Predicting FCAT Science Scores 2006-07. Research Brief. Volume 0602

Although students have been taking the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) Science test for a few years, the State has only recently set the achievement-level standards for the Science test. Science will be included in the school grade calculations for the first time in 2006-07. In addition, although no official guidelines exist presently, the FCAT Science scores will also be incorporated in the Adequate Yearly Progress requirements in the near future. With the growing importance of the FCAT Science test, it becomes increasingly desirable to have some way of predicting the performance of students. In other FCAT testing areas, prediction formulas and cutoff scores for success have been developed by this office and made available to schools for several years. However, because the FCAT Science test is relatively new and because it is administered in only Grades 5, 8, and 11, prediction for this test must proceed along different lines. This paper presents the results of an analysis directed toward predicting students' Science scores based on their performance on the FCAT Mathematics test of the previous year.