STUDENT PERFORMANCE

Florida's students are expected to compete at the highest levels nationally and internationally and become prepared to make well-reasoned, thoughtful, and healthy lifelong decisions.

Standardized Tests

Although test scores should not be used to draw absolute conclusions about student learning and performance, they provide measured results of student progress toward educational goals. The tests administered to Florida students are described below.

Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT)

The FCAT measures student performance in writing, science, reading, and mathematics.

Alternate Assessments for Students with Disabilities

An alternate assessment for students with disabilities is a performance-based assessment designed to evaluate the progress of students with disabilities on the Sunshine State Standards for Special Diploma measures. Alternate assessments are used with students whose demonstrated cognitive functioning ability prevents them from achieving the Sunshine State Standards and who require extensive direct instruction in the areas of domestic, community living, leisure, and vocational activities. Alternate assessments for students with disabilities are given for writing/communication, reading, and math.

Alternate Assessments for Students who are English Language Learners

Students who are English Language Learners (ELL) and who have been in an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program for less than one year may be individually exempted from the FCAT. In these limited circumstances, locally developed alternate assessments are used to evaluate the academic performance of the student. Alternate assessments for ELL students are given for writing, reading, and math.

FCAT Sunshine State Standards Tests

The FCAT Sunshine State Standards (SSS) tests measure student performance on selected benchmarks defined by the Sunshine State Standards. Students who take an alternate assessment have their results reported in categorical classifications that include the designation of ''Proficient'' so that their performance is counted with those of other students.

Note: Assessment results on the following tables reflect FCAT Sunshine State Standards data combined with alternate assessment data. Results show proficiency attainment for students who were in attendance during both semesters of the school year.

NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS (NAEP)

For more than 30 years, The Nation's Report Card (NAEP) has served U.S. educators as an information resource, providing reliable assessment results of what our students know and can do in key subject areas. It is the only ongoing project that monitors national trends in student achievement at grades 4, 8, and 12 and state trends at grades 4 and 8. Main NAEP, conducted at the state- and national-level, occurs every two years in reading and mathematics and every four years in writing and science. A representative sample of the student population participates, and each student takes only a portion of the assessment. Results are then assembled to form projected state and national scores, based on aggregated student results. NAEP does not provide school- or student-level results. Below are Florida's NAEP 2009 results for reading and mathematics for grades 4 and 8.

1. Scale Scores

A scale score is derived from averaging of scores of student responses to NAEP assessment items on a 0-500 point scale. Scale scores summarize the overall level of performance attained by a group of students. (NAEP does not produce scale scores for individual students.) When used in conjunction with interpretive aids, such as item maps, scale scores provide information about what a particular aggregate of students in the population knows and can do.

2. Achievement Level

Achievement levels are performance standards set by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), based on recommendations from panels of educators and members of the public. The standards are based on scale scores and define the degree to which student performance meets expectations of what students should know and be able to do. They provide a context for interpreting student performance on NAEP and offer a means of identifying percentages of students who have demonstrated certain proficiencies. The achievement levels set by NAGB are basic, proficient, and advanced. Below Basic is also reported but not considered to be an achievement level.

The following chart compares the achievement levels between NAEP and the FCAT:

NAEP Participation Rates for Required Subgroups.

Additional information is provided at the NAEP website at http://www.nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ or at FLDOE -http://ww.fldoe.org/asp/naep/.

NAEP MATH - STATE LEVEL RESULTS

NAEP Reading - STATE LEVEL RESULTS

SCHOOL SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT

Schools and communities must provide an environment that is drug free and protects the health, safety, and civil rights of everyone in the school.

School environmental safety: reported incidents*

The most recent full-year school-level data on reported incidents is available at the Florida School Indicators Report website at http://data.fldoe.org/fsir. (See Incidents of Crime and Violence)

District-level reports are available at http://www.fldoe.org/safeschools/sesir.asp

Note: The No Child Left Behind Act provides for an Unsafe School Choice Option, which ensures that students who attend a school that has been identified as persistently dangerous are allowed the option of attending another school within the same district.

Note: For the 2008-09 school year, no Florida public school was identified as persistently dangerous.*

* pending review of complete full year data.

The Professional Qualifications of Teachers

Visits to DCPS SPAR documents in the 2010-2011 school year: