Davis: Limit FCAT role in schools; Crist: Let's keep Jeb's legacy

[seafan]

Davis: Limit FCAT role in schools

BY BETH REINHARD AND GARY FINEOUT
Sep. 28, 2006

Democratic candidate Jim Davis said Wednesday that if elected, he would junk much of the FCAT-centered educational plan that has become the signature policy of term-limited Gov. Jeb Bush.
The Tampa congressman chose Miami Edison Senior High, where low FCAT scores have reaped the school flunking grades five years in a row, to lay out his educational platform.

The proposed reforms aim to reinforce Davis' message that he is a catalyst for change, while his Republican opponent, Charlie Crist, is a defender of the status quo. Crist, the state attorney general, oversaw the school accountability program when he served as education commissioner and wants to keep it.

The debate offers voters one of the clearest contrasts between the leading candidates for governor, pitting Davis' portrayal of schools as ''dreary test-taking factories'' against Crist's argument that the testing system is spurring student achievement.

Davis' proposal ranges from the symbolic -- replacing annual school grades with categories -- to the pragmatic -- allowing the state to take over chronically failing schools, which the state can already do but but has not done to date.
Davis would replace schools' FCAT-based grades with three categories: excellent, achieving and needs improvement. Schools would be assessed not just on their FCAT scores, but also on their curriculum, parental involvement, disciplinary record, graduation rates and other benchmarks. Schools in the lowest rung would receive additional money and professional help.

''The truth is that Charlie Crist and the politicians in Tallahassee have done very little to help this school,'' Davis said about Little Haiti's Edison over the din of nearby highway traffic. ``What they have really done is punish this school.''

snip

And, the usual vindictive eruption:

In an e-mail from a spokeswoman, Gov. Jeb Bush called the remark ''ludicrous.''

[bullimiami]

1. jesus. get rid of the damn fcat. its a disaster.