Wednesday, February 07, 2007

State will update FCAT


State will update FCAT, may give it new name

To meet new standards, Florida education officials will rewrite the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test over the next four or five years.

TALLAHASSEE - (AP) -- As students began taking this year's Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, state education officials on Tuesday outlined plans to rewrite the test over the next four or five years to conform to new standards.

The FCAT will be revamped to match pending updates in the Sunshine State Standards for math and changes for reading and language arts approved last month by the State Board of Education. The Department of Education said the test should focus on its original purpose -- diagnosing individual student learning needs instead of being an all-purpose measuring stick.

So far, though, Crist has advocated no major adjustments. He has suggested only that principals get a greater say in which teachers qualify for merit pay under a new state program based mainly on student improvement on the FCAT and other standardized tests.

One possible change lawmakers will consider is delaying the FCAT, now administered in February and March, until near the end of the school year.