Many hired to grade (Florida) FCAT lack credentials, review finds

TALLAHASSEE -- Temporary workers hired to grade Florida's standardized test for public school students are as likely to be doctors and lawyers as they are video-store clerks, janitors, homemakers or even individuals with degrees from foreign universities.

The one consistency about them is that they all apparently have a bachelor's degree, which a state contract requires.

But a preliminary review of job applications of the more than 2,500 individuals hired to grade the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test finds that hundreds of the graders have no apparent experience as an educator nor have a degree in a field related to the academic subjects that they are grading.

Many of the graders also appear not to reside in Florida, though that also isn't a state requirement.

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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-fgraders10jun11,0,1113343.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla

Are these mostly scantrons (bubbled in sheets) being dropped in a machine, short answers, intermediate calculations as well as final result?

Those of us who aren't familiar with this test have no idea of how to think about this. Judging the graders appropriateness depends on how they are asked to perform. It hardly takes a BA/BS to run bubble sheets through a machine.

essays... :grr: One of Jebbie devious ways on FCAT. The students were doing tooo good on the mark the correct answer part of the tests so he added a written part.

This information is from the Florida Department of Education Web Site:

What kinds of answers must students give on the FCAT?

There are multiple-choice questions on all grade levels of FCAT but at some grade levels students also must provide written answers and complete number grids. Students at Grades 4, 5, 8, 10, and 11 must provide written answers that show how well they understand the skill tested. Student answers to these questions also provide the school and district information about their instructional programs. Questions that require written answers are more costly and take longer to score. That’s why only one test in each grade range (elementary, middle, and high school) and each subject area (reading, writing, mathematics, and science) includes these types of test questions. For some questions in mathematics and science, students in Grades 5 through 11 are asked to find numerical answers and then bubble the answer into a number grid. More information and examples of all types of FCAT questions, the amount of time allocated to each type, and the guidelines for scoring are found on the Department of Education website. (See the publications listed in the “More Information About FCAT” section.)

http://www.fldoe.org/faq/default.asp?Dept=202&ID=667#Q667


Here's a page with sample tests and answers.

http://firn.edu/doe/sas/fcatrelease.html

Here are sample questions from 2005-06:

http://firn.edu/doe/sas/fcat/fcatsmpl.htm

for a few weeks in between jobs. I have never seen an actual FCAT test but we graded either just 2 or 4 problems on the math portion of the test for 3rd, 4th, or 5th graders. I don't remember actually. Anyway, I am not sure how many total questions there are in the math section but us graders only evaluated 2 or 4 questions from the math section.

they were not multiple choice or bubble. the students had to show their work in addition to the answer.

the evaluation was based on a 4-pt scale from 0 to 4 with 4 being the correct answer and showing all work and 0 being no credit.

the same problem was always reviewed by two reviewers. If there was a descrepency say where one evaluator gave a score of 3 and another gave a 2, the supervisor would make the determination.

the requirement was a bachelor's degree to be a grader.

My daughter has been tested by school psychologists who have determined her writing and english skills and abilities are at the genius level (obviously she didn't get that from me). She has been put in special advance classes in high school; she always does well. Now whenever she has to do one of those writing tests on a standardized test, she does average to poor, no kidding. She has won honors for her articles and essays but she is not able to excel when it comes to these standardize written essay tests. I've always believed it was the pressure to spit out a unique, well thought out argument in less than 30 minutes, but perhaps it is the idiots grading them. Who would of thought it?