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Florida Parents Beware
Note: If anyone thinks that parents can appeal this process, see: The State Thinks It Owns Your Children His house burns down, his mother dies, and he fails the test. Will the state grant this 9-year-old an exemption?

http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_stories.html?id=22

BARTOW -- As many as 1,000 of Polk County's 6,500 third-graders could fail the FCAT reading test in March and will have to repeat third grade next year, district officials said Thursday.

Principals and third-grade teachers from every school in the county gathered at the Bartow Civic Center and were cautioned to brace for a wave of returning students because of a new state law.

Third-graders must be held back if they fail the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, even if they otherwise received good grades. Students get one chance to pass the test.

Last year, 6 percent of Polk's thirdgraders were held back. But that could jump to 15 percent, said Liz Miles, assistant superintendent for instructional services.

Statewide, the get-tough policy on retaining students is likely to mean at least 30,000 third-graders will be held back, said George Batsche, a University of South Florida school psychologist who briefed the teachers.

School districts around the state know the law will be a big deal, Batsche said, and that "third-grade teachers are going to be the center of the maelstrom."

But teachers and principals already knew they will face angry parents. Letters were sent to parents outlining the new law.

"We are going to do what we have to do," said Kathy Walsh, principal of Garner Elementary School in Winter Haven. "We are going to have to be in communication with parents. They have to understand that this is the law."

The law, supported by Gov. Jeb Bush and enacted by the Legislature last year, is supposed to be a firm standard for promoting students.

But Batsche said the state has made some room for exemptions, including ones for exceptional education students with severe disabilities and non-English speaking students who have been in an English as a second language program for less than two years.

And a student who fails the FCAT reading test can be promoted if his or her teacher and principal can make a convincing case to the district superintendent's office that the student is a good reader.

These are referred to as "good cause" exemptions.

Good cause promotions have been part of state and Polk School District policy for years.

But with a much higher number of failing third-graders, they are almost certain to become a more time-consuming and involved process.

In the past, principals largely handled good cause appeals. Now they must all be reviewed and approved by the superintendent's office.

Batsche told teachers that one way to establish good cause is to show a student did well on two other reading tests -- the FCAT's norm-referenced test, which is given about the same time as the other FCAT test, and the Stanford 9 test, which is given later in the school year.

If all else fails, a third-grade teacher can put together a portfolio of a student's classroom work to demonstrate the student meets state reading standards. The portfolio must show many examples of adequate performance.

"So, it is clear you are not going to just whip up one of those portfolios in five minutes," Batsche told the teachers.

Batsche said the state plans to monitor the number of good cause promotions approved, particularly those involving minorities and poor students, as well as those for students placed in the Exceptional Student Education program.

"We have to be very aware of which kids we `good cause,' " Batsche said.

In Polk County, 69 schools serve elementary students and 56 of those are Title 1 schools, which is a federal designation given schools where a high proportion of the students receive free or reduced-price lunches.

Forty percent of Polk's thirdgraders -- or about 2,600 -- are minorities.

Teachers and district staffers are developing strategies to help third-graders pass the FCAT.

One strategy is to identify atrisk students and make sure they are given additional help -- even if it means regularly removing them from other classes so they can focus on reading.

The district and the state are pushing schools to continue using individualized plans to track the performance of such students.

The School District has applied for a $16 million state grant that could pay for a variety of reading and tutoring programs. The grant money would be spread over six years, with $4 million available next year.

Miles, the district official, said Polk has increased spending on supplemental reading efforts this year by $1 million.

She said schools will continue with morning and afternoon tutoring programs as well as other FCAT-related activities that were developed before the third-grade requirement became an issue.

And the School District has made Gause Academy in Bartow and Homer K. Addair Academy in Lake Alfred special alternative school centers for students who have been retained twice, in third grade or before.

"I really feel district staff wants to work as a team with the schools," said School Board member Hazel Sellers, a former teacher who attended Thursday's presentation.

— Richard Peacock
FCAT Law May Return Many to Third Grade
The Ledger
Jan. 31, 2003
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Site=LL&Date=20030131&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=301310419&Ref=AR&Profile=1039

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