Fall 2012 FCAT Parent Letter

Letter to Parents & Guardians from September 12, 2012

This letter serves as notification that your student will be taking one or more of the following assessments; FCAT Mathematics Retake or FCAT 2.0 Reading Retake  during the week of October 8^th-October 12^th. This is a computer-based test.

If you or your student would like to review the CBT practice test at home, you can download instructions and a practice test (called an “ePAT”) at www.FLAssessments.com/ePAT. Your student may practice as often as is necessary prior to testing.

It is important for you and your student to understand the following policies before testing:

■ Electronic Devices—If your student is found with ANY electronic devices during testing, his or her test will be invalidated, which means it will not be scored. The best practice would be for students to leave devices at home or in their lockers on the day of testing.

■ Academic Honesty —Your student will be asked to sign a pledge prior to testing that says I agree that I will not give or receive unauthorized help during this test. I understand that giving or receiving such help during the test is cheating and will result in the invalidation of my test results. In addition, students are responsible for protecting their answers from being seen by others. If students are caught cheating during testing their tests will be invalidated.
■Invalidations After Testing —The FDOE employs a test security company, Caveon Test Security, to analyze student test results to detect unusually similar answer patterns. Student results within a school that are found by Caveon to have extremely similar answer patterns will be invalidated.

■ Leaving Campus—If your student leaves campus before completing the test (for lunch, an appointment, or illness, etc.), he or she WILL NOT be allowed to complete the test. If your student does not feel well on the day of testing, it may be best for him or her to wait and be tested on a make-up day.

If you have any questions related to this test administration, you may contact Jessica Meek at (727) 774-4200.  For more information about the statewide assessment program, visit the FDOE website at http://fcat.fldoe.org/.

Thank you for supporting your student as he/she prepares for the test.

Sincerely,

Jessica Meek

Assistant Principal