Lawmaker wants to end FCAT

NEW PORT RICHEY - Tuesday is test time in Florida. Thousands of public school students will take the dreaded Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, also known as the FCAT.

"You can do good in the whole year and then mess up in the end and fail because of the FCAT, " said River Ridge High School student Ryan Debouter.

Now one Florida lawmaker is listening to complaints like those.

"At the high school level it (the FCAT) has stagnated at the 9th to 10th grade level," said Port Richey Representative John Legg.

Legg is drafting legislation to slowly phase out the FCAT. He wants to replace the test with the old fashion final exam.

"I believe that the end-of-course exams are more closely aligned with student learning than the current FCAT structure," Legg said.

Teachers say the test is unfair to both them and their students.

"It's a one day, high stakes test," said Jim Ciadella, a leader of the United School Employees of Pasco, the teachers' union. "There are so many variables associated with it that day, is a student ready to take a test?"

Governor Charlie Crist says while the FCAT can be improved, he is reluctant to eliminate it all together.

"It's important to have testing and have accountability, and take a measure of what happens in the classroom," the Governor said.

If the FCAT phase out is approved, it would be at least four years before the test is a thing of the past.