Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) is part of The State of Florida plan to
increase florida student education and kids achievement thru higher standards

The FCAT is administered to all Florida 3rd grade thru grade 10 students statewide. The FCAT measures student performance on selected benchmarks in reading, math and science that are defined by the Sunshine State Standards. The FCAT tells where students are in relation to the Sunshine State Florida Standards, not in relation to each other.

The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) is part of The State of Florida overall plan to increase student achievement by implementing higher scholastic standards. The FCAT, administered to students in Grades 3-11, contains two basic components: criterion-references tests (CRT), measuring selected benchmarks in Mathematics, Reading, Science, and Writing from the Sunshine State Standards (SSS); and norm-referenced tests (NRT), in Reading and Mathematics, measuring individual student performance against national norms.

Students take the FCAT to meet the complex challenges of today's workplace. Students must be skilled in mathematics and science, be able to read and understand difficult texts, and be able to write well. FCAT questions are designed to measure reading, writing, mathematics and science skills that students should acquire. The test helps teachers, principals , and superintendents determine the level of success students have with the Sunshine State Standards.

The Sunshine State Standards are broad statements that describe what a child should know and be able to do at every grade level. These standards cover seven learning areas which are: social studies, science, language arts, health/physical education, the arts, foreign language and mathematics. The standards are divided into smaller units called "benchmarks," which outline the specific content, knowledge, and skills that students are expected to learn in school. Each student's performance on FCAT reading, writing, mathematics and science tests indicate student's progress in reaching these benchmarks.

Parents can access their student's fcatreading performance reports on the Reading and Mathematics portion on the FCAT as soon as results are available on The Florida Department of Education has developed the Florida Parent Network website (www.fcatparentnetwork.com). Parents will also be able to access resources and additional information about the FCAT. The website lists the grades for which FCAT Scores have been posted, so parents will know when their student's FCAT Reports are ready for viewing.

The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test is a standard-referenced assessment. The results provide a snapshot of where students stand, not in relation to each other, but in relation to their ability to reach educational standards that Floridians expect. These expectations are outlined in the Sunshine State Standards.

Who Takes the FCAT?

Students take the FCAT reading tests in grades 4, 8 and 10, and the mathematics in grades 5, 8 and 10. The FCAT is a timed test which spans over two days at the fourth grade.

Four Things To Know About FCAT

1. FCAT is included in the School Accountability Report that is used to identify critically low performing schools as well as high performing schools.
2. FCAT is used for promotion and graduation purposes at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
3. FCAT is used to identify students in need of remediation in reading and math, to obtain feedback on curriculum and teaching strategies, and to gauge student progress.
4. FCAT has replaced the High School Competency Test (HSCT) and the common college placement test.

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The FCAT reading test is different from typical tests because it requires students to analyze, synthesize and evaluate the information presented and then apply strategies or procedures. This level of thinking goes beyond the recall of facts and basic comprehension typical of many fcat standardized test questions.

To ensure that intended levels of cognitive tasks are represented on the FCAT, the Florida Department of Education adopted a simple, two-level classification system based on the taxonomy developed by Bloom.

FCAT Passages

The purpose of the FCAT reading test is to measure students' achievement in constructing meaning from a wide variety of texts. Two general categories of passages included on FCAT are informational texts and literary texts. Each FCAT reading test consists of 2–3 literary passages and 4–5 informational passages.

Informational text includes subject area texts, diaries, magazine articles, essays, newspaper articles, consumer materials, biographies, autobiographies, advertisements, "how to" instructions, and editorials.

Literary text includes short stories, literary essays, poems, historical fiction, fables, folk tales, plays, and excerpts from novels.

The selections cover content areas such as mathematics, science, social studies, language arts, health, and physical education. At the 4th grade level, 50% of the passages are informational and 50% are literary.

Multiple Choice Questions

FCAT multiple-choice questions always have four answer choices. Students are directed to choose the best answer. Each multiple-choice question is worth 1 point.

Short-Response Tasks

This symbol appears next to those fcat-reading questions requiring a short written answer. Students typically require about 5 minutes to answer these questions, and are given only 8 lines to write on. These short responses are scored using a 2 point scoring rubric.

Sunshine State Standards - have been created through a school improvement and accountability initiative to reform education in Florida's public schools. The goal of this initiative is to raise student achievement to world class levels. FCAT is designed specifically for Florida. It is based on the Sunshine State Standards, and measures how well students are progressing toward those academic standards at varying developmental levels.

Purpose of Standards - The Sunshine State Standards do not tell teachers how to teach. They are simply guidelines to assist teachers in designing instruction to meet student needs, and more importantly, to identify the essential knowledge and skills florida students should learn and for which the state will hold schools accountable.

The FCAT reading test for grade-4r is based on the language arts standards and benchmarks.

Structure of Standards

• The Sunshine State FCAT Standards are made-up of strands, standards and benchmarks, and follow a hierarchic structure.
• A strand is the most general type of information. It is a label for a category of knowledge.
• A standard is a description of general expectations in regards to the knowledge and skill development within a strand.
• A benchmark is the most specific level of information. It is a statement of expectation about student knowledge and skill by the end of each developmental level.

Summary of Strands and Standards for Language Arts

Reading
The student uses the reading process effectively.
The student constructs meaning from a wide range of texts.

Writing
The student uses writing processes effectively.
The student writes to communicate ideas and information effectively.
Listening, Viewing and Speaking
The student uses listening strategies effectively.
The student uses viewing strategies effectively.
The student uses speaking strategies effectively.

Language
The student understands the nature of language.
The student understands the power of language.

Literature
The student understands the common features of a variety of literary forms.
The student responds critically to fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama.