This morning the Florida Department of Education announced the scores of the 2011 FCAT Writing exams. All public school students in grades 4, 8, and 10 take these exams every year in March.
We are very pleased and excited to inform you that the scores of the students’ of the Archimedean Upper Conservatory placed them among the very best! On a scale of 1 to 6 (6 being the highest score possible) our students’ average score is 4.8. With this score, our students ranked 2nd among all public high schools in Miami-Dade and 6th among all 830 public high schools in the entire State of Florida.
Once again this year, 100% of our students received a score of 3 or higher, but what is even more impressive is that 68% of our students received a score of 5 or 6! Such a showing speaks loudly of the strength and benefits of our curriculum and the incredible potential our students have to succeed.
Congratulations to all our tenth-grade students and their English teachers, Miss Hartman and Miss Gonzalez, for such a superb performance. Also, credit should be given to the rest of the faculty of the Upper Conservatory who promote writing in their classes and to all the families of the students for the support they are giving them.
Description of Grade 10 Writing Scores
6.0: The writing focuses on the topic, is logically organized and includes substantial development of supporting ideas or examples. It demonstrates a mature command of the language with the freshness of expression. Sentences vary in structure. Few, if any, errors occur in conventions.
5.0: The writing focuses on the topic, is logically organized and includes ample development of supporting ideas or examples. It demonstrates a mature command of language. Sentences vary in structure. Conventions arc generally correct.
4.0: The writing focuses on the topic, though it may contain loosely related information. An organizational pattern is apparent. Support is consistently developed, but it may lack specificity. Word choice is adequate. Sentences vary in structure. Conventions arc generally correct.
3.0: The writing generally focuses on the topic, though it may contain loosely related information. An organizational pattern is demonstrated. The development of supporting ideas may be uneven. Word choice is adequate. There is some variation in sentence structure. Usage, punctuation, and spelling arc generally correct.
2.0: The writing addresses the topic, but it may lose focus by including extraneous information. An organizational pattern is demonstrated. The development of supporting ideas may be nonspecific. Word choice may be limited, Errors may occur in the basic conventions.
1.0: The writing addresses the topic, but it may lose focus by including extraneous and loosely related ideas. The organizational pattern is weak. Ideas arc presented through lists and limited or inappropriate word choice. Frequent errors may occur in sentence construction, usage, punctuation, and spelling.
U: The writing is unrelated to the assigned topic or cannot be
read.
© Florida Department of Education, May 2011
Individual student reports should be available to the parents/guardians to pick up from our main office starting May 23rd.
The rubric below provides an explanation for each writing score.