FCAT Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test

FCAT Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test
The purpose of the FCAT is to assess knowledge of the Sunshine State Standards.
It was developed as part of an overall plan to set higher standards in education in the state of Florida during the 1990’s.

The SSS were developed by a group of teachers asking what their students needed to know in order to be successful at each grade level.
Educators asked themselves, "What do we think our students need to learn in school, before they move on? What do we want them to know about math & science? What kind of reading and writing skills should they have?" In answering these questions, the group of teachers created a list of what Florida's students need to know, which became known as the Sunshine
State Standards (SSS).
The FCAT is administered to students in grades 3-11 and consists of criterion-referenced assessments in mathematics, reading, science, and writing, which measured student progress toward meeting the Sunshine State Standards (SSS) benchmarks.
The FCAT recently was modified and FCAT 2.0 was developed. Its purpose remains the same as the previous FCAT.
Score and Scoring (source cited fl doe website)
2012 Passing Score Requirements for FCAT 2.0
• Students in grade 3 must achieve an FCAT 2.0 Reading scale score in Achievement Level 2 or higher, or show good cause, to be eligible for promotion.
• Students who entered grade 9 in the 2010-11 school year and beyond must score in Achievement Level 3 or above on the Grade 10 FCAT 2.0 Reading for graduation purposes.
Students who entered grade 9 in the 2009-10 school year must earn a 241 or higher on the FCAT 2.0 Reading Retake for graduation purposes (this score is equivalent to an FCAT Equivalent Developmental Scale Score of 1926 on the 2011 Grade 10 FCAT 2.0 Reading). This group of students must also score an FCAT Mathematics Developmental Scale Score of 1889 (Scale Score of 300) or above for graduation purposes. After grade 10, there are additional opportunities to earn passing scores by retaking the test(s) if students are not successful on the first
attempt.

Type of questions on the FCAT
• Multiple-choice questions appear at all grade levels of the FCAT 2.0 Reading and Mathematics assessments. Students choose the best answer from four answer choices.

• Gridded-response questions appear on FCAT 2.0 Mathematics assessments in grades 4-8.

* A writing prompt is given for an essay which evaluates writing skills, given in grades 4,8,10
Who takes the FCAT?
Most students, including English language learner (ELL) and exceptional student education (ESE) students, enrolled in the tested grade levels participate in the FCAT 2.0 administration. Administration accommodations are provided to eligible ELL and ESE students.
Additional Information about the FCAT
Florida End of Course Assessments (EOC) are part of the Next Generation Strategic Plan and the purpose is to increase student achievement and improve college and career readiness. These tests are computer based, and also criterion-referenced assessments that measure the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for specific courses. (Source cited fl doe website)

Florida is scheduled to replace the FCAT with the PARCC Assessment which will correlate with the Common Core Curriculum so that our nation will become more unified in curriculum and standards.

I have learned by reading information given at the website, that Florida’s standards have evolved over time and the SSS have become more challenging over time as well. The FCAT itself has moved from a paper and pencil test, to one that can be taken online. New changes are on the way, as our state becomes one of the leaders in
education.
A classroom teacher will gain information not only on how his/her students did on the test, the data will show the strengths and weaknesses each child has, which areas in Reading, Math and Science may need remediation as they are broken down into strands on the score reports. This data should give direction to classroom instruction and remediation. It will also help the teacher determine the success of the curriculum being used and give insight as to what new curriculum he/she may wish to include in future instruction.