Putting Tests First in Florida
Jada Bryant-Roland – the Fort Meyers teenager whose FCAT score was invalidated because it couldn’t be proved she didn’t cheat - gained an ally in her home town paper. The Fort Meyers News-Press editors write:
Bryant-Roland, a 17-year-old honor student at South Fort Myers High School, learned last week that the state is upholding its invalidation of her FCAT because of possible cheating.
Possible? What kind of standard of proof and fairness is that to stand for, and to hold up as an example to young people working hard to succeed? A lousy one.
The stakes for her and for the 50 other accused students in Lee County, 7,500 statewide, are enormous. Bryant-Roland cannot graduate and her educational future is in jeopardy; she hopes to become a pediatrician. Her reputation has also been smeared.
The state is using a forensic testing company for the first time this spring to check the 4 million
