z58\doc\web\2002\09\fcat.txt Florida is proud of the rising student achievement we're seeing over the last four years. Since there is such good news, we thought you may be interested in this information. First, this is new data. The ethnic breakdown of the 2002 FCAT scores have just recently been confirmed by the Florida Department of Education. Percent of students meeting and surpassing the proficient level on the FCAT reading test are rising Grade 4: AA: 23 to 42, Hisp: 38 to 56, White 65 to 74, ESE: 13 to 16 Grade 8: AA: 20 to 27, Hisp: 33 to 43, White: 55 to 64, ESE: 8 to 12 Grade 10: AA: 11 to 16, Hisp: 20 to 28, White: 37 to 51, ESE: 4 to 9 Background Four years ago, Governor Bush delivered the A+ Plan for Education to improve public education in Florida. It was predicated on the principle that we would see rising student achievement if we provided public schools with more resources and flexibility, while at the same time demanding accountability for results. For more information on the vision and policy behind the A+ Plan, visit Results Over the past two weeks we've released reading and math scores from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) that document the rising student achievement we're seeing among Florida's public school students. The chart below details the results. Note that each ethnic category refers to standard curriculum students; Exceptional Student Education students (the learning disabled) of all races are tracked in the ESE category. Here are the major points: First, this is new data. The ethnic breakdown of the 2002 FCAT scores have just recently been confirmed by the Florida Department of Education. Second, reading scores are up. See the chart, but here are the highlights: Percent of students scoring in the lowest level on the FCAT reading are declining: Grade 4: AA: 58 to 38, Hisp: 42 to 27, White: 18 to 13, ESE 75 to 72 Grade 8: AA: 49 to 40, Hisp: 35 to 27, White: 16 to 11, ESE 73 to 70 Grade 10: AA: 60 to 52, Hisp: 47 to 35, White: 25 to 14, ESE 80 to 69 Percent of students meeting and surpassing the proficient level on the FCAT reading test are rising Grade 4: AA: 23 to 42, Hisp: 38 to 56, White 65 to 74, ESE: 13 to 16 Grade 8: AA: 20 to 27, Hisp: 33 to 43, White: 55 to 64, ESE: 8 to 12 Grade 10: AA: 11 to 16, Hisp: 20 to 28, White: 37 to 51, ESE: 4 to 9 Here's another piece of data: the raw number of African-American 4th graders scoring a 5 in FCAT reading HAS INCREASED TENFOLD in four years, from 81 students in 1998 to 871 in 2002. The number of Hispanic 4th graders also HAS INCREASED TENFOLD in four years, from 154 in 1998 to 1553 in 2002. Third, math scores are also up. Again, see the charts. Here are the highlights: Percent of students scoring in the lowest level on the FCAT math test are declining: Grade 5: AA: 65 to 34, Hisp: 46 to 18, White: 22 to 10, ESE 73 to 62 Grade 8: AA: 58 to 40, Hisp: 39 to 23, White: 17 to 8, ESE 73 to 64 Grade 10: AA: 62 to 35, Hisp: 43 to 19, White: 21 to 6, ESE 74 to 59 Percent of students meeting and surpassing the proficient level on the FCAT math test are rising Grade 5: AA: 10 to 32, Hisp: 22 to 52, White: 44 to 66, ESE: 8 to 14 Grade 8: AA: 18 to 32, Hisp: 33 to 51, White: 10 to 16, ESE: 59 to 73 Grade 10: AA: 14 to 36, Hisp: 29 to 55, White: 53 to 78, ESE: 10 to 23 Fourth, there is a debate going on in our state whether FCAT scores should be used to grade schools. Many in Florida and around the nation have taken a position contrary to ours on this issue. Regardless of how they're used to shape policy, there is a broad consensus in Florida that FCAT scores are useful and relevant data. To repeat, FCAT reading and math scores are up among 4th graders (tested over 4 years only in reading ), 5th graders (tested over 4 years only in math), 8th graders, 10th graders, African-Americans, Hispanics and Caucasians. They are even up slightly among ESE (learning disabled) students. This is good news for all Floridians! ******************************************************* 8/29/2002 1998 - 2002 Longitudinal Achievement Data Reading Level 1 Level >=3 GRADE 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 4 Black 58 56 48 43 38 Black 23 26 32 36 42 4 Hispanic 43 40 33 29 27 Hispanic 38 41 48 51 56 4 ESE 75 75 73 72 72 ESE 13 13 15 16 16 4 White 18 17 14 13 13 White 65 67 71 72 74 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 8 Black 49 44 47 43 40 Black 20 23 20 24 27 8 Hispanic 35 30 32 31 27 Hispanic 33 37 35 37 43 8 ESE 73 70 73 68 70 ESE 8 10 9 13 12 8 White 16 12 13 12 11 White 55 61 58 62 64 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 10 Black 60 53 54 51 52 Black 11 13 13 17 16 10 Hispanic 47 38 40 35 35 Hispanic 20 22 22 30 28 10 ESE 80 75 76 70 69 ESE 4 5 4 9 9 10 White 25 18 19 15 14 White 37 41 40 53 51 Math Level 1 Level >=3 GRADE 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 5 Black 65 53 39 39 34 Black 10 15 26 29 32 5 Hispanic 46 35 23 23 18 Hispanic 22 29 44 48 52 5 ESE 73 69 63 66 62 ESE 8 9 13 14 14 5 White 22 16 10 11 10 White 44 51 63 66 66 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 8 Black 58 55 46 37 40 Black 18 20 29 34 32 8 Hispanic 39 35 29 22 23 Hispanic 33 37 47 52 51 8 ESE 73 73 70 62 64 ESE 10 11 14 18 16 8 White 17 15 11 9 8 White 59 63 70 74 73 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 10 Black 62 48 46 36 35 Black 14 22 25 35 36 10 Hispanic 43 32 28 20 19 Hispanic 29 37 44 55 55 10 ESE 74 67 65 55 55 ESE 10 13 15 21 23 10 White 21 12 10 7 6 White 53 63 69 76 78 Comments and reactions?