The following presentation provides a brief understanding of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. This presentation is free for public use. For additional information, please contact Dessalines Floyd at floydd1@duvalschools.org.

3. The Four Rs

4. RELATIONSHIP

6. R elationship A ffects P erformance

7. Attitude shapes action. Action shapes attitude. Each can potentially affect FCAT performance.

8. RELEVANCE

10. Provide Effective Learning Communities

11. What questions do you have for me?

12. RIGOR

14. How are the achievement levels similar? How are they different? (see FCAT Achievement Levels )

16. So what makes challenging items challenging ?

18. “ The categories—low complexity, moderate complexity, and high complexity—form an ordered description of the cognitive demands an item makes on a student. Items at the low level of complexity require a simple skill, such as locating details in a text or solving a one-step problem. At the moderate level, an item can ask the student to summarize a passage or retrieve information from a graph and use it to solve a problem. At the high level, an item may require a student to analyze cause-and-effect relationships or justify a solution to a problem.” (FCAT Handbook—A Resource for Educators, pg. 16)

21. DOK depends on task Difficulty depends on students High DOK Moderate DOK Low DOK Easy Challenging Average Based on percentage of students likely to respond correctly Tasks can be anywhere in this graph Any one task will be in one row only, but can be in any column Synthesizes Info Synthesizes Info Synthesizes Info

23. Can you identify the complexity of each of the following tasks?

24. Person A

25. Person B

29. What questions do you have for me?

30. RESULTS

32. FCAT Reporting Categories Cluster = Strand = Category

33. (see FCAT Reading 2009, Content Focus Report) Benchmark New Benchmark Alignment Content Focus Number of Points Possible Cluster 1: Words and Phrases in Context A142 LA.910.1.7.3 Conclusions/inferences 4 A142 LA.910.1.6.8 Analyze words/text 1 A142 LA.910.1.6.3 Context 1 Reporting Cluster Point Total 6 Cluster 2: Main Idea, Plot, and Purpose A241 LA.910.1.7.3 Details/facts* 6 A241 LA.910.1.7.3 Main idea/essential message 1 A242 LA.910.1.7.2 Author's purpose 2 E241 LA.910.2.1.5 Plot development/major events 1 E241 LA.910.2.1.7 Descriptive language 3 E241 LA.910.2.1.5 Character development 1 E241 LA.910.2.1.7 Figurative language 3 Reporting Cluster Point Total 17

38. Five ways to help your students get better results on the FCAT

39. # 1 Use questions that require students to explain their answers.

40. # 2 Have students apply their Reading and Mathematics skills using challenging content from all subject areas. (roughly 20-30% of the content is literary while approximately 70% of it is informational text on the reading assessment)

41. # 3 Use open-ended question formats that are similar to FCAT items.

42. # 4 Rate and grade students’ work using the FCAT and Florida Writes rubrics. In this way, students can become familiar with what is expected of them on the FCAT.

43. # 5 Use and develop questions for class discussions and tests that are of the same cognitive rigor as those on the FCAT.

44. What questions do you have for me?