FCAT'S Funding Slashed: Will Students Pay the Price?

The Florida Department of Education is slashing the budget for it's state-wide standardized test, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). The things to go? Parent Network – the online FCAT resource for parents, and summer retakes for kids who haven’t passed the 10th grade math and reading sections.

That doesn’t seem like such a big deal when you look at it from the outside, but upon closer inspection, you can see the price the kids are going to have to pay.

First of all, if the DOE dissolves Parent Network, where parents can check their children’s scores, get comprehensive information about areas that need to be improved, and gather detailed FCAT score information, what recourse do parents have if their kids have failed? Sure, they’ll get their kids scores on paper, if the score report makes it home, and let’s face it – if a kid fails the test, he or she is not bringing the score home.

In order to graduate, kids have to pass the math and reading sections of the FCAT, so you can imagine the havoc that would unfold if he or she handed that a failing score to Mommy:

Kid: I failed the FCAT

Mommy: You’re grounded

Kid: But…

Mommy: Forever.

Yeah – the kid is not bringing the scores home.

And just for fun, let's suppose we all live in Utopian bliss - a place where all failing kids bring their scores home without fear of grounding and then happily schedule retakes to learn from their mistakes. As it stands, those kids trying to succeed wouldn’t be able to retake the darn thing in the summer. And everyone knows that the summer is the best time to retake a standardized test, for crying out loud! Cramming the FCAT down the throats of the students smack-dab in the middle of Biology projects, research papers, and basketball is torture. And silly. It's just as easy to have them come to school in July, (well-slept and refreshed) and take the only academic test they'll need to take for the month.

How much does it really cost to administer the test during the summer? Or to allow parents to see their kid’s scores sans whiteout marks and bad forgeries?

I’m no budget genius, but I do know when the price is too high.

Photo © Flickr user luismi1985