While their reading scores have been nothing to write home about, Florida students continue to post top numbers with the FCAT essays.
The state Department of Education announced Wednesday that pupils in grades 4, 8 and 10 scored "historic highs" on the writing test this year.
Our educators continue to rise to the occasion, answering the call of increased expectations for our students to ensure they are leaving school ready for the next step, said Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith.
But, as in previous years, there's a gigantic chasm between reading and writing performance.
In a longitudinal analysis of FCAT data, Sunshine State News compared reading scores of third-, seventh- and ninth-graders in 2010 with the writing results of fourth-, eighth and 10th-graders in 2011.
In every case, writing-proficiency scores were two or three times higher than reading scores, as shown here in a representative sampling:
2011 FCAT WRITING -- percentage of students scoring 4 or above (listed for grades 4, 8, 10):
State: 81, 82, 75
Broward: 86, 86, 80
Hillsborough: 90, 86, 75
Martin: 85, 93, 81
Miami-Dade: 80, 79, 73
Orange: 81, 80, 74
St. Lucie: 84, 82, 74
2010 FCAT READING -- percentage of students scoring 4 or above (listed for grades 3, 7, 9):
State: 39, 34, 20
Broward: 39, 37, 20
Hillsborough: 40, 34, 21
Martin: 44, 43, 29
Miami-Dade: 36, 30, 17
Orange: 38, 34, 18
St. Lucie: 33, 30, 15
Even if every student who scored a "3" or above in reading were included, those percentages would not rise to the level of the writing scores. At several schools, not a single student essay landed in the "1" or "2" range, while the majority of pupils were clustered at the "4" threshold.
All of which begs the question: Why does the same cohort of students who performed so marginally in reading in 2010 excel in writing the next year?
DOE officials caution that reading and writing comparisons are a bit like "apples and oranges," but they acknowledge that budget constraints have changed how the writing test has been graded in the past two years. Instead of two readers, the state is paying the NCS Pearson Inc. testing service for only one reader per exam.
Education researchers say that change can produce higher overall scores because single readers are generally less likely to downgrade an essay if they know they are the sole grader.
"Having one reader reduces objectivity even more and exacerbates grade inflation. (Readers) are aware it's all on them, so they're reluctant to fail people,"
Jay P. Greene, head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, told Sunshine State News last year.
The Buros Center for Testing, of Lincoln, Neb., said no "authoritative source" considered using just one scorer to be good enough.
Other education think tanks, including the New York-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute, dinged the FCAT writing test for a lack of rigor, suggesting that the state's qualitative standards were set arbitrarily low.
Pearson, which has a $254 million state contract to administer FCAT exams, did not respond to requests for comment.
The issue of inflated scores is not merely academic. Because the state uses FCAT results to financially reward or punish schools and school districts, money is on the line.
In light of the cavernous gap between lagging FCAT reading scores and soaring writing scores, the state Board of Education plans to raise the so-called "cut" score for the writing battery from 3.5 to 4.
That, presumably, raises the bar for performance-based rewards next year. But the DOE, anticipating that increase, already reported this year's results on a "4 and above" scale -- and still the sizable performance gap remains.
If nothing else, the writing exam appears to be a leveler among districts with varied demographic backgrounds. For example, the St. Lucie County schools, which tend to score toward the lower end in reading, reported a fifth consecutive year of improved scores in writing and drew closer to higher-performing systems around the state.
The percentage of St. Lucie fourth-grade students scoring a 4 or above increased by 16 points compared to the statewide gain of 13. St. Lucie's eighth-graders raised their scores by an average of 12 percentage points in eighth grade compared to 6 for the state, and the district's 10th graders upped their scores by 2 percentage points, matching the statewide improvement.
FCAT reading and math results for 2011 are due out later this year. These scores on these exams, along with the writing test, are factored by the state to determine school grades.
Meantime, state education officials pointed to what they termed "continuous increases" in eighth-grade writing on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Between 1998 and 2007, the most recent year for which NAEP writing results were available, Floridas eighth-grade performance increased 17 percentage points for students scoring at or above the proficient level, with only four states scoring better than the Sunshine State.
A "proficient" score on NAEP is comparable to a score of 5 on the FCAT writing assessment. Selected Florida students in eighth- and 12th-grade also participated in the first computer-based NAEP writing assessment earlier this year.
See district-by-district and school-by-school FCAT writing results here.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or (772) 801-5341.
