By Ashleigh Costello
EAGnews.org

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – “Suppose you or someone else had a chance to ride a camel.  Imagine what happens on this camel ride.  Write a story about what happens on this camel ride.”

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The above is an excerpt from a fourth grade standardized writing exam in Florida. Sounds easy, right?

Wrong.

According to the Florida Department of Education, a whopping 73 percent of fourth graders failed to properly respond to the question.

Now Florida teachers are firing back, saying the question was unfair because—get this—it is unrealistic to expect a fourth grader to know what a camel is.

“It was just a very poor prompt – when do we see camels in Central Florida?”  said Ann Egitto, a language arts teacher at  Rock Lake Middle School, in an interview with MyFoxOrlando.

Obviously a trip to the zoo is in order. Lowering state test standards is not.

But that’s exactly what’s happening in the Sunshine State.

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Last year the state’s Board of Education announced tougher standards for the statewide FCAT writing test. The acceptable grade-level score was increased from 3.5 to 4.0 (on a scale of 6) and schools were warned that the test would become more challenging this year.

But the students didn’t rise to the challenge. Preliminary scores from around the state indicated “significantly lower student performance.” In response the state board called an emergency meeting earlier this week and lowered the acceptable grade-level score to 3.0.

State officials said they did not properly prepare teachers and students for the tougher standards, according to the news report. They were also concerned because the cumulative results of the writing tests are used to help assign a letter grade for each state school.

“Florida’s children do not know less than before,” said Gerard Robinson, Florida’s Education Commissioner. “Rather, we’ve raised our standards and expectations. It’s clear in that we must do a better job of communicating student expectations to educators and parents so they can better preparing students to be successful.”

But didn’t they already do that? Last July the DOE sent schools notice of the increased difficulty of the writing exam, and sent samples to illustrate the skills that children should have, according to the news report.

But the kids failed to make the grade, so the state is lowering the standard. That’s no way to improve writing skills over the long run. You set a high standard and let the students catch up to it. It might take a few years, but they will eventually become better writers and have a better chance of succeeding in college and life.

You do children no favors by expecting too little of them, or lowering expectations when they don’t immediately succeed. Give them a little time and they will make the grade.