M-DCPS STUDENTS DEMONSTRATE IMPRESSIVE GAINS ON FCAT WRITES

MIAMI – Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) elementary and middle school students’ average FCAT Writing scores met or exceeded the new high performance criteria, according to results from the Spring 2011 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) Writing released recently by the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE). The percentage of M-DCPS students scoring at or above 4.0 increased from 2010 to 2011.
 
Highlights of additional M-DCPS results are noted below:

• 80 percent of all fourth-grade students scored 4 or above on FCAT Writing in 2011, an increase from 73 percent in 2010.

• 79 percent of all eighth-grade students met this high level of achievement in 2011, increasing from 74 percent.

• The percentage of tenth-grade students scoring at or above 4.0 held steady at 73 percent in 2011 following an incredible 15 point gain over the previous year.

• Elementary students’ average scores were on par with those of students statewide in 2011.
  

The improvement shown on FCAT Writing may not be reflected in the District’s School Performance Grades, assigned later this year, due to an expected change in the way writing scores will be included, despite the fact that over 67 percent of all schools showed improvement in the percentage of students scoring at the higher achievement level of 4.0.
 
The FCAT Writing assessment, administered to students in grades four, eight and ten, requires students to write an essay on an assigned topic: either narrative or expository for fourth-grade students and either persuasive or expository for eighth- and tenth-grade students.
 
Nearly 78,000 M-DCPS students participated in the Spring 2011 FCAT Writing assessment, and over 95 percent of the District’s students received on-grade-level performance, based on the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) criteria of scores of 3.0 or above.

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