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Hernando Today

FCAT Scores Show Gains in Math, Reading

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By LINNEA BROWN

Hernando Today

Published: May 21, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Local administrators and teachers breathed a collective sign of relief Wednesday with the release of the district's third-grade Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test math and reading scores, which show gains since last year and are above the state's average.
About 76 percent of Hernando County third-graders performed well on the reading exam, up two percentage points from last year and 4 percent higher than the state average.
In math, 78 percent of local third-graders scored at or above grade level — or level 3 — marking an increase of 2 percent since last year and 2 percent higher than the state average.
The number of students who did not pass the test also dropped from 15 to 12 percent. The state average of students scoring a level 1 or below is 16 percent.
"It's good news because there are fewer of them this year," said Linda Peirce, the district's testing specialist.
About 225 Hernando County third-graders failed the test, meaning they may have to repeat third grade.
However, students who failed — or scored a level 1 out of 5 — have six other options for advancement, including passage of sanctioned alternative assessments, a state-approved portfolio and mastery of certain learning benchmarks throughout the year.
Other exemptions can be obtained by students who have been in the district's English Learners of other Languages program for less than two years, as well as students with disabilities who have already been retained once or standard students who have already been held back twice.
The top school in Hernando for reading improvement was Westside Elementary School, where the number of students scoring a level 3, or above, improved by 14 percent since last year. Students at Brooksville Elementary and Challenger K-8 also improved by 9 percent.
In math, Eastside Elementary students improved by 11 percent, Spring Hill Elementary improved by 8 percent and Chocachatti improved by 5 percent.
Across the district, the improvements are even more significant when noted over time, Peirce said.
Since 2002, Hernando County third-graders have improved 9 percent in reading, with numbers jumping from 67 to 76 percent of students scoring a level 3 and above in 2008.
In math, students have improved by 13 percent, jumping from 65 percent to 78 percent in six years.
The percentage of Hernando students failing the reading portion of the test has decreased by 6 percent, down from 18 percent in 2003, when the state began keeping track.
Debbie Pfenning, a curriculum specialist for the district, attributed the improvement to efforts by reading coaches at the district's elementary schools and professional development opportunities offered to teachers.
"Our reading coaches go into classrooms and model effective reading instruction for teachers, we take advantage of state-offered professional development for (elementary) teachers and we also pay close attention to the data and respond to individual student's needs," she said.
While most of the schools did not note significant decreases, Moton Elementary students sank 6 percent in reading and Suncoast Elementary sank 6 percent in math.
But there are usually many reasons for scores going down, particularly shifts in demographics, Peirce said.
"Initially, it's so hard to determine why a school may have had a decrease," she said. "We really have to study or look at all the variables before we make any determinations, but I'm sure reading coaches and principals are already analyzing the data."
This is the third batch of scores from the annual state standardized test, which is part of the formula used to compute Florida's annual school grades.
The math portion of the test includes sections on number sense, measurement, geometry, algebraic thinking and data analysis. The reading portion consists of sections on words, purpose, comparisons and research.
Hernando's results for the writing portion and retake tests were released last week.
Science scores and reading and math results for students in fourth through 10th grades will be released in early June, with school grades released in July.
Beginning at 6 a.m. Friday, parents can view their students' scores online at www.fcatparentnetwork.com using a login and password provided by their school. Printed reports, including individual student reports, school reports and district and state reports, will be delivered to school districts next week.
For more information, go to www.fldoe.org.

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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