State pushes high-school end-of-course tests

Florida, never shy about using standardized tests, is stepping into the latest trend: end-of-course exams for high-school students.

The state plans to field-test standardized algebra 1 and geometry exams early next year, adding to the battery of tests it already gives many of its 2.6 million public-school students.

By 2011, the Florida Department of Education plans to give the two math tests to all students taking those two high school math courses.

These new tests — statewide final exams that would be the same for students from Miami to Orlando to Tallahassee — would be taken on computers at the end of the school year.

End-of-course exams in biology and U.S. history should follow the two math tests a few years later, the department says.

Eventually, if money is available, exams in other high-school subjects, from civics to English to physics, would be developed, too.

State educators say these new exams are critical pieces of their high-school-reform efforts and will help ensure students learn enough to move on to college.

Education Commissioner Eric Smith said this new group of tests is needed to push students past the "foundational work" tested by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, the state's series of standardized exams in math, reading, science and writing. FCATs are given in grades three to 11.

With approval from the Legislature, the new end-of-course exams would replace some FCAT sections now given to high-school students. Eventually, the new exams could be used in the annual A-to-F school-grade calculations and as high-school-graduation requirements.