Posted on 06/16/2003 10:17:54 AM PDT by mhking
MIAMI -- The graduation ceremony for Miami Edison High School's class of 2003 seemed normal enough. The band played "Pomp and Circumstance." Platitudes were uttered about the future. Parents cheered and cried as their children's names were read aloud.
What made this commencement ceremony different, though, was that most of Miami Edison's 480 seniors didn't actually graduate.
Most of the students who didn't graduate haven't yet passed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, the Sunshine State's high-stakes exam. This year, for the first time, seniors must pass the FCAT in order to graduate. So, instead of diplomas, most students got a "certificate of achievement" during Thursday's ceremony.
Miami Edison is a severe example. Statewide, about 13,000 students failed the FCAT and more than one-third of those are in Miami-Dade, the nation's fourth-largest school system. While some who failed may not have had the necessary credits to graduate, many did. Additionally, more than 40,000 Florida third-graders are at risk of being held back because they didn't pass the reading portion of their exam.
Gov. Jeb Bush and other state officials believe the FCAT is a way to improve Florida's schools. The governor says it's important to hold students and their schools accountable.
This may sound familiar.
Georgia's state school reform also uses high-stakes tests. Starting next year, third-graders must pass the reading portion of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test to be promoted. As for seniors, Georgia's graduation exam is expected to get tougher in the next few years. And No Child Left Behind, the massive federal school reform effort, requires that all states use high-stakes exams to determine the success of schools and school systems.
"We're kind of a test lab, the petri dish," said John Schuster, a spokesman for Miami-Dade County Schools. "Other states, they are going to be realizing the same things that we are."
In Florida, the FCAT results have sparked protests across the state. Critics say the exam should not be the sole barometer of a student's success and some feel that the test is skewed against minorities and immigrants. A majority of those who did not pass are black and/or Hispanic.
There have been large demonstrations and a lawsuit is being considered. And a group -- called the FCAT Protest Coalition -- is organizing a boycott of the state's major industries, including theme parks and orange juice.
"One test should not determine whether you receive a diploma," said Bishop Victor T. Curry, a charismatic pastor and talk radio show host who is leading the protest coalition. "These people aren't really concerned about our children. They basically just want to raise barriers."
Accountability banner
The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test has been around since 1998, but this was the first year it had teeth. Bush and the state's educational leaders see it as a way to identify flagging schools and assure that students learn.
"It is our responsibility to make sure these are students who can succeed in the work force or higher education institutions," said Alia Faraj, the governor's spokeswoman. "We just need to make sure students are ready for what's out there."
She said the governor wants to make sure, for instance, that students are reading at a 10th grade level before they graduate. A previous graduation exam tested at an eighth grade reading level, she said.
Students in grades three through 10 have to take the reading and mathematics FCATs. There are also tests in writing and science that are given to certain grades. A majority passes.
Last month, Bush hailed statewide increases in the test scores. "We have seen continued rising student achievement across the state, regardless of ethnic background," said Bush, who is the president's brother. "These results prove that our common-sense approach to education reform through accountability works."
Additionally, Faraj said, a student could take the exam several times in 10th, 11th and 12th grades if he or she hasn't passed and will get the necessary instruction and tutoring.
While scores have crept up, Dade County has struggled. The county has a huge immigrant population -- mostly Cubans and Haitians. Many of these students have had sporadic schooling in their home countries when they are placed in the county schools. Add to that the normal city issues of poverty and crime that make learning difficult.
"These are things that the state refuses to look at," said Stephanie Desir-Jean, a Haitian community activist in neighboring Broward County. "The governor refuses to look at these things. You can't use one sweeping measure."
Growing anger
Protests over the FCAT started several weeks ago in the Miami area.
On May 8, about 300 Miami Senior High School students peacefully demonstrated over the exam's importance to their graduation. There was talk that some parents would even keep their children from taking the test this year, but such a boycott never happened. But as students began receiving their scores, simmering discontent turned to loud anger.
The May 22 protest started at Curry's sprawling New Birth Baptist Church in Opa-locka. According to an account in the Miami Herald, a procession of about 500 cars that stretched five miles long moved from the church to Florida International University, the site of the governor's Miami office. Protesters chanted, "Standards, yes! FCAT, no!" outside his office and Curry delivered a petition with thousands of signatures urging the governor to reconsider his testing policy.
Civil rights leaders are still considering a lawsuit. Donald Jones, a University of Miami professor and a civil rights lawyer, is preparing a case. He said students in poor, mostly minority neighborhoods don't get the same education as wealthier students. They don't have the same type of facilities or the same quality of teachers, he said, and they often don't have the same technology available at home, like a personal computer. So, to hold them to the same standards as other students is unfair, he said.
"I'm baffled by the cruelty of the test," Jones said. "There is no equal opportunity to learn. There is no level playing field."
