FCAT failures delay graduation for some

Monday, May 21, 2007

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About 6,000 Pinellas County seniors are graduating this week, but many will have to wait.

Almost 1,200 Pinellas County seniors who failed the reading portion of the FCAT will have to wait to get their diplomas.

"We did have this year some students who have taken it multiple times and have not passed the reading portion of [the] FCAT," said Cathy Fleegler, assistant superintendent for secondary and workforce education for the Pinellas County School District.

Students must pass the reading and math portions to get a standard diploma. Educators said most of the students who fail the reading portion can read the passages on the exam, but the FCAT requires much more.

FCAT Resources

"I can't just hunt for the answer in the passage," Fleegler said. "Many times, I have to comprehend the meaning of the passage enough that I can deduce the answer. That I can critically think the best answers. So, many times they'll actually give you an FCAT answer where all of them may be correct, but which one is the best answer?"

Of the 1,082 senior re-takes of the reading portion, only 206 passed. Of the 451 math retakes, 135 passed.

Educators said even the math failures are because of poor reading skills.

"Many of the math problems involve reading, and so if you're not a good reader, you often can not be passing the math FCAT because of reading comprehension problems, not really math computation problems," Fleegler said.

That's why this school district said literacy is its number one priority.

Students who fail a portion of the FCAT get three retakes during the next year. Otherwise, they'll have to settle for an adult high school diploma instead of a regular diploma.

Educators said test anxiety and fatigue are also factors in poor performance.

All the FCAT scores for Pinellas County students are expected to be released Wednesday.