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Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test

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The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or the FCAT, is the controversial standardized testing used in the primary and secondary public schools of Florida. First administered in 1998, it replaced the CTBS, Terra Nova, and HSCT exams.

The FCAT Reading and FCAT Math exams are administered annually to all students in public schools, only, in grades three through ten. Private and parochial school students are not required to take the FCAT. FCAT Science is administered annually to public school students in the fifth, eighth, and eleventh grades. In the fourth, eighth, and tenth grades, public school students take an FCAT Writing exam (formerly called "Florida Writes!").

The FCAT tests have come under increasing fire from education groups and parents, who accuse FCAT and, indirectly, Governor Jeb Bush, of encouraging the teaching of students of how to pass a test, rather than of teaching students material in the core subjects of English, mathematics, social studies, and science. They claim that the test is designed such that students who know what to look for in the questions get the right answers, even if they lack actual knowledge about the subject. Anecdotal evidence seemingly supports this, as many students in the public school system, whose parents decry the practice of public school teachers annually 'teaching the test' for 6 to 8 weeks before the test is given and wasting class time for teaching core educational material, have increasingly chosen private or parochial schools costing upwards of $6,000 annually in place of free public schools for their children.

Additionally, even those high school students who do not pass the FCAT exam, and who therefore do not receive a Florida high school diploma, instead receive a Florida certificate of completion. In other words you complete the minimum number of credits for graduation but do not pass the FCAT. After 'graduation' you can still readily transfer their credits from their Florida high school to an out-of-state high school, pay a fee of a few thousand dollars, and immediately receive an acredited and recognized high school diploma that will permit acceptance into a Florida college. The rationale is that the credits belong to the student, and not to the state, and can hence be transferred to an out-of-state high school. Several high schools in North and South Carolina regularly market in Florida on radio stations annually during the spring and early summer, advertising their 'service' that is available to 'graduating' Florida high school students who for whatever reason failed to passed the FCAT and were unable to receive a high school diploma, despite having excellent grade point averages and having completed all course requirements for a high school diploma.

Students' results from the FCAT are compiled to generate a rank for each public school under Governor Bush's A+ Plan. Under this plan, public schools receive a grade from A to F, depending on student performance and the degree to which the school has improved compared to its past performances. The higher a public school scores, the more funding it receives. The system is designed to reward public schools for excellence in teaching; however, the program has been criticized by some educators and community members, who claim that program takes funding from schools which need it most. The parochial and private schools of excellence, recognized under federal guidelines separately from state guidelines, and proclaimed as superior by the Federal Government, in fact receive no public funds and are exempt from requiring their students to take the FCAT.

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