FCAT, PARCC: High-stakes testing by any other name
BY KATHLEEN OROPEZA
KATHLEENO@CFL.RR.COM
Gov. Rick Scott and his advisors really need to get out more. If they were more clued in Scott would not be out there taking credit for stopping the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Here’s a newsflash: FCAT was always going away. Scott has nothing whatsoever to do with that. Gov. Charlie Crist implemented a plan to phase out the FCAT by 2014.
The truth didn’t stop approval-hungry Scott from starring in a Republican Party political ad denouncing FCAT. “We need our testing system to evolve so there’s no more teaching to the test.” Who can argue with that? Scott’s boys must have been hyperventilating over their own cleverness. That’s brave of them to steal the very words moms and teachers have been saying for years.
Scott goes on to say, “That’s why, next year, our schools will move to a ‘common core’ system.” Wrong