Sunday, February 19, 2012 By Greg Wiley Please take caution that these are not the real answers to the FCAT. - FOX News Advertising Another Year and More Changes The standardized tests that every student in Florida grades 3-10 are required to take are about to become more rigorous due to changes that are being implemented this year. These changes are being added with some other changes to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) that were included last year. A major change that returns from its introduction last year is the FCAT 2.0, which is being used for the Reading FCAT in grades 3-10 and the Math FCAT in grades 3-8. The new FCATs have been designed using new standards from the state called the Next Generation Sunshine State standards. These standards are considered to be more rigorous standards for the FCAT than previous years. For example, reading passages this year will have more questions that require prior knowledge and inferences than on previous FCATs. The new FCAT will also include more historical documents and literature as well as longer reading passages. Scoring for the FCAT is another major change taking place this year. Sophomores now have to get a score of at least a 262, or a Level 4, in reading in order to take dual-enrollment classes. In addition, scores can determine if a student can graduate high school and may affect whether or not a student can enter a certain college. The FCAT Writes is inducting numerous changes to its scoring system this year, such as stricter rules on spelling errors, more stress on strong support in body paragraphs, and the ban of unlikely statistics and the use of onomatopoeia to start off the thesis paragraph of the essays. Due to a law signed recently by Governor Rick Scott, scores will soon also play a huge factor in determining a teacher's salary. In the future, End of Course Exams (EOCs) will soon replace all high school FCATs, which starts with the elimination of the FCAT Math and Science testing in high schools this year. Students in Algebra I will take an Algebra I EOC, Geometry students will take a Geometry EOC, etc. This change is part of a transition that the state hopes to transition from paper exams to online and computerized tests. The FCAT Writes will take place February 29-March 1, 2012. The remaining FCAT testing will take place April 16-27, 2012.   Photo Credit: Bing Images

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