The release of FCAT scores and elementary and middle school grades showed remarkable statewide achievement amid higher academic standards.
However, despite Floridas continued improvements in student achievement and graduation rates, some, like Congresswoman Frederica Wilson of South Florida, have used a time of transition as an opportunity to draw wild and irresponsible conclusions.
Recently, the congresswoman suggested the FCAT is linked with crime among Floridas youth. To suggest that an academic test is a motive for criminal activity is not only absurd, it demoralizes our education system and disregards the hard work of Floridas teachers and students.
In an opinion piece in the Miami Herald, she wrote, Every time a young black male commits murder in Miami, or even at times a lesser crime, I check their school records to see if they have a diploma. Most of them are casualties of the FCAT. I call them the FCAT kids.
The facts speak for themselves. Since the introduction of student assessment and school accountability, Florida students have made tremendous progress in academic achievement, with gains greater than the national average in the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). Prior to implementation of the FCAT, NAEP data revealed that Florida students consistently ranked near the bottom in reading and math in state-by-state comparisons.
After implementing education reforms, our fourth-graders are now ranked 11th in the country in reading. After requiring that students pass the Grade 10 FCAT to receive a diploma, our states high school graduation rates increased by 20 percent, including a 20 percent increase for African-American students proving that raising standards leads to higher performance.
Independent studies continually point to Floridas stellar performance on the national stage. A recent report released by Education Next ranks Florida second in the nation for education test-score gains. The Decade of Progress report, by the Southern Regional Education Board found that Florida outperforms the nation in fourth-grade reading and math, and shows strong upward trends for low-income and minority students. Education reform has had an especially profound effect on these students.
According to Education Weeks 2012 Diplomas Count report, Floridas Hispanic and African-American students surpass the national graduation rate average by 9.6 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively; with African-American males surpassing the national graduation rate average by 4 percent. Further, Floridas African-American students have closed the achievement gap with white students faster than the national average every year since 2003.
Nowhere in Florida are these gains truer than in the congresswomans own backyard. In Miami-Dade County, the graduation rate has risen by more than 19 percentage points in just five years. African-American and Hispanic graduation rates increased by approximately 21 and 19 percentage points, respectively, in that same time period.
Is there still work to be done? Absolutely. But Floridas teachers and students have worked hard for the gains weve seen so far, and they continue to do so every day. I hope Congressman Wilson will see testing for what it is an annual evaluation, not unlike annual doctors visits. Do those strike fear in the hearts of children and parents? Most parents communicate to their kids that these visits are not things to fear but are meant to ensure kids are healthy and growing. The same should be true for our annual academic checkups.
Florida has made tremendous progress in increasing the value of a high school diploma and the number of students earning them. The tragedy we continue to face is there are still students each year who fail to graduate because they are not adequately prepared to read or write on a 10th-grade level. Instead of hating the test that identifies these students, we should redouble our efforts to make sure these kids dont continue to fall through the cracks.
Congresswoman Wilsons goal may have been to get a rise out of Floridians, but her statements do an incredible disservice to the very families she represents. The congresswoman owes Floridas teachers, parents and students an apology for her misguided and reckless comments.
Patricia Levesque is the executive director for the Foundation for Floridas Future, an organization dedicated to making Florida's education system a model for the nation.
