FCAT

by AMELIA A. HART

amelia.hart@mynassausun.com

The Nassau County School District has once again received an “A” from the Florida Department of Education.

Ten of the district’s 12 schools received A grades on school accountability reports released this morning by the department, including Fernandina Beach High and Hilliard Middle-Senior High which both received Bs last year.

West Nassau High School rebounded from last year’s D grade to earn a B grade for the 2007-08 school year.

In its second year, Yulee High School slipped from a C to a D.

By WENDI ZONGKER
wendi.zongker@mynassausun.com

Nassau's third through 10th grade students are excelling at math and reading, according to norm-referenced test results released Tuesday.

Students take the NRT during the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, and the results allow students to be compared nationally. Students do not have to pass the test to graduate and the scores do not count toward a school’s overall grade.

A school’s grade depends on Sunshine State Standard test scores in math, reading, science and writing. Those scores are expected in June.

By WENDI ZONGKER

wendi.zongker@mynassausun.com

Math and reading Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores released Wednesday show more Nassau third-graders are reading and doing math at or above grade level this year compared to last year.

The increase in the percentage of students doing math at grade-level is the third percentage increase in a row for Nassau schools. And for the second year in a row more Nassau third-graders are doing math at or above grade level than the previous year.

Of Nassau’s third-graders, 85 percent scored at or above grade level on both tests. That’s an increase from 84 percent in math and 81 percent in reading in 2007.

By WENDI ZONGKER

wendi.zongker@mynassausun.com

The number of Nassau County seniors required to retake the math portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test has risen for the third year in a row, according to results released this week.

The 39 seniors required to retake the test this year is up from 26 last year and 16 in 2006.

Of those, 38 percent passed this year — the same percentage who passed in 2006. Only 31 percent passed last year.

Nassau’s seniors appear to be doing better retaking the reading portion of the test.

Seniors required to retake the reading test has increased and decreased over the years — from 72 in 2006, to 89 last year, down to 82 this year — but, the percentage of students passing has consistently increased.

Twenty-one percent passed this year, up from 18 percent in 2007 and 15 percent in 2006.

    FCAT is the biggest stuggle for middle and high school students.  Being a Yulee High School senior and waiting on FCAT re-take results (I had retaken the FCAT several times) is very stressful.  I came to school today not expecting anything, but all of a sudden I heard, " We got the FCAT results back."  I logged in to FCATParentNetwork.com and received my results. I finally passed the FCAT with a score of 1953! The lowest possible passing score was 1926. 

      This is a huge monkey off my back, and my whole entire family celebrated. As a stressed-out senior, all I need now is to keep my grades up to a 2.0 GPA to graduate. I will be graduating next June, and it's so much easier without the FCAT holding me back. I also appreciate all the hard-working teachers that have helped me in the struggle to accomplish this.