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Florida school to hold mock funeral for test mistakes to help students survive exams
Here's more evidence of the damage done by people who should be educators relying on scripts and formulas that will boost test scores. The kids are taught, "No more baby words?!?!?"
If that's not enough, they'll also hold an FCAT boot camp.
The sub-head to this article reads, "Practice tests help educators feel optimistic. How do they make children feel?
By Marc Freeman
Roosevelt Elementary School will hold a funeral Feb. 6.
Fourth-grade mourners will file past an open coffin, and a teacher will deliver a eulogy, surrounded by faculty members wearing black at the West Palm Beach campus.
The mortician, Principal Glenda Garrett, said this " FCAT writing funeral" will be a solemn occasion with a powerful lesson. Students will list and drop in the casket essay mistakes such as poor word choices — so they will avoid digging their own graves at test time.
"We bury all of the things we should not do for writing," she said. "No baby words. Throw that into the casket. It's dead. Goodbye."
It's almost FCAT survival season once again.
On Feb. 10, fourth-, eighth- and 10th-grade students will take the writing part of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
The math, reading and science rounds of the state's annual standardized exam are to begin March 10 for grades 3 to 11.
Palm Beach County school administrators said they're optimistic about how students will do on the tests this year. Results of practice exams suggest they will get mainly A and B grades.
No traditional schools are in danger of F ratings from the state, and some long-struggling schools are showing signs of life.
Boynton Beach High is projected to earn its first C, and Glades Central High in Belle Glade should avoid an F for the third straight year and reach at least a D grade, according to a recent district report.
"The schools that have been getting the greatest support are showing the largest gains," said Marc Baron, the school district's chief of performance accountability.
But there is major cause for concern for many of the county's alternative and charter schools.
Seven alternative schools and nine charter schools received projections for F grades, based on the district-run practice exams, called the diagnostics.
"Are we working every day to correct that? Absolutely," said Assistant Superintendent Janice Cover, who oversees alternative education. "We have a serious challenge."
Charter schools, which get public money but operate independently of the district, are "in an urgent mode," said their director, Juanita Edwards.
"We take that information to heart," she said.
It's possible those low-performing schools will avoid grades altogether.
Last year, alternative schools were awarded grades or could be placed in a new category called a school improvement rating.
Charter schools with an alternative school focus such as dropout prevention also could seek a rating of "improving," "maintaining" or "declining" instead of grades. That option is available again this year.
Grades, awarded to regular schools since 1999, carry major significance.
They can affect school reputations. They determine whether schools receive extra state money for showing improvement and maintaining A's; and they can lead to principal and teacher changes because of poor performance.
The federal government also uses the FCAT to evaluate schools and determine possible sanctions.
The district estimated grades for each traditional, charter and alternative campus.
The report took into account this year's FCAT requirements and point system; results of recent FCAT reading, math and science practice tests; last year's FCAT writing scores; and last year's student reading and math learning gains.
Officials said the projections cannot always accurately predict a school's grade.
The main purpose is to identify schools' strengths and weaknesses and to keep what's working and fix what is not.
"We would hope they take action that would change the trajectory of the school and the students," Baron said.
That's what is happening at C-rated Roosevelt Elementary School, said Principal Garrett. Along with the "funeral," the school is staging an FCAT boot camp to reinforce writing skills, and there will be a pep rally before the exams.
Garrett will wear a boxing championship belt and play the role of a famous movie fighter.
"I'll be Rocky," she said.
— Marc Freeman
Sun-Sentinel
2009-01-19
sun-sentinel.com/news/schools/sfl-flpfcat0119pnjan19,0,833799.story
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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