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Jeb Fudging on His Scores
Gov. Bush correctly says that results showing Florida's fourth-graders improved reading scores in the last school year come as good news. He also correctly gave some credit to the FCAT. The governor, however, did not put all this good news into the correct perspective.
The improved scores were on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which because of federal mandates was given last year in each state. A sample of Florida students was measured in the fourth and eighth grades. While the governor singled out the fact that fourth-graders beat the national reading average by two points, he downplayed the fact that eighth-grade reading scores declined four points. Fourth-graders tied the national average in math. Eighth-graders scored below the national average in reading and math.
The NAEP results are a very narrow improvement. They indicate nothing about achievement in the other grades and nothing about achievement in biology, physics, chemistry, history or art. The scores do not answer criticism that the huge emphasis on FCAT drains attention from those subjects.
The NAEP uses a national standard. The FCAT uses Florida's standards. In praising the NAEP as "the nation's report card," Gov. Bush did not acknowledge conflicts with the FCAT. For example, Gov. Bush said the most recent FCAT scores showed that 60 percent of fourth-graders are proficient readers. But the NAEP results show that only 32 percent are proficient. Gov. Bush's most self-serving claim is that the NAEP vindicates his A+ Plan, which added shame-based school grades and vouchers to what had been a broadly supported FCAT plan. He never gave the simple FCAT a chance. He never has given adequate spending a chance.
The governor also was fudging when he claimed success for using the FCAT to fail a record 13,000 third-graders last spring. That get-tough policy could not have affected scores on NAEP tests given last winter. And though he says Florida is "the only state that has the guts" to fail third-graders who don't meet standards, his administration delayed higher standards scheduled for next year so the already unpopular policy won't fail more students and possibly hurt his brother's reelection bid.
Gov. Bush has left education spending flat and introduced onerous punishments while producing what at best is a modest bump in reading ability. How much better could the state do if Gov. Bush cared more about how students score on legitimate measures than how he scores politically?
— Editorial
Jeb fudging on his scores
Palm Beach Post
2003-11-24
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/auto/epaper/editions/monday/opinion_f30ccfac76fe60ed00cb.html
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