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ERIC Number: EJ795717
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005
Pages: 11
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0740-7874
EISSN: N/A
Go Back and Check Your Work: Recommendations for Improving Florida's Accountability System
Jones, Brett D.; Egley, Robert J.
ERS Spectrum, v23 n4 p21-31 Fall 2005
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 most common suggestion was to eliminate the tests altogether. Less extensive suggestions included shortening the length of some of the tests, making the test scores more reliable and valid, making the test questions more developmentally appropriate, making the test results more diagnostic, eliminating the school grading, eliminating the rewards and sanctions, not basing the school grades on the test scores alone, using the tests as one piece of the assessment in combination with other assessments, providing more than one writing prompt from which to choose for the writing test, and decreasing the amount of reading in the mathematics tests. Administrators' suggestions for improving the FCAT were similar to those of teachers but tended to differ in emphasis. These differences make sense, considering the different roles and responsibilities that each are assigned. We hope studies such as this contribute to the body of knowledge used to make improvements to Florida's test-based accountability system. (Contains 1 table.)
Educational Research Service. 1001 North Fairfax Street Suite 500, Alexandria, VA 22314. Tel: 800-791-9308; Fax: 800-791-9309; e-mail: ers@ers.org; Web site: http://www.ers.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Education; Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Florida
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A