Teacher Training Available

The FCAT Explorer/Focus Support Services Team is available to provide training to teachers and staff across the state. Support Services Staff can train any teacher, media specialist, school administrator, or other school staff in using the FCAT Explorer and Focus Teacher's Desk features.

Using a conference call format, Support Services Staff can provide hands-on, step-by-step guidance through the features of the Teacher's Desk, including enrollment, class and student management, reports, program features, and content review. Training can be done on an individual or group basis.

To schedule a teacher training session, call 1-888-750-3228.

FCAT Explorer and Focus Newsletter

The FCAT Explorer/Focus newsletter is delivered to all public school teachers in Florida via e-mail. The newsletter is designed to provide teachers and administrators with the latest information about these two free resources from the Department of Education. If you would like to receive the newsletter and have not yet, please send an email to newsletter@fcatexplorer.com and type Subscribe in the subject line of the e-mail.

To see previous issues of the newsletter, click on one of the links below:
ISSUE 1, FALL 2006
ISSUE 2, WINTER 2007
ISSUE 3, SPRING 2007
ISSUE 4, SUMMER 2007

ISSUE 5, FALL 2007
ISSUE 6, WINTER 2008
ISSUE 7, SPRING 2008

ISSUE 8, FALL 2008
ISSUE 9, WINTER 2009
ISSUE 10, SPRING 2009

ISSUE 11, FALL 2009
ISSUE 12, WINTER 2010
ISSUE 13, SPRING 2010

FCAT Explorer and Adobe Flash

Are you up to date?

Currently, most FCAT Explorer programs will run under Adobe Flash Player 6.0. However, it is a good idea to update the Flash Player program on your computer, especially if you want to take advantage of the new features planned for FCAT Explorer.

In June 2008, we launched Science Station: 5th Grade Benchmarks. Science Station and other programs launched in the upcoming school years will run under Adobe Flash Player 7.0.

Please note: The current Flash Player version is 10, so if you've updated since October 2008, your Flash player will support all FCAT Explorer programs.

You can download Adobe Flash Player at no cost from the Adobe site:



If you have problems installing the new Flash, you can find help from Adobe at this site: http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer.

Tools for Teachers

The Focus and FCAT Explorer Web sites offer tools to help teachers and administrators make the most of these free, benchmark-based programs.

On both the teacher's and school administrator's desks, PowerPoint presentations and users manuals are available for download. These materials can be used for teacher training, parent workshops, or mentor and tutor training.

To access these tools, teachers and administrators should click on the Tools/Resources tab from their teacher/administrator desk. The presentations require Microsoft PowerPoint. The users' manuals are available in both Microsoft Word and PDF (Adobe Acrobat required) format. Manuals and presentations may both be downloaded and printed.

Send Us Your Stories!

How do you use Focus? Over the years, teachers have shared with us their stories about Focus and how their students use it. We'd like to compile these kinds of stories for use in future issues of the newsletter. If you have a tip for other teachers, suggestions for incentives, or a success story, we'd love to hear from you.

Click here to submit a success story or an incentive. After we collect your suggestions, we'll publish them in an upcoming issue of the newsletter.

Yearly Database Renewal and Purge

To prepare for the 2011 annual enrollment process, both FCAT Explorer and Focus will be unavailable from August 4, 2011 through August 9, 2011. During this time, all performance data and login information for teachers and students for school year 2010-2011 will be deleted to prepare for a new year of enrollment and data collection.

Teachers: If you'd like to keep records of your students' performance in FCAT Explorer or Focus, go to Run Reports in the Teacher's Desk. From there, you can print hardcopies of your students' progress during the 2010-2011 school year.

Parents: If you'd like to keep a copy of your child's records for the 2010-2011 school year, please print a copy of the Explorer