How you can explore the new Florida Standards Assessment that will replace FCAT
7/2/2014
The Florida Department of Education has released a new website with information and supplemental resources about the new Florida Standards Assessments (FSA), which is the new statewide test that will replace the FCAT in the 2014-15 school year.
The FSA will replace the following tests:
- FCAT 2.0 English Language Arts
- FCAT 2.0 Mathematics
- Algebra 1 End-of-Course Exam
- Geometry End-of-Course Exam
- Algebra 2 End-of-Course Exam
The website, which can be found at www.fsassessments.org, is available to provide information and resources to help districts, schools, students and parents become more familiar with the new assessment. On the site you can:
- Take training tests, where you can see the question formats and familiarize yourself with the computer-based testing system;
- Learn details about each assessment, including the content to be covered, the number of test items and the complexity of the questions;
- See draft policies about which assessments allow calculators and reference sheets.
The Florida Department of Education plans to continue adding more resources and announcements about the new tests to the site as they become available.
More Details about Florida Standards Assessments
Computer-Based Testing
During the 2014-2015 school year, all assessments will be administered through computer-based testing with the exception of the following assessments:
- Grade 3 English/Language Arts and Mathematics
- Grade 4 English/Language Arts and Mathematics
- Grade 5 Science*
- Grade 8 Science*
*The Grade 5 and 8 Science assessments (FCAT 2.0) will remain the same as the 2013-2014 year and will be based on the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS).
New Question Response Formats
The training tests available through the website allow you to interact with the new computer-based question formats. To emphasize the variety of response types possible in the new assessments, the following table shows some of the response types for the Mathematics FSA.
Mathematics FSA Response Types |
|
|
Response Type |
Description |
|
Equation |
Write an equation and solve to respond |
|
Natural Language |
Type in text to respond |
|
Multiple Choice |
Select the option that best fits to respond |
|
Multi-Select |
Select all options that fit to respond |
|
Graphic (Drag and Drop) |
Drag and drop appropriate images to respond |
|
Graphic (Hot Spot) |
Drag to fill empty boxes in equation to respond |
|
Graphic (Draw/Graphing) |
Follow directions to draw or graph to respond |
|
Table |
Complete table to respond |
The Department of Education is requesting feedback on the test items by September 5. The feedback forms can be located here. There's also an FAQ.
For more information about the Florida Standards Assessment, continue to check jaxpef.org for more information.
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Kelly Turner