A Hernando County teacher is publicly apologizing for the FCAT.
Spring Hill Elementary School teacher Melinda Barrett said she simply poured her heart out.
It wasn't hard, she said. She just kept typing, and an hour later, she said all her thoughts were down on the page.
It was a letter to the editor, published by our partners at the Tampa Bay Times. In it, Barrett apologizes to her students for the struggles they have faced regarding the FCAT.
Here's a copy:
I'd like to make a public apology. I'd like to apologize to my fifth-grade students.
I'm sorry that for the six years you've been in school, you've had the FCAT looming over your head. I'm sorry that when you were just 8 years old in third grade, you had your entire year of work summed up by the state on a two-day test.
I'm sorry that I've had to postpone work in the classroom to take test after test in order to supposedly predict how you will do on the FCAT.
I'm sorry that you've had the pressure of trying to get a specific score on the test when they change how they grade the test each year.
I'm sorry that you've had to be tested on the Florida Sunshine State Standards this year, even though we've been learning on the new Common Core Standards, because I really have tried to make sure everything was covered.
I'm so sorry that you have been taught that your educational worth is based on one flawed test.
I'd like to be able to tell my students that the worst is behind them and that now that the FCAT is finally in its last year, that the state of Florida has finally decided to put students first and stop the obsession with standardized testing.
I'd like to be able to tell them that when they move onto sixth-grade that they will finally be able to spend every day in class actually learning instead of taking some test that has been prescribed by either the state or county office. Yet, if I told them any of those things, it would be a lie.
To those who aren't in the world of education, please talk to a teacher or two.
Ask them about how their pay will be tied to test scores next year. Ask kindergarten teachers about how their pay is based on the testing performances of the 6-year-olds in their classes. Ask teachers about how their pay is based on their students overcoming stress, test anxiety, laziness, varying ability issues and performing on a test over the course of two days. Ask teachers who give the FCAT about how many days they lose to testing.
Ask teachers who don't teach FCAT about how they get pulled from their room to help proctor the test (which then causes their students to lose educational time).
Ask administrators about juggling schedules to ensure that all students get tested on time and in a quiet space.
Then ask your legislators if they support standardized testing and why. If they say anything about "measuring teachers' success" then you will know right away that they aren't interested in what is best for the students of Florida.
FCAT may be going away, but testing obsession and overuse isn't. And for that, my dear students, I'm sorry.
Barrett said the test puts undue stress on students, as well as the teachers and the schools. It's not a new complaint, but one not often aired by teachers publicly.
"I'm not afraid of a backlash because I completely stand behind everything I said," Barrett said.
And given the buzz the letter has gotten on social media, it seems others are standing behind Barrett's words as well.
"Most people have just said thank you," she said. "Thank you for putting my thoughts into words. Thank you for caring about our kids."