Historical Background

    In 1996 the Florida education community identified a core body of knowledge and skills that all students should have. This body of knowledge, called the Sunshine State Standards, spanned seven content areas (language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, health and physical education, foreign language, and the arts). The Sunshine State Standards were divided into four grade-level clusters (Pre-K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12) that were further subdivided into benchmarks. By adopting the Sunshine State Standard in May 1996, the Florida Board of Education defined a clear set of standards upon which to build an equitable system of student assessment and school accountability.

    In 1995 and 1996 the Florida Educational Reform and Accountability Commission recommended the development of a statewide assessment. These recommendations, called the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Design, led to development of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests (FCAT). The FCAT was designed to augment the existing language arts assessment in writing at Grads 4, 8, and 10 (the Florida Writing Assessment Program) by adding an assessment of reading at the same grade levels. In addition, an assessment of mathematics was added at Grades 5, 8, and 10. The reading component of FCAT would assess the reading related elements of the Sunshine State Standards in language arts and the mathematics component would assess as many of the benchmarks in the Mathematics Sunshine State Standards as appropriate for the selected grade levels. The Comprehensive Assessment Design also specified other features for the new assessment, including application of skills in cognitively challenging situations and inclusion of constructed-response questions (performance tasks) that require students to demonstrate their understanding instead of just choosing a correct answer.

    The development of FCAT Reading and Mathematics questions began in 1996 and a field test (tryout) of these items was conducted in 1997. In 1998 the first results of the assessment were reported for students and schools. The same year, the Florida Writing Assessment Program became part of the FCAT and is now referred to as FCAT Writing.

    In 1999 the law related to student assessment was revised to require an annual assessment of all students in Grades 3-10. This legislation, called the A+ Plan, required that tests in reading and mathematics be developed for the grades for which tests had not previously existed. In addition, the new tests would include only questions that could be machine scored, not performance tasks. Test questions for the additional grades were developed in 1999 and field-tested n 2000. Results for students, schools, and districts on the additional tests were reported for the first time in 2001. After several years of data are collected for the additional grades, an analysis of the results for Grades 3-10 will be undertaken.