It’s a small step, but maybe the new law imposing restrictions on how schools prepare students for the FCAT will prompt a pendulum swing back to pedagogical reason.
If anything, the FCAT has proved that bad things can be done in the good name of accountability, a concept nobody is against. But teaching to a test, pep rallying for a test, attaching inordinate significance to a test and tying school funding to a test should be indefensible.
The new law won’t eliminate all FCAT prepping, but it should curtail the most blatant abuses of practice sessions superceding regular curricular course work. Moreover, high schools’ grades will now reflect other factors, such as graduation rates, in addition to FCAT scores.
It’s a start.