The protest that is getting the most attention, however, is a threatened boycott of Florida's biggest industries. The idea has received national media attention and support for a boycott has been building among community leaders. The FCAT Protest Coalition planned to announce the details of the boycott Friday -- the same day the state was to release its annual A, B, C, D, and F grades of schools. But the grading was delayed, so Curry and the other organizers decided to wait, members of the protest group said.
The most likely targets of a boycott would be theme parks, such as Disney World, and orange juice, according to Curry.
"The governor is very stubborn," he said. "The only thing he listens to -- like his big brother -- is money."
Bush's office said a boycott wouldn't work.
"The governor is not going to back down on the FCAT," said Faraj, the spokeswoman. "They are defending failure. We're advocating success."
The future
Small adobe-like homes, many clad with iron bars, line the streets of Little Haiti, a poor section of Miami. Chatter on the streets is often in Haitian Creole or French instead of English. Past small gritty businesses along 62nd street, Miami Edison Senior High School stands like a fortress in the middle of the neighborhood.
But Thursday, Miami Edison's seniors were several miles and a world away.
They filed into the Jackie Gleason Center for the Performing Arts, an art deco convention center on tony Miami Beach, for the graduation.
State Sen. Frederica Wilson (D-Miami) a former principal and member of the FCAT Protest Coalition, was one of the dignitaries. In a speech she congratulated the seniors, but then offered sympathy to the students "caught in the quagmire" of high-stakes exams. And she made a bold promise.
"I'm going to guarantee you as I'm standing here today that each and every one of you will receive a standard diploma," she declared.
Parents stood and cheered. The graduates whooped with delight.
Wilson and other politicians are promising to champion legislation that would reduce the importance of the FCAT -- or at least give students another way of getting a diploma. At an upcoming special session, Bush may call for debate on a bill that would allow the results of other tests, such as the ACT or SAT, to be used toward graduation for some students. The measure died in the state legislature a few weeks ago.
The state called for all districts to offer third-grade reading camps this summer so students in danger of being held back can get the skills they need to move up.
Meanwhile, the seniors will have another chance to pass the exam. Dade County, like other Florida school systems, will offer intensive instruction to students over the next two weeks. Then, students will take the exam again. A coalition of community groups is offering additional tutoring to students as well.
Alex Beauchard proudly strutted around after Miami Edison's graduation, showing anyone who would look the word "diploma" on his certificate. He took the FCAT several times, he said, but couldn't pass the math. He passed on his last attempt before graduation.
"It was either win or go home," he said. "I worked too hard for this."
The Miami Edison seniors who didn't graduate Thursday received words of encouragement from their valedictorian, Christelle Michel.
"A single test," she said, "does not determine your success in the future."
On the other hand, I expect that the Florida test is pretty easy for someone who paid attention in school. Most of those who failed probably had no business passing high school anyway and their diplomas would have been a fraud.
In other words, if you are marginally literate, you'll pass.
Then intimate with a "wink, wink" that even if they fail the test again, they'll eventually get that diploma.
Then go to work on trashing Jeb for demanding achievement and learning.
I think I'm going to be sick!
Leni
What a nice example to set for the kiddies. Testing is cruel! Unfair! Level playing fields? While they're at it, why not end all competition - no winners or losers allowed! That would be cruel!
These over-achievers will get a gubmint check to sustain them.
They will be assembling your burrito at Taco Bell, so don't offend 'em!
While noting that the real world is truly not fair, and those with subpar educations will be truly "left behind" -- one of the clearest indicators of student success is parental involvment. Affluent parents are more interested and invested in the academic success of their children, and this manifests itself everywhere. For one thing, many affluent parents simply have more time to spend with their children on schoolwork than lower-income (and predominantly single-parent household) parents.
So... one of the things that these "cruel" tests will identify is areas where the parents aren't heavily involved with the academic success of their children or the academic stature of the school that they attend. Which means, unless something is done about the area, the schools in that area will continue to show this type of failure rate for their students. I.e., the playing field, societally, is not level. So what's a good plan to improve the area --> which will improve the parents --> which will improve the schools --> which will improve the graduation rate?
It's not just about giving the kids a pass/fail test.
BUMP
Parents stood and cheered. The graduates whooped with delight.
Will they vote her out is she fails to live up to this promise???
It amazes me that parents would cheer the awarding of a diploma these IDIOTS never earned. Yes, idiots... I've seen the FCAT test, and a 9th grader with basic algebra can pass it.
"These are things that the state refuses to look at," said Stephanie Desir-Jean, a Haitian community activist in neighboring Broward County.
This seems like a reasonable request. Whites are way too eager to push "school integration." Why are we pushing these "students of color" into white schools and judging them with white standards?
And don't get me started with water fountains...
Sounds like the same old overused excuse being used once again to try to explain why blacks and Latinos often don't do well on these types of tests. If you can't motivate the student to study harder so that he can do better on the test, then attack the test itself as being the problem if the student doesn't pass it.
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