Autism, NASA and FCAT

What do autism, NASA and FCAT serve up in common?

Several hot stories breaking in the last couple of days.

Florida Today asks tough questions of NASA administrator Charles Bolden. (No easy answers for space, 2/3/10). The future of the Frontier and Beyond appears more restructured than scrapped. The demise of Project Constellation was raised in the form of this question: Why is President Obama killing the moon program?

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Answer: Underfunded for six years, the project now is over budget, behind schedule and, according to the White House, "lacking in innovation." A White House panel found it is on an "unsustainable trajectory" and would not return astronauts to the moon until at least the late 2020s.Bolden said it would have cost a fortune to resurrect a Constellation program that aimed to simply repeat the Apollo missions of 50 years ago. "Wisdom says you pick a new course," Bolden said. "That's what we've done."

Moving on, the British medical journal Lancet has retracted the study responsible for shaping parental thinking towards childhood immunizations over the past decade. Dr. Andrew Wakefield's study linking autism to vaccines has been cited for years as responsible for the disorder. (Medical journal retracts controversial autism article, 2/3/10).

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A British medical panel said last week that Wakefield's study of a dozen children provided false information, and an investigation is under way that could cause him to lose his medical practice. Several years ago, Wakefield's co-authors conceded that they didn't have enough information to conclude there was a link between the vaccine and autism. And later, reports surfaced that Wakefield was paid by attorneys representing families suing the makers of the vaccine.

"He created incredible pain and suffering among people and gave this false belief that physicians did harm to their children by giving them this vaccine," said Dr. Dan Levy, an Owings Mills pediatrician and past president of the Maryland chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2008 that the rate of measles had reached a 12-year high, with as many as 131 cases in 15 states and the District of Columbia.

Saving the blatant self-promotion for last, my recent community column discussed concerns associated with Florida's education business as usual application in it's Race to the Top for federal education dollars. (Caution in the classroom, 1/31/10).

As the Florida DOE continues to cite the FCAT as the be all, end all measurement of student assessment, I found it enlightening that several state legislators have proposed legislation to skin the cat. (Legislators looking at multiple bills to end the testing, 2/2/2010)

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First administered in 1998, the FCAT has faced criticism from parents and educational groups who believe teachers are focusing on teaching students to pass or excel on the test since student learning gains, school accountability and state rewards dollars are based on the test scores.

"FCAT is probably the most misused state tests in the country because it is a political tool not an educational one," Bob Schaefer, public education director for FairTest, said Monday.

A Boston-based group, FairTest works to end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing.

The FCAT has been used improperly for grade promotion and retention, determining graduation, allocating school rewards, determining teacher bonuses, etc., none of which it was designed to do, Schaefer said.

Many Florida legislators have similar beliefs about the FCAT and are sponsoring or supporting bills aimed at eliminating it or scaling it back.

"A number of us have always felt that the FCAT is being used for all the wrong reasons," Rep. Bill Heller, D-St. Petersburg, said Monday. Heller also is a special education professor at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg.

It's not a bad instrument as far the test goes, he said. But, it shouldn't be used to judge whether schools are effective nor whether students are learning the required content in their courses, he said.

Heller is one of six representatives co-sponsoring a bill that calls for discontinuing FCAT beginning with the 2014-15 school year.

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