FCAT WRITING SCORES

Many of you have called asking about your child's score on the Florida Writes! test.  Unfortunately, we do not have them.  The news yesterday was based on statewide test analysis.  The State Board of Education is meeting today to determine their next steps. The State will send results to the district and the schools after they have determined any changes in scoring that may be needed. Once we have those results, we will send them home with students.
The news that hit the airways yesterday was very disconcerting to all of us.  Our teachers and students at Greenfield worked very hard all year to prepare for all portions of the FCAT.  Our Fourth Graders worked especially hard to get ready for the writing portion.  This year we tried some new strategies that have worked in other schools and we feel that our students were very well prepared for this test.
We know that the format of the test changed this year.  The scoring also changed.  The prompt is always a challenge, requiring the students to write about something they may or may not have experience with. This year the students were required to present more details than ever before.  Grammar, punctuation and spelling were  considered in the scoring of the essay for the first time, too.
Whatever the results, we know our students did their best and worked hard on this test.  The challenges of a new test format and scoring rubric are just that - challenges.  As we learn more about the new test, we will continue to change our instruction so that our students can demonstrate mastery.