According to the Miami Herald, there is a bill in the Florida Legislature that will tie half of teacher’s compensation to FCAT and final exams. If this passes, expect teachers to only teach FCAT. Also expect all students to have to take final exams, regardless of grades —no more passes for high school juniors and seniors. Teachers will stay away from schools where the students have historically had trouble with the FCAT test.
When will Tallahassee stop meddling in the local school districts? Let the teachers teach.
Good teachers make learning fun…not drill students in performing well on a standardized test. The emphasis needs to placed on K-3 – where the basics of reading, writing and math need to be taught and learned for a child to have any chance.
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You mean we would actually help our teachers see the connection between student learning and compensation? What an idea!
If people don’t like the content of the FCAT, change it. Our students need to know something to survive and go forward with their lives – even if the federal government just changed the age of entry into adulthood to 26.
Testing has been part of education in America for long before the FCAT. It just fell out of favor with the rise in the power of teachers’ unions in the late 60′s.
I can imagine the average high school student’s answer to a question about WWI. I’m sure it would look something like this:
In WWI, Aberham Linkon faut the British troops cause they threw Americas tea in the ocean. Then he freed all the slaves so they could finally get paid for building the underground railroad. After the war it was the roring twenties and Woodrow Wilson was teh president and they named sporting goods after him. The end.
Dr. Smith:
An interesting example – I would propose that same question be presented to the teachers as a competency exam and the results used to determine retention. I suspect that the results would be an eye-opener.
Competency testing for teachers has been proposed in the past and brought about a strident response from the teachers and their union, including one rather famous remark that there are ‘many wonderful teachers who just don’t test well’. Simply amazing.
Police are allowed to add ‘Request for re-exam’ to traffic tickets, pilots, even private pilots, are required to submit to periodic reviews of their flight skills, etc., so why not teachers ?
I agree that teachers are absent the ability to compensate for family and environmental factors and that associating compensation with FCAT performance is too extreme, but why not have competency testing ?
Here’s an actual high school graduation/qualification test item used in Europe recently:
“American President Woodrow Wilson, at the end of WWI, proposed a 14 Point Plan for restructuring Europe. Either he was (A) Hopelessly naive about political and historical realities, or (B) he was far ahead of his time. Take one of these positions, and develop it factually and logically.”
The FCAT exams are going to cause teachers to develop those thinking skills in American kids??? No wonder so many of our graduate school openings have to be filled with advanced students from overseas!
….Ah, but the “Solons” in Tallahassee don’t have to pay taxes if they don’t actually fund public education!