NCLB doesn't = college readiness

Florida educators and lawmakers are looking to increase graduation standards and reconsider how schools are evaluated in light of assessments of whether students meeting No Child Left Behind standards are being prepared for college.

A recent article from the National Center for Fair and Open Testing criticizes NCLB for not increasing student proficiency on SAT or ACT admissions tests. Linda Pierce, testing specialist for Hernando County School District, said scoring well on state assessments doesn't mean students will also score well on college admission tests.

"Just because you pass the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) doesn't mean you're college ready - partly because they don't measure the same things," Pierce said. "That test is given when students are in the 10th grade, and they're definitely not college ready then."

College readiness is now one of the factors in judging how well high schools are performing overall. In the past, high schools were graded based on FCAT scoring, leaving some high schools with a "D" score.

Under new guidelines that took place this school year, schools also will be graded based on graduation rates and participation/performance in accelerated coursework and even how they score on exams for college readiness. To help with that, Pierce said starting this year school officials are offering a test to measure college readiness in conjunction with officials from Pasco-Hernando Community College.

With talks on the horizon by lawmakers about reauthorizing NCLB, last month the National Center for Fair and Open Testing took aim at declining SAT and ACT scores as proof that NCLB initiatives were failing, with high school seniors showing "little or no progress" in being prepared for college-level work.

However, 418 Hernando County students last year scored 1,476 when combining reading and math - the highest score the district has received in the past five years from a 989 score in 2005 when 382 students took the exam, according to the Florida Department of Education.

For the ACT, scores have steadily decreased throughout the past five years from 20.7 in 2005 to 19.9 in 2009 as almost double the number of students have taken the test - from 472 in 2005 to 850 in 2009.

Florida also showed overall improvement on the SAT, with the state's combined reading and math score climbing two points to 995 in 2009. The composite ACT score for Florida decreased by three-tenths of a point, from 19.8 to 19.5 compared to the previous year with 11,413 more students taking the exam.

Meanwhile, Pierce said other NCLB changes are being considered, with lawmakers also looking at approving stricter graduation guidelines for students by requiring more advanced courses and tying student achievement with teacher and principal performance reviews.

"It's not all about the FCAT now - there are a lot of things they'll be looking at," Pierce said. "And that means we'll have to come up with more strategies to meet those new challenges."