I Am Graham

With the FCAT and No Child Left Behind, schools are heavily pressured to double their efforts as a school, and improve their scores and ratings. This seems like a good idea, but there are a few idiotic things about it.

Doing well is rewarded, doing poorly is punished.

Receiving high scores on the FCAT gets the schools money, whereas schools doing poorly has money taken away. By "punishing" these schools, they are making it more difficult for them to hire better teachers, improve their facilities, or purchase higher quality learning tools (books, etc). Taking away their money starts a vicious, vicious cycle.

A proposed alternative would be an award system that didn't necessarily involve money (unless it was increasing budget for a poorly performing school) but was a desirable level to achieve. This way, schools that need money most are getting what they need, not being punished by the state, receiving less money, doing even poorer, and the vicious cycle starts again.

Teachers are pushed and required to do FCAT practice

Most (if I may) math and English teachers are teaching to the FCAT. They spend their entire school year preparing specifically to the test, and not covering useful topics or skills. They teach a specific format, and pound it into your head all year long for the hopes of you doing well on the test. These skills won't be remember, simply used and discarded.

Effective?

A little bit of history, I had Ms. Currie all three years in Middle School. She was a fantastic teacher, and hardly ever mentioned the test. When she did, it was mostly in disdain and it was a requirement from the office. My Freshman year in High-School was Mr. Friend. A very different style of teacher, yet still a quality teacher. He had a very similar outlook on the FCAT, and it was hardly mentioned as well.

Both of these teachers taught the mandatory FCAT "preparation", but worked it into the work we were doing anyway.

I had a teacher like that my Sophomore year, and boy do I have news for you. My average increase of score dropped on the Sophomore FCAT test. My score, which was steadily rising, took a stumble that year. This method is not effective.

Remedial Math & Reading

The Florida government made it a requirement that all students who didn't get higher than a 3 on Math or Reading FCAT tests, they would be required to take a remedial class for the test they didn't do well on. For the rest of their high school career. Forever. Not only that, the class is two periods long. Two.

Say for example I were to pass the FCAT reading and math tests, both with a 3. After that year, I would be thrown (by law) into a remedial reading and math class. My schedule would look like this:

1. Remedial Math (1)
2. Remedial Math (2)
3. Remedial English (1)
4. Remedial English (2)
5. Social Studies
6. Science

Without time for electives or any optional classes, I would be stuck in classes that I most likely didn't enjoy one bit. I would have no motivation for school for the rest of my high-school career, and would most likely drop out and get a G.E.D. In fact, that option is looking more promising every time they FCAT "requirements" and "standards" are increased.

Further Ailments

The Florida government has recently cut budget for Florida schools, and in response, local schools have cut several programs, and dozens of teachers.

Orange county has canceled all of the arts from their middle schools. Another Orange County school, Timber Creek High School also canceled all of their choral programs for next year.

Oviedo High School is cutting 23 teachers, and reeling back on their funding for several important ventures.

FCAT is creating a requirement that is irrelevant and frivolous. It's trying to meet a false requirement, and teaching them how to take a test - and not teaching them real life skills. They are useless, and not ever going to be used again. The questions asked aren't useful, and cover too many topics to be effective.