Several weeks ago, a lady walking along the sidewalks close to Suwannee Elementary School holding an “FCAT Must Go!” sign raised concerns about the FCAT. Carol Castagnero, who is running for governor of Florida as a Democrat, said she is running as a non-contender to raise awareness about the FCAT.

Castagnero, who believes the FCAT is destroying children, made several statements about the test. She said the FCAT is unconstitutional and parents don’t know their children don’t have to take it. She said no one has a right to retain a child because of not making a test grade. She said there are students throughout Florida not taking FCAT, because they know their constitutional rights, and there are teachers in Florida refusing to teach FCAT.

Castagnero said she is also against the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act because of the strict guidelines the government is imposing on teachers.

Department of Education (DOE) Communications Director Jennifer Fennell said FCAT has been in the state statutes since 1998 when Gov. Lawton Chiles developed the test as a state assessment program.

“Teachers must meet state and local requirements. So the requirement for FCAT is pretty clear,” Fennell said. “As far as I know all public school students are required to take the test. The only exception might be for special needs students who graduate on different terms than the average student.”

Fennell said all school districts in Florida are required to provide summer camps and remedial instruction to prevent holding a child back from moving to the next grade.

Suwannee County School Board Attorney Andrew Decker said the FCAT is a requirement of various state statutes and of the Florida DOE.

“If she (Castagnero) thought there was any merit to her allegations, she could file a lawsuit in the court system to determine the matter,” Decker said.

Decker said he is not aware of any evidence there are students not taking the FCAT in Florida or teachers refusing to teach the test. He said Castagnero should verify this information by providing names of schools or students refusing to teach or take the test.

Castagnero’s allegations may be just a political strategy, Decker said.

School Board Director of Assessment and Secondary Education Carol Risk said FCAT is taken in grades three through 10, and there are only two places where passing requirements apply to the test. Students must make a minimum of 300 or a level two on reading and math to be promoted to fourth grade and to graduate high school, she said. There is no score requirement for the writing portion of the test.

Risk said for third graders who don’t pass the test, summer school is provided with the opportunity to re-test before fall to prevent retention.

Students can only be held back in the third grade twice. After that they go to the next grade and the school provides them a special program with additional services for learning success, she said.

For 10th graders who don’t make the grade, remedial instruction is available. These students will progress to the 11th grade to complete the remedial instruction and then re-take the test. Students can re-take the test up to five times to get a high school diploma, and even take the FCAT at Suwannee-Hamilton Technical Center after high school, she said.

“And re-take tests aren’t timed,” she said.

Fennell said the FCAT was already enforced before NCLB was mandated in 2001, and the federal mandate didn’t change the test much.

Risk said before the FCAT was implemented the California Achievement Test (CAT) was taken in Florida.

“The CAT only tested the basic, minimal skills a child needed to survive. The FCAT is more challenging because it is a comprehensive achievement test,” Risk said. “Florida’s test is a lot tougher than 99 percent of those in other states because we started out strong academically.”

Both Risk and Decker said Florida is ahead of the game regarding education.

Decker said the NCLB Act provided teeth behind the FCAT so the test can be used as a measuring stick for school districts to show progress.

“The FCAT provides more accountability and assures parents that their child’s school is making progress,” he said.

“In order for Suwannee County to get out of mediocrity, children must learn more than their parents did and more than the students did 10 years ago,” Risk said.

Castagnero is traveling the state of Florida with her message about the FCAT, and she said so far she’s been well-received by almost every county. She said she’s gotten a particularly warm welcome in Suwannee County.

During her visit in Suwannee County several cars consisting of parents and teachers beeped at her with approval and some stopped to collect brochures from the politician.

Vanessa Fultz may be reached by calling 1-386-362-1734 ext. 130 or by emailing vanessa.fultz@gaflnews.com.