The Florida comprehensive assessment test (FCAT) results have arrived

CSMS StaffWhen the FCAT results were released yesterday, the reception was mixed—depending on what school district you were. However, in Broward County, the mood could not be more jubilant. “Congratulation for a job well done! You should be proud of yourself,” said the head of the Broward School District, Dr. Frank Till, in a message sent to all Broward schools via CAB (Communication Across Broward.)     FCAT, which assesses students in four core subject areas, Reading, Writing, Math and Science, is a standardized test designed to see whether students are working on grade levels. Although Broward County students outperformed the state average, the results were not so sweet across the board. For students in grades four through 10 in some counties, only a mixed success is shown while reading and math scores in other counties “only inched upward compared with last year’s scores,” according to Sun-Sentinel newspaper.    But at Millennium Middle School in Tamarac, a suburban town near Fort Lauderdale, administrators have good reasons to celebrate. Since the school was founded in 2002, administration and faculty have been working toward one goal: reaching for the gold. According to Dr. Cheryl Cendan, the golden mean is the “A.” For two years, FCAT results at Millennium have been showing significant gains, but always fall short of reaching the “A” score. This year, however, it appears that the elusive “A” was finally grabbed.    Gains have been shown across grade levels at Millennium with the six graders making the biggest gains, jumping from 59% of their reading score last year to 67% this year—an 8-point rise that clearly consolidates the fruit of hard-work done by motivated teachers at Millennium.        Across the State, students who have done poorly in the past — including children with disabilities, students with limited English proficiency, and those who were held back in the third grade show significant improvement in reading and math, according to Education Commissioner John Winn. “Among our most struggling students, we got more significant improvement this year than other students,” Winn said in a news conference.      In Broward County, sixth-graders did especially well. In reading, 66 percent earned at least three of five possible scoring levels, compared with 57 percent last year. In math, 59 percent earned at least a 3 compared with 54 percent last year.      Charles Drew Elementary in Pompano Beach performed well, high above expectation on the reading test. Twenty-six 26 percent of students scored a level 3 or better, compared with last year. The most interested thing of all is the gain posted by Lauderdale Manors, an F school in Fort Lauderdale. A 32 to 45 percentage-point jump in math was posted by fourth- and fifth-graders, respectively.      While schools that scored poorly in the past show big gains this year, according to Sun-Sentinel, some of the county’s best-rated public schools did not perform well on the FCAT. “Dillard Elementary, a three-time A school in Fort Lauderdale, struggled with both reading and math. Only 46 percent of its fourth-graders scored a 3 or better on the reading test, and only 42 percent of its fifth-graders. Last year, 69 percent of Dillard’s fourth-graders and 76 percent of its fifth-graders got a 3 or better.”    According to Winn, across the sate, the fourth-graders performed the lowest. Only 66 percent scored a 3 or above on the reading test, compared with 71 percent in 2005 and 70 percent in 2004. But the overall results show that middle school students have posted the biggest gains. As a group, they did better than other grades on both reading and math tests. To see gain or lost by individual school, go to:http://sun-sentinel.greatschools.net/modperl/achievement/fl