FCAT Scores Among Blacks, Hispanics Up Considerably (Where's the Bias?)

click10.com ^ | 5-16-03 | AP

[cgk]

FCAT Scores Among Blacks, Hispanics Up Considerably

POSTED: 7:38 a.m. EDT May 16, 2003

UPDATED: 9:35 a.m. EDT May 16, 2003

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. -- Statewide results for the FCAT exam show minority students are improving and Gov. Jeb Bush says this is the time to celebrate, not boycott.

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Bush says results of this year's Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test show "rising student achievement" and the value of holding students and schools accountable. He also says black and Hispanic students are much better readers than they were five years ago.

The numbers back that up. In Miami-Dade and Broward counties, results show 41 percent of African American fourth graders are reading at or above grade level, up considerably from 23 percent in 1998.

Among Hispanics, 51 percent are reading at grade level compared to 38 percent in 1998.

All grade levels showed improvement in math and reading scores this time around, except for flat tenth-grade results. School grades will be released in mid-June, after the state does more analysis of the FCAT data released Thursday.

Despite the increases, 15 Broward County church leaders say they will back community activist Bishop Victor Curry (pictured, left) and his call for a boycott to support 12,000 Florida seniors who failed the exam and may not graduate.

"Some of these young people have grade point averages of 3.89. They are valedictorians. So, we're not talking about intelligence here, we're talking about pressure, unnecessary pressure," Curry said.

If students aren't given a pass on the FCAT graduation requirement within the next week, Curry says a boycott of the state's tourism, citrus and sugar industries will begin next Thursday.

"The notion of boycotting success to me seems backwards," Bush said, adding that the boycott threat was "politically motivated."

"I'm sick and tired of hearing people say that somehow some kids of color can't learn when we're proving it day in and day out in the classrooms of Florida that it's not the case," he said.

[FreedomPoster]

>>what we are talking about is the soft racism of low expectations.

I like that. I may use that in the future. Well put.

[Irene Adler]

"Some of these young people have grade point averages of 3.89. They are valedictorians."

I don't believe this statement. I run a freshman-entry scholarship program, which is limited to senior high-school students in the top 15 percent of their classes, at a medium-sized university, and 3.89 is a VERY LOW gpa for a valedictorian. I know this because the students list their achievements on their applications, and the valedictorians are all 3.98s (at the very lowest) to 4.0s. Given pervasive grade inflation over the past 20 years or so, that's just the way it is.

"I think that when I see someone with a 3.89 average unable to pass a lowest-common-denominator standardized test, what we are talking about are kids who were passed up through the public school system without actually having to learn anything."

You are right about this.

[CGTRWK]

Poor kids are coming out of 12 years and $80,000 of public schooling as borderline illiterates who are hardly fit to bag groceries. Nobody cares.

But when we try to do anything about it, the start of which is testing to confirm just how badly the public schools monopoly has failed these kids, outrage. Not from "rich racist republicans" but from the very people who are being kept dependent and stupid.

[FITZ]

The minority leaders calling for a boycott of this "biased and racially discriminating test"

A standardized test cannot racially discriminate. There is no book or dictionary that is limited to people of the white race. It's interesting Asians are not crying racism over these tests ---only the blacks and hispanics are.

[george wythe]

In Florida it is possible for high schoolers to have a GPA greater than 4.0, because certain courses allow students to get A++.

Therefore, valedictorians often have a GPA even higher than 4.0

[Lil'freeper]

Well, if the FCAT includes test items like this PSAT question, there's no reason for these people to complain about bias.

[cgk]

"Dayside with Linda Vester" (FNC) is on in the background, and now I am starting to possibly understand a bit more about why these kids (14,000 of them) faced not graduating because they couldn't pass the FCAT. Aside from just being too lazy, of course.

Apparently, cheating is on the rise. Here is just one of Dayside's quoted statistics: 50% of 7th graders admit to cheating. Those are just the ones who admit it. They aren't learning anything when they cheat, which may be why they aren't retaining information that would help them with these tests.

Probing for Plagarism

A national survey published in Education Week found that 54 percent of students admitted to plagiarizing from the Internet; 74 percent of students admitted that at least once during the past school year they had engaged in "serious" cheating; and 47 percent of students believe their teachers sometimes choose to ignore students who are cheating.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Minority leaders calling for a boycott of this "biased and racially discriminating test"

Should read:

Minority leaders calling for a boycott of this "biased and racially discriminating test" the most possible advantages using the get-out-of-jail-free-for-life cards granted them.

[Beck_isright]

""Some of these young people have grade point averages of 3.89. They are valedictorians. So, we're not talking about intelligence here, we're talking about pressure, unnecessary pressure," Curry said."

Translation:
If you don't give us a handout we're going to riot. We deserve reparations and a free diploma. No wonder Clarence Thomas is so ashamed and sick of some of these so-called "black leaders". They don't want to advance anything but their own bank accounts.

[eggman]

"Some of these young people have grade point averages of 3.89. They are valedictorians. So, we're not talking about intelligence here, we're talking about pressure, unnecessary pressure," Curry said.

Pressure to do what? Show that they indeed have learned something in school rather than just being handed good grades?

If these kids can't pass a test after 5 tries, they obviously haven't learned much. The school is sending them out into the real world where they will likely get only one chance to prove their ability to do a job. Eliminating the test or further lowering already low standards will not allow these children to succeed.

The problem for many of these kids is motivation. Giving them a pass as Curry wants to do is just demotivating other students who worked hard to pass the test. After all, why work hard when you don't have to.

[cgk]

The school is sending them out into the real world where they will likely get only one chance to prove their ability to do a job

And if they can't pass this 1 test after 5 attempts, if they are able to fill out a job application (forget a resume), how are they going to handle on-the-job training? Employers, as far as I know, don't give you 5 shots to get your job right if you continue to make mistakes.

[DaBroasta]

In Florida it is possible for high schoolers to have a GPA greater than 4.0, because certain courses allow students to get A++.

I'm not sure about the A++ thing, that sounds like something they'd subjectively do in Broward county. In our county high schoolers can take advanced placement (AP) courses, which are more challenging academically (basically college level courses) than the standard courses taught to HS students and therefore are weighted, which accounts for GPAs above 4.0.

[george wythe]

Thank you for the information.