Broward students did better than fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders across the state this year on the writing FCAT, and students improved their showing compared to the last few years, too.
In all three grades, the percentage of students who wrote grade-level essays or better is the highest in six years, state Department of Education data released Thursday show.
Broward students also improved their performance on a newer section of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test for writing that uses multiple-choice questions to examine their knowledge of grammar, punctuation and editing. That part won't be given next year, and won't count toward school grades to be released in July.
Broward Superintendent Jim Notter said the district's performance among the state's biggest five districts ''almost rocked me off my chair.'' Among that group, Broward was first in fourth-grade results, second in eighth grade and first in 10th grade on both parts of the test. Broward is the state's second-largest school system.
'We're kind of developing a culture of `Good just isn't good enough.' We want to go to good-plus,'' Notter said. ``When we're at good-plus, we want to go to good-plus-plus.''
The writing FCAT, the section of the state's testing program that has been around the longest, is considered the easiest of the exams.
About 87 percent of Broward fourth-graders and 82 percent in Miami-Dade earned at least a passing score on the essay section, compared to 77 percent statewide. In Broward, 92 percent of eighth-graders did the same along with 88 percent of Dade eighth-graders; the state average was 88 percent.
ABOVE AVERAGE
Tenth-graders also were successful, with 84 percent passing in Broward and 77 percent passing in Dade, compared to a state average of 78 percent.
Students need a 3.5 on a scale of 1 to 6 on the essay to pass. The scores are used to calculate school grades. The other factors are scores from the reading, math and science sections of the FCAT, to be released in coming weeks.
At a small number of schools, scores declined. But most improved, some by dizzying amounts. Those include Paragon Elementary Charter in Pompano Beach, up by 43 percentage points, and Dillard Elementary in Fort Lauderdale, up by 40 percentage points.
At Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Principal Ann Kowalski had to keep the news that 94 percent of her sophomores passed the essay test from her students for most of the day because of Advanced Placement exams.
But she told all of her teachers right away about the six-percentage-point jump over last year's scores.
''You know, it's teacher-appreciation week,'' Kowalski said. ``This is icing on the cake.''
At Hawkes Bluff Elementary in Davie, 100 percent of fourth-graders passed the essay test, the best performance of any traditional public school in the district. The school emphasizes writing in all grades. Kids have writing buddies, and some students used modern fairy tales like Wicked for writing exercises.
In Susan Lehrman's fourth-grade class Thursday, students compared and contrasted two of that book's characters, demonstrating their knowledge of similes and idioms and alliteration.
Rebecca Weissmark, 10, and Alex Diraviam, 9, said their fourth-grade class was ecstatic when they heard how well the school did.
''We all jumped around really excited,'' Alex said. ``The whole class sort of went crazy.''
SCREAMING TEACHERS
Teachers were equally thrilled. Intern principal Mindy Cunningham said she was on the phone early Thursday morning with some of the teachers going over the scores and had to tell them: ``If you guys would stop screaming, I could get through this.''
While affluent schools tended to have stronger showings, Notter pointed out that some schools with large numbers of poor students also scored well.
At Henry D. Perry Middle in Miramar, where about 70 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, 90 percent of eighth-graders passed the essay, compared to 80 percent last year.
''I'm very proud of my children,'' Principal Steve Frazier said, minutes before taking to the school airwaves. ``They've really stepped up. Now I get to get on and hoot and holler.''
The percentage of students doing grade-level work dropped significantly when the multiple-choice section was included, but scores were higher than last year. The greatest increase was in 10th grade, with 59 percent passing, compared to 53 percent in 2007.
Those students had extra incentive to do well when they took the test.
They would have been the first who had to pass the test to graduate, in addition to math and reading. State education officials scrapped the writing test requirement for now.
