NEWS

Group wants end to high-stakes testing

Ashley A. Smith
asmith@news-press.com
Parent Lori Fayhee and Lee County first grade teacher Kelsey Lewis talk about ending high-stakes testing.

Kelsey Lewis has seen the stress high-stakes testing can have on children.

The first-grade teacher recently had a crying 8-year-old express how anxious she was for the state exam.

"She's so nervous about the fact that she could fail this at age 8 and negatively impact her education career for the rest of her life," said Lewis, a teacher at Rayma C. Page Elementary, in Fort Myers. "These little ones, they're kids. They don't get recess, because they're focusing so much on curriculum to get it all in before these tests begin."

Lewis, joined with teachers, parents and school officials Thursday afternoon at a news conference to urge people to reach out to legislators and end high-stakes testing like the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

"The testing mania has created a burden on our ability to teach our children with little to no educational value. It has achieved nothing academically, but successfully created a pressure-packed atmosphere on our children, their parents and our educational professionals," said Mark Castellano, president of the Teachers Association of Lee County.

FCAT testing in reading, science and math began Monday in Lee County and Wednesday in Collier. In February, students also took FCAT Writing exams. Following the FCAT, high school students will begin taking state End-of-Course exams they need to graduate.

Lewis said it's possible for a student to receive one week of instruction for the entire quarter.

"Middle and high school students will test the entire fourth quarter due to FCAT, SAT, ACT, PERT, AP exams and End-of-Course exams," Lewis said. "Students are being pulled from class at varying times making consistent instruction impossible during testing season."

PERT is the state's post-secondary placement test.

Lori Fayhee, a Fort Myers mother, who has been keeping her son out of school to avoid FCAT testing said she views the state exam differently from something like the SATs.

High-stakes tests like the FCAT are punitive and don't have any value, Fayhee said, adding If a third-grader doesn't take the FCAT they won't be retained, it's only if they take the test there's that risk.

School grades, teacher evaluations, and financial resources to districts all depend on how students perform on state exams.

"Quite a bit of test prep is going on, not because people feel their paychecks are at risk, but there's a commitment to the students," said Bonnie Cunard, a teacher at North Fort Myers Academy for the Arts. "I know if my students do poorly on whatever is put in front of them, they may be remediated and have to give up on (art, music, or physical education classes)."

This is the final year of the FCAT, which will be replaced next spring with an exam from the American Institutes for Research. However there aren't any guarantees that things will change next year. Utah is field-testing the AIR assessment, which concerns local teachers because of the different demographics between that state and Florida.

"No matter what happens or how many tests we give to children ... our teachers will do their best everyday," said Christy Kutz, Lee's assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. "We're asking for some common sense in terms of high stakes accountability. Give us a time out. We have some new standards, new tests; give us time to get things right and put things in place."

The tests are simply a snapshot of how a student performs on one single day, and the results don't return until at least two months after those students have left for the summer, Castellano said.

A better exam wouldn't be high-stakes, would return timely results and include beginning and end of the year assessments, he said.

"Speak up, call, write, email and tweet House representatives, senators, your governor and let everybody know to untie our district's hands," Cunard said. "... Give us teachers and parents the rights we deserve. Treat us like professionals."

Connect with this reporter: @AshASmithNews