I’m still not sure how this is possible???
Despite more than a decade of accountability programs designed to boost students’ academic performance, roughly six of 10 sophomores and four of 10 eighth-graders in South Florida schools aren’t reading at grade level.
Despite more than a decade of accountability programs designed to boost students’ academic performance, roughly six of 10 sophomores and four of 10 eighth-graders in South Florida schools aren’t reading at grade level.
Although they might have been reading at the right level in elementary school, their Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores show big declines through middle school and on to high school. The trend is the same, no matter whether their schools are A-rated or low-ranked.
It’s a problem that continues to vex educators as students throughout Florida prepare to take the FCAT reading, math and science tests starting Tuesday.
Education experts say the drop-off can be attributed to many things — a progressively more difficult test, students’ backgrounds and a decreased focus on teaching students to read in upper grades.
Then there are the distractions, such as playing video games or connecting with friends on Facebook.
“There’s so many other technological advances that they’d rather be doing,” said Laurie Reichow, a reading coach at Falcon Cove Middle School in Weston.
Some students say the school system sends an indirect message about the importance of reading.
In elementary and middle school, “they just pound it on you,” said Austin Hammers, 16, a Boca High School sophomore. “Once you’re in high school … no one really cares.”
Reading is not a mandatory course for middle and high school students who score a 3 or higher on their FCAT reading scores, meaning they are “proficient.”
The numbers tell the story. Only four of Broward’s 32 high schools had at least 75 percent of students reading at grade level in the past five years, according to a Sun Sentinel analysis of FCAT reading scores. That’s compared with 98 of 140 elementary and 23 of 41 middle schools.
Overall in Broward, 37 percent of 10th-graders and 57 percent of eighth-graders scored a 3 or higher on last year’s state reading test. Broward’s eighth-graders performed slightly higher than the statewide average of 54 percent, while 10th-graders mirrored the statewide figures.
Schools have been pouring resources and spending countless extra hours working to boost reading skills, in hopes of turning the numbers around.
Administrators track students’ performances through assessment data, put students who need more help into intensive reading classes, and incorporate reading into other disciplines, such as social studies and science.
Some are even turning to competitions and giving rewards, from candy to gift cards, to encourage students to read.
At Falcon Cove, the school improved its reading scores from 79 percent of students reading at grade level in 2004 to 91 percent last year. It requires all sixth-graders to take reading classes and continues to mandate reading classes for those who don’t earn high marks on their FCAT tests.
It also offers incentives, such as a “Pages for Pizza” program, in which classes earn pizza parties for reading the most books. Struggling readers attend hourlong classes three days a week before school, playing games and learning strategies to help them build on their skills.
Principal Mark Kaplan said the FCAT is only a small part of the focus at the school.
“We’re more interested in creating good readers, not good FCAT takers,” Kaplan said. “If you have good readers, the FCAT takes care of itself.”
At Boca High, where scores have improved from 43 percent of the school reading at grade level in 2004 to 69 percent at grade level in 2009, students earn points for taking computerized tests based on books they have read. Those points translate to magazine subscriptions and $25 gift cards.
For instance, Hammers now has a subscription to Rolling Stone and $100 in gift cards for reading a selection of books, including Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” and Michael Crichton’s “Hot Zone.”
Hammers said reading helps him expand his vocabulary, but he understands why his peers aren’t as eager to open a book.
“A lot of kids don’t look at it like anything that’s rewarding,” he said.
Some parents blame technology for that, but experts contend the decline predates the games and gadgets used by students today.
Elizabeth Moje, a professor of literacy, language and culture at the University of Michigan’s School of Education, cites other reasons. She said reading instruction falls off in upper grades when students are still learning how to read. Yet in those upper grades, the subjects they must study are more complex.
Struggling students also might have a problem getting motivated to take tests.
“By the time you’re in 10th grade, especially if you’re not that great a reader … why would you even work very hard on those tests? We can’t be surprised that we see these drops,” Moje said.
The FCAT is only one tool for measuring whether students are reading at grade level, said Enrique Puig, director of the Morgridge International Reading Center at the University of Central Florida.
“We can all have a bad day, and if it just so happens that you’re taking that test on the day you had a bad day … many things can happen and we’re making that judgment on that one day,” Puig said. “It’s a good instrument, yes. Do we need to look at other things? Yes.”
Copyright © 2010, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-fcat-reading-scores-20100306,0,1669326.story