After all the jousting over who knew what and when they knew it, 41,000 more Florida students could have passed the FCAT writing exam if the state Department of Education had taken one simple step.

As Sunshine State News reported last week, scores plummeted because test graders actually paid attention to the basics of spelling, punctuation and grammar. Examiners had glossed over those niggling "details" in previous years, thereby ensuring inflated passage rates in the 80 percent range, even as more than half of the same students were flunking the reading battery.

Although the 2012 writing was the same as the 2011 version, the state added a second reader to verify the results. As a consequence, a large percentage of essays received varying scores. Nearly one in four of the exams had split scores of 3.0 [flunking] and 4.0 [passing].

In an emergency session last week, the state Board of Education decided to lower the passing threshold from 4.0 to 3.0 -- effectively elevating the passage rates to their previous stratospheric levels.

But if the board initially felt that 4.0 on a 6.0-point scale was the appropriate level of competence before the test, why drop it to 3.0 when the results weren't as positive as desired? Aside from political pressure from parents, educators and a screaming, ill-informed media, there is no sound scholastic answer.

Because the passing score had once been set at 3.0, the board had a more reasonable and responsible option.

Since 22 percent of the essays -- 41,000 of them -- garnered scores of 3.0 from one test reader and 4.0 from another, why not split the difference, award them a 3.5 and make that the official passing score? After all, who's to say the 4.0 score wasn't the correct one?

This middling calculation would give equal weight to both readers. The state's grading system effectively discounts the 4.0 grade -- which might actually be closer to the mark -- and simply flunked the student.

By lowering the bar a full point to 3.0, the board staged a full retreat and adopted a blatantly devalued cut score. At least a split decision -- 3.5 -- would be closer to the intended mark.

Coleen McDonald, a teacher at Forest Hill Community High School in Palm Beach County, said the scoring snafu was a train wreck in the making.

She acknowledges that teachers "were told there would be increased expectations this year, but there was no training on how the shift would impact the scoring," she told me. "We had to figure out what the changes would do ourselves." Other teachers confirmed her account, while others said everyone knew what was expected.

"I have no problem with raising the bar," McDonald added. "However, the state is now expecting students to produce a more polished piece of writing in the same time frame -- 45 minutes."

"Go ahead and raise the bar, but let's do it in a way that aligns with everything we know about writing," said McDonald, a 26-year teacher.

Not every instructor agrees with McDonald. One St. Lucie County educator, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it shouldn't take more time to properly spell or punctuate essays.

Then again, this instructor notes that some school districts, including her own, have de-emphasized spelling to the point that students are instructed to rely on spell check. Yet that computer tool is not available on the handwritten FCAT test.

As for the proper way to score the exams, McDonald suggested one other step:

"If over 20 percent of the papers received a 3.5, it means one scorer felt the draft passed and one did not. It seems to me if the two scorers cannot agree between a 3.0 [failing] and a 4.0 [passing], then the paper should be read by a third scorer.  

"If the individuals [test readers] who have been trained by the state cannot agree, how do they expect teachers to help students reach the mark?"

For examples and instructions for the FCAT writing exam, click here for the instructions.

And here for the prompts/examples.



Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.