Jeb Bush's Education Foundation Praises FCAT Writing Exam Rescore

Jeb Bush's Foundation for Florida's Future applauded the state Board of Education's "emergency" action to lower the bar for passage after scores on the FCAT writing exam plummeted this year.

Instead of scores averaging nearly 80 percent, this year's results fell into the 30 percent range. To avert wholesale failure, the board lowered the passage requirement from 4.0 to 3.0 on Tuesday.

The State Board of Educations decision provides stability to Floridas school grading and accountability system, while upholding the higher standards they adopted last summer, said executive director Patricia Levesque.

We applaud the board's decision to protect the integrity of Floridas proven accountability system and ensure district leaders and teachers are provided the information and resources necessary to help each student master critical writing skills."

Levesque said the board, acting at an emergency meeting Tuesday, gave teachers and administrators "more time to do what they do best -- equip students with the knowledge and skills to achieve their God-given potential.

Though the 2012 writing battery is the same as the one administered in previous years to fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders, the quality of students' spelling, grammar and punctuation was included in their writing score.

Students also were expected to write at a higher level than before and use details to support their statements. These criteria -- which were adopted last summer -- were not part of how the writing test was graded.

Parents, teachers and school leaders are on the front lines of preparing students for success. We support Commissioner [Gerard] Robinson's looking into the process by which parents and teachers are informed and included," Levesque said.

"Parents need to know, and teachers deserve the best training available in order to ensure students are confident to perform at their highest level.

See full story here.