrats to the Teachers this and way to go teachers that. It’s the kids that worked hard and spent countless hours at night studying for these stupid tests. My 3rd Grader from Molino Park averaged around 3 to 4 hours of homework a night 2 huge math sheets front and back, spelling words, a FCAT booklet, and reading book assignments. These amazing teachers piled tons of homework on these kids to try and get a good score. If the child didn’t complete the homework assigned his citizenship grade was dropped in class. Congrats on the great score teachers it was the Kids and Parents that got you there. Now maybe since the tests are over my kid can come home from school and actually get to be a kid once in a while. Not stuck at the table working on school work all night.

By: Nancy Perry

Nancy Perry — Sat, 24 May 2014 20:14:55 +0000

@ Robert S. FCAT Writing 2.0 us based on a 6 point scale. 6 being a perfect paper. 3.5 is the states cut score on schools earning points for a school grade. The writing only test grades 4, 8, and 10th grades, (this will change next year: FL Standards (Common Core) . So 73% of all the 8th graders at Ernest Ward scored a 3.5 or higher. However, we had on 3 scores below a 3.0. (The scale is a 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0). The are graded on spelling, grammar, writing, etc… To sum it all up…..there were 995 schools in Florida that tested 8th graders and Ernest Ward was 121st out of 995 schools.
Next, as I told my kids aka my students…”the day of the test and yesterday: your teachers did their jib in teaching you, your parents rid there job pushing you, fussing at you, encouraging you, and loving you!! But the power shifted to YOU (the student) on test day. You were in control and you rocked!! I told those who scored a 3.0 and below, I am just as proud of you cause you made gains and you keeping working and you WILL succeed.”

By: No Excuses

No Excuses — Sat, 24 May 2014 19:40:55 +0000

@ Robert: It’s called a Rubric. There are six categories with 6 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. The scores are based on the descriptions for each rubric. For example, if a child scores a “3″, then their writing submission has the features described under the 3 category for the test. If they have a “3.5″, then they have all the features of a three and some of the features of a four. There are usually two different people that read the submissions and then score them. The final score is a combination of the two independent reader’s scores. Hope this helps to make sense of what the numbers mean, at least for the writing test. The GED test for writing is scored in a similar fashion.