Marion County FCAT scores rise.

Marion students' FCAT scores rise Test included new, expanded writing section.
OCALA - The Marion County School District had plenty of reasons to celebrate Thursday.Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test writing scores released Thursday show county students in fourth, eighth and 10th grades are improving at a higher rate than the state average. Writing proficiency scores went up at each of the district's middle and high schools and 24 out of 29 of its elementary schools."We are very excited about our test scores. Hard work on the part of our students, teachers and administrators paid off," said Diana Greene, the district's deputy superintendent of curriculum.This year's test included an expanded version of Writing Plus - a combination of an essay and multiple choice questions, designed to measure skills in four facets of writing. The new section is intended to provide a more comprehensive assessment of language abilities.In Florida, a writing score of 3.5 - in a range of 1 to 5 - is consider the standard for proficiency.Districtwide, 72 percent of fourth-graders scored at grade level or higher, a 10 percent increase over last year and 8 percent higher than the state improvement rate of 2 percent. Fort McCoy improved by 46 percent.However, the percentage of the county's fourth-graders scoring at grade level was still below the statewide 76 percent.Results show 84 percent of Marion County eighth-graders scored at grade level or above, a 13 percent jump over last year. That compares to 83 percent making the grade statewide.In Marion County, 75 percent of 10th-graders scored at grade level, which is up 6 percent, but still below the statewide rate of 78 percent. Dunnellon High posted the largest gains in Marion, improving by 14 percent."For high school students, this is fantastic news," said district spokesman Kevin Christian. "Students must know how to write to communicate clearly, and this essential skill only helps them secure better jobs and higher educations after they graduate."Gov. Jeb Bush and Education Commissioner John L. Winn said that, overall, the results show an increase in the average score in all grade levels and an increase in the number of students who scored 3.5 or higher on the writing portion of the FCAT."We are proud of all our schools, but our middle schools deserve a gold star for strong improvement," said Janet Weldon, director of guidance and assessment for Marion County Schools. "Our desire was to at least keep up with students across the state. If we can exceed that, we are doing a good job."