Published: April 30, 2008 07:28 am            

OUR VIEW: April 30

A devalued FCAT

Ten years after the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test was conceived, lawmakers have concluded that a single make-or-break exam isn't an effective way of telling whether students "get it" - or whether teachers in state schools are doing their jobs.

Details of the legislative deal to devalue FCAT - and the devil is always in the details - remain unsettled, and who knows how lawmakers may muddle this up before it's over. (The legislative session ends Friday.)

That being said, this may be a move in the right direction. The pressure put on students to perform well on FCAT was overwhelming, and we've all heard stories of 10-year-olds made physically ill by months of stressful test-prep. We'll be glad when those days are gone.

Let's not lose sight, however, of the twin principles FCAT was supposed to reinforce: accountability and rigor. On graduation, our children will face challenges unlike those seen for many a generation. All that talk over the last few decades about a global economy? It's coming true fast, and right before our eyes. If our kids can't compete, our nation can't either. Too much stress can be a terrible thing. But as our children bear down and ready themselves for the rigors of the global marketplace, it will surely be, in some measure, inevitable.

        

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