Nearly half of Florida’s 10th graders would fail the English Language Arts portion of the Florida Standards Assessment this year according to a set of recommended cut scores proposed Monday by Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart.
The commissioner’s passing score breakdown shows whether or not a student scored high enough to be considered “passing” a particular section of the FSA. Scores are ranked on a 1-5 scale and a passing score is usually any score above a Level 3.
According to Stewart’s recommended “cut scores,” a little over half of Florida’s third graders passed the English Language Arts portion of the FSA.
Per Stewart’s recommendation, 51 percent of the state’s 10th graders passed the ELA portion of the test, which means 49 percent -- almost half -- of the state’s students didn’t pass a test required for them to graduate high school.
Students seemed to generally fare better in mathematics, with 58 percent of Florida’s third graders passing the test. The highest passing percentage was with the state’s fourth graders, with 59 percent scoring a 3 or higher.
The state’s lowest pass rate was in the end-of-course assessment for Algebra 2, where only 36 percent of test takers scored a 3 or higher.
When a standardized test is given for the first time, the Florida Department of Education generally seeks input from educators, school districts and business and community leaders on how to best set achievement levels.
The State Board of Education then takes the recommendations and establishes a set of standards for the test.
Commissioner Stewart’s recommendations were virtually unchanged from the advisory panel recommendations made earlier this month.
“These recommendations are in line with the performance we should expect from our state’s students at each grade level for each subject in order to prepare today’s students for future success,” said Pam Stewart in a press release.
Despite the results, the department says no one test score is used for promotion or graduation decisions. That decision lies in the hands of school districts, each of which has their own standards on retention based on student achievement.
Earlier this month, the department released the long-awaited study of a summerlong validity test which ultimately ruled the FSA made the cut and was an accurate way to measure student achievement.
The report itself was riddled with suggestions on how to improve content as well as test administration procedures, however, leading to some criticisms of the FSA. The department has since tried to silence criticisms by dispeling “misconceptions” about the validity study.
The State Board of Education will meet in January to take action on the cut score recommendations.
See Commissioner Stewart's recommendations here.
