The Florida Department of Education released the results of the most recent End of Course exams, including the only one administered in science: Biology I.
Sixty-seven percent of first-time test takers statewide who took the Biology 1 EOC scored at Achievement Level 3 and above in spring 2013. This is an eight percentage point increase from spring 2012 after applying the new standards established by the State Board of Education in December 2012. Students in grades 10 and 11 made the most improvement with each group jumping 9 percentage points from the previous year.
More detailed information broken down by districts and schools can be found here.
Also released were FCAT results, including science FCATs for grades 5 and 8 (the FCAT is no longer given in high school). You can do some fiddling around with the results here. But the bottom line is that the results aren’t impressive. Less than half of 8th graders scored level three or higher and the results didn’t budge compared to the previous year. Just a little over half of 5th graders got level three or higher and the results weren’t much of an improvement over the previous year’s, a one percent rise.
