There are a number of detailed requirements for gifted screening, referral and eligibility specified under State Board Rules and School Board Rules. In all of these areas, explicit mention is made of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) scores as being integral components. The FCAT scores used for these purposes prior to 2008 were…

The release of School Grades by the State of Florida in the late summer of 2010 created quite a stir. Over 500 elementary schools all over the state dropped at least one grade level. Among those schools that experienced drops, the Reading Gains and Mathematics Gains components seemed especially low. Some of the historically best performing schools…

When one compares summary FCAT data from the Miami-Dade district to other major districts in the State, it appears that student performance in Miami-Dade district is generally lower. However, overall summary data can be deceiving. Part of the reason is that the subgroups that make up each district have distinctly different success rates. One can…

Many states have implemented high-stakes testing since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Yet the question remains whether high-stakes tests effectively measure student proficiency. This report describes a study that compared results on high-stakes tests with results on other standardized tests not used for accountability…

Differences between school reading and mathematics means, rank orderings, and change scores obtained from total-group and sex-dependent norms were examined for students in grades 2 through 9 in a Florida school district. A preliminary study investigated sex-related differences between verbal and quantitative performance of boys and girls on seven…

This document contains sample test items from the Florida College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST), an achievement test that measures communication and computation skills that students should have acquired on completing their sophomore year in college. The sample items in this document test the set of skills that were revised in September 1990…

In 1999, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) was administered to students in grades 4, 5, 8, and 10 to assess student achievement of the Sunshine State Standards in reading and mathematics as mandated by the Florida legislature. This report informs administrators, legislators, and the general public about the reading and mathematics…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss Florida teachers' recommendations for improving the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and to compare their recommendations with those of Florida administrators. Although teachers' suggestions varied as to the types and extent of remedies needed to improve the FCAT, some common themes emerged. The…

Two studies investigated the performance of Florida high school seniors on the Tests of General Educational Development (GED Tests). The GED Test Battery, as revised in 1980, consists of 290 items in 5 subject areas (writing, social studies, science, reading, and mathematics). In the first study, the performance of 1,200 Florida students was…