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Schools, Students Gear Up for FCAT
About 150 students at Southern Oaks Middle School in Port St. Lucie spent quite a bit of extra time in the classroom over the past several weeks. The students were not in detention, but decided to give up their television time in favor of reading passages and math problems.
The school, like many others across the Treasure Coast, has held the after-school tutorials as one way to prepare students for the looming Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
Southern Oaks, which fell last year from a B to a C, was the only school in St. Lucie County to drop. Principal David Washington said the extra practice will result in higher scores for his students on the upcoming test, which he hopes will bump the school back up to a B, if not an A.
The drop "was a concern at first, but we just dug in as a faculty and staff and said, 'Here are the areas we need to improve,' " Washington said. "Our writing scores are going to jump tremendously, and my hope as a principal is that our math scores will jump just as high."
The test kicks off Tuesday with Florida Writes!, the writing portion taken by fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders. The students will be given a topic and then 45 minutes to compose an essay.
The meat of the FCAT comes the first week in March, when students in third through 10th grades will endure five days of tests covering reading, math and science. Each test "session" lasts from 60 to 80 minutes and includes a variety of multiple-choice and short-answer questions.
Students, parents and teachers know the importance of performing well: Third-graders must pass the reading test to advance to fourth grade, and high school students must pass the 10th-grade exam to earn a diploma.
With so much riding on one week's worth of tests, educators go to great lengths to come up with new ways to get their students ready and excited.
For weeks, all of Port Salerno Elementary's 85 or so fourth-graders have been called one-by-one into the principal's office.
Their teachers assured them they are not in trouble. Yet, some of the students didn't relax until they saw the big jar of candy in Principal Tracey Miller's office, she said.
But those sweets don't come for free. In return, Miller requested a response to a writing topic in preparation for Tuesday's writing exam.
"It's important for the students to know that I'm interested," Miller said. "It's not just something they do with their teachers, and it's not just a one-time test."
Fourth-grade teachers at Lawnwood Elementary did their best Blues Brothers impersonations at an FCAT pep rally Friday morning at the Fort Pierce school. They dressed up in costume as they led the students in games, in hope of getting them excited to take the FCAT writing test for the first time.
But at Chester A. Moore Elementary in Fort Pierce, teachers have taken a much more low-key approach, said Principal Susan Lyle. For the past several weeks, students have been practicing with the test format and instructions, and each morning teachers share positive messages on the morning announcements.
"We try not to put so much focus on the fear factor," Lyle said. "The children have been working on it all year, since what the teachers teach is the Sunshine State Standards. We just keep telling them they're ready so they don't need to be worried about it."
Last year, C.A. Moore, which has St. Lucie County's highest percentage of students on free and reduced-price lunches, climbed from a D to C grade. This year, Lyle said, she's aiming for a B.
Most schools have sent fliers home with their students with tips on how parents can help prepare their children for the FCAT -- have them get a good night's sleep, eat breakfast and show up at school on time.
St. Lucie County Director of Assessment and Evaluation John Lynch added another:
"If there is a battle over something, like them cleaning their rooms, maybe put it off," Lynch said. "Any added anxiety the kid comes to school with could be a deterrent. They are under enough pressure. Let the room stay dirty another day."
lindsay_jones@pbpost.com, rani_gupta@pbpost.com
— Lindsay Jones and Rani Gupta
Palm Beach Post
2004-02-08
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/martin_stlucie_04524c71064c52f91020.html
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