Current Event: Florida Seniors Not Graduating

I had a humanities class we had to write a Current Events for:

In an article released in June via the Fox news network, an estimated ten percent of Florida’s high school seniors did not pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and were kept from receiving diplomas last month (May, 2004).  This percentage is an estimate, as State officials have not officially released the final numbers for the total amount of non-graduating students.  In April, however, the State officials speculated that nearly 10 percent, about 14,500, of the state’s 12th-graders were to be denied diplomas for May’s graduation ceremonies.

Although the number of non-graduating students is higher than last year’s quantity of 13,000, it is unclear as to whether the performance of the students has decreased, or if the increase in the number of enrolled students is a factor.

Also stated in the Fox news report are comments from Orlando representatives from both the Senate and the school board regarding using alternative testing results, such as from the with passing scores on the SAT and ACT tests (which are standardized college entrance exams). The FCAT may not be the best test for everyone. This possibility gives senior students more options for fulfilling graduation requirements.

About 10 percent of Florida's senior high school students had low test scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, resulting in their diplomas being held from

them. The move comes amid a last-minute effort by the Legislature to ease testing rules so the seniors could graduate instead of being held back. Fox News reported that state officials have not yet released the final numbers, but in April, they speculated that nearly 10 percent — or about 14,500 — of the state's 12th-graders were to be denied diplomas for May graduations because they failed the FCATs.

That's a higher number than the approximately 13,000 seniors who failed to pass the tests last year. Officials said the increased figures were partly due to higher mandated scores on math and reading portions of the test. Others say an increase in Florida's school population contributed to the higher number of non-graduating seniors, said Fox News.

Critics of the FCATs say the test is not an accurate measure of a student's learning ability and unfairly put minority students at a disadvantage. Of the 13,000 seniors who did not get diplomas last year, a majority were Hispanic and black.  

 If the quantity of students enrolled in Florida’s schools is higher than last year’s figures, then it would lead to a higher quantity of non-graduating students, however, it could possibly be a lesser percentage - which is the manner in which the test results are released.  The State should make every effort to ensure that the information is compared apples to apples (% to %), as in this case, it could very well be simply a matter of apples to oranges (% to quantity).