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About the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test

What is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test?

Testing Information for the FCAT

Portions of the following material were taken from the Florida Department of Education website. Please see our links and source sections at the bottom of the page for more details and references.

General Description of the Tests

Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT)

  • Measure student progress toward meeting the Sunshine State Standards (SSS) benchmarks
  • Purposes:

    • - To provide information about student mastery of skills.
    - To understand the “educational health” of students and to hold schools and districts accountable for progress.
  • Made up of two kinds of tests

    • - Criterion-Referenced Test (CRT) - measures how well students are meeting the Sunshine State Standards in reading, writing, mathematics, and science
    - Norm-Referenced Test (NRT) - allows educators and parents to compare Florida student performance on reading and mathematics with the performance of students nationwide - Stanford Achievement Test, Tenth Edition (Stanford 10 or SAT10)


Practice Tests for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test


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More About the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) Tests


Assessment Information

  • Grades 3-11

    • - Grades 3-10 – Reading, Mathematics
    - Grades 4, 8, and 10 – Writing
    - Grades 5, 8, 11 - Science
  • Subjects: Mathematics, Reading, Science, and Writing


Test Descriptions

Reading

  • Two formats:

    • - multiple-choice
    - performance tasks – require short or long written answers
  • Contain passages (articles, stories, and poems) from books, magazines, and other publications
  • Students are expected to read and analyze the passages and answer questions based on the passages.
  • Content:

    • - words & phrases in context
    - main idea, plot & purpose
    - comparisons & cause/effect
    - reference & research

Writing

  • Requires students to draft a written response to an assigned topic within a designated time period.
  • Grade 4 – response to a prompt that asks student to either explain (expository writing) or tell a story (narrative writing)
  • Grades 5 and 10 – respond to prompt that asks students to either explain (expository writing) or persuade (persuasive writing)
  • Content

    • - focus – demonstrates a main idea or theme & stays on topic
    - organization – follows a plan that includes an introduction, effective transitional devices, and a conclusion
    - support – includes use of specific details & precise word choice to explain, clarify, or define meaning
    - conventions – demonstrates knowledge of the basic skills of punctuation, capitalization, spelling, usage, and sentence structure

Mathematics

  • Three formats:

    • - multiple-choice
    - performance tasks
    - gridded response
  • Require students to solve numerical problems taken from real-life situations.
  • Content:

    • - number sense
    - measurement
    - geometry
    - algebra
    - data analysis

Science

  • Three formats:

    • - multiple-choice
    - performance tasks
    - gridded response
  • Require students to apply science knowledge and concepts to real-world situations.
  • Content:

    • - physical and chemical sciences
    - earth and space sciences
    - life and environmental sciences
    - scientific thinking


Testing Plan

  • February – Writing
  • March - Reading, Mathematics, and Science
  • May – test scores are distributed
  • In general, students spend from four to eight hours over a nine-day period taking different parts of the FCAT.



Testing Schedule
Assessment Schedules


Links
Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT)
About the FCAT Web Brochure
Frequently Asked Questions about FCAT
Keys to FCAT
FCAT Sample Questions
FCAT Released Tests & Questions

 
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