Talk:Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test

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[edit] Arbitrary break

Back in high school, my class test-piloted the FCAT exam. However, we still had to pass the High School Competency Test, or HSCT. However I've never heard of the CTBS or Terra Nova exams, as mentioned in the article.

Anyone know if those tests were given statewide? I don't think they were ever given in my district. TrbleClef 02:35, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

HSCT was for high school and Terra Nova and CTBS were mostly for elementary school. Terra Nova, I believe, was also for middle school. Mike H 22:57, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC)
Of these three, only the HSCT was a state mandate. The CTBS, Terra Nova, SAT 9s, were all selected by districts, who could pick whichever test they wanted for self-evaluation. Additionally, districts could pick the ITBS (Iowas), CAT (California Achievement Test), or others. Districts routinely (well, I should say, Duval County, anyway, where I taught) routinely would switch tests every five years or so to make it difficult to ascertain long-range trends in student achievement; this worked because most of these tests were just different enough that one could say it was invalid to compare this year's CTBS scores with last year's SAT 9 scores. Unschool 22:17, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

This information just isn't correct. Three through ten? That implies that the tests are given every school year when they're not. The Florida Writes exam is also given in NINTH grade. I'd know; I took it. Mike H 03:27, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

Florida Writes! is given for assessment purposes in 4th, 8th, and 10th grade. See [1]. TrbleClef 06:03, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
That makes no sense, though. I'm almost 100% sure we did not have our regular FCAT exams AND Florida Writes! in the same year. We had our practice exam in eighth grade and the real thing in ninth. Maybe they changed it since I did it (1999, 2000). Mike H 06:58, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)
I'm not positive, but I think they might have FCAT Writing now too (which may be the same thing.) But when I was in school (c/o 2001) we definitely took the Writes for assessment in 4th, 8th, and 10th. It may be administered at other times but I believe it only counts towards student success in those grades. TrbleClef 22:13, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
We have FCAT Reading and Math every year from third grade and up. They are now implementing FCAT Science, which I think we are taking this year (I'm an eighth grader, sup) but we didn't take it last year in 7th. FCAT Writes is 4th, 8th, and 10th grade. In fact, i'm taking FCAT Writing tomorrow, which is not only an essay now. There are two parts now: Multiple choice questions and the essay. XHyperYoshimi 23:37, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fcat Must Go

I think Fcat effect students to past this test in order to graduate from High School. It's very struggling for students to retake fcat over and over again. It really hurting students to graduate and (the school grading rate of reading and math.) Students be dropping out and can't get a diploma cause they can't past the fcat. Also students can't go to college to past the Fcat.

Let me guess... you didn't pass? -- Non-user; 2:38 PM 1/11/06
Hey, I even passed, gotten a nearperfect score for a few years, and I still think it SUCKS. --'Nother non user.
Look, the FCAT is the best thing to ever happen to students in Florida. It interrupts weeks of class and pushes lunchtimes up. The only people that fail it deserve to fail.
Yeah, I loved the F-THAT (as nearly everyone in the class called it) for that reason. Nothing like a couple days off of school (thus wasting millions of tax dollars state-wide) to take some multiple-choice tests that don't inidicate shi'ite. 71.106.45.211 04:47, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Hey, jokers, this is not craiglist's political forum. Take your black and white slogan matches elsewhere, please. --Mark 2000 17:12, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Logo?

Considering adding the FCAT logo to the page. (It's the coolest logo I've seen on a test in several years.) Any suggestions?


--ElementC 14:27, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, go ahead, this year's FCAT book design is pretty shiny. 71.0.242.38 03:41, 27 February 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Missing Logo

As mentioned above, a logo was added to this article, but now it has been removed. I am not sure why it is gone now, but it couldn't have been for copyright reasons because it was made by the government.

It's a state logo, not a federal logo. The government works rule only applies to federal logos. However, I agree that there was no reason for it to be removed, it's fair use. GO-PCHS-NJROTC (talk) 01:23, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
  • I was the one who uploaded the logo but the admin said that the copyright was invalid —Preceding unsigned comment added by Darylquban (talkcontribs) 17:06, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Overzealous admins

Full protection until September? Okay, full protection for a few weeks (especially since this is FCAT season) I can see. Partial protection until September? Maaaaaaaybe. But full protection for six months is irresponsible. On an historically static topic like Roman Law or Chinese Emperors I could understand it, but this is the worst use of the protection power I have ever seen in my nearly six months on Wikipedia. 68.17.232.72 (talk) 18:51, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

People get theirs scores and get pissed. It's fully reasonable. Therequiembellishere (talk) 23:01, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
And I don't know what you mean since it expires in one month. Therequiembellishere (talk) 23:03, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
If you look here, you will see that when that comment was written, all indications were that it expired in September. It's been changed since. And no, that would not be reasonable. This isn't an article about the President, for pete's sake. 68.17.232.72 (talk) 23:22, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Exactly, so what's the big deal? Therequiembellishere (talk) 03:28, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
And again, the indication were for April. Darylquban didn't protect the page. Therequiembellishere (talk) 03:29, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] About the test

Okay, the article explains how the test is required for graduation from HS and who is required to pass the FCAT, but it would probably make the article a lot more encyclopedic if this article were to provide more explaination of the sections, and better expain the scoring of the test, other than the fact that part of it is automaticly scored and part of it is manually scored. It may even improve the article to explain the strict policies of the handling of the test and how someone's test can easily be invalidated. GO-PCHS-NJROTC (talk) 01:21, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

On that level I don’t really know too much because I decided not to go into education, but this much I recall from various classes and teaching. Some of this is a few years old though (that is, from 2005), so you might want to verify it to see if any of it’s changed, especially about the school grades
  • There are fairly well defined rubrics for grading the hand scored portions
  • For the longer problems only what’s inside the box are counted: even if there is the correct work outside the box, it’s worth nothing.
  • School grades come from a 600 point scale, with numerical divisions for the letters
  • 300 of those points come from how well students achieve
  • 300 of those points come from how students improve (thus meaning if nobody improves, they get 0 points here and are at most a D school, if they get all 300 achievement points)
  • If the bottom X% (25%?) doesn’t show adequate improvement, the grade is automatically lowered one letter. GromXXVII (talk) 12:44, 20 March 2008 (UTC)