FCAT Follies

I have a pretty strong disdain for the FCAT. Not because of my own personal experiences, but I feel that it negatively impacts the curriculum. This is one of the many reasons I'd like to teach such a younger grade; it doesn't have as much of a focus on the FCAT as older grades do.

The more I learn about the FCAT, the more I feel it does somewhat of a disservice to students, and teachers. While I agree that there needs to be a strong system put in place to determine which schools need improvement and funding, I just don't think that the FCAT is the way to go about it.

My problem lies in the way the curriculum is skewed in order to accomodate the FCAT. Of course, each student should have as much exposure to the determined subjects of the FCAT as possible in order to pass. However, I don't think it should be so engrained into the curriculum that what we do will be done strictly for FCAT.

I have a lot more to learn about the FCAT and it's processes, but from a beginners standpoint, it just seems like somewhat of a handicap for teachers and students.

Here is an editorial from the Tampa Tribune about this topic- Move away from FCAT to improve schools