This week the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test got underway.  As seems to be customary these days when teachers really want to wring some extra performance out of students, teachers were armed and ready with all sorts of incentives (although I think this is screaming out for a caption contest). 

What is most disappointing is that one of the proven methods for raising test scores–namely, the state’s A+ Opportunity Scholarship Program–is no longer a reality.  While in existence, it helped improve test scores for students in public schools already facing voucher competition and those threatened by vouchers.  Most of all, disadvantaged children stood to benefit the most: for third-graders in 2001, 70 percent of whites, 46 percent of Hispanics, and 36 percent of blacks scored at or above grade level in reading on the FCAT.  By 2005, that had improved to 78 percent of whites, 61 percent of Hispanics, and 52 percent of blacks. 

With A+ now shut down by an upside-down court decision, I don’t think the next round of FCAT scores–especially for schools which desperately need to improve–will be anything to write home about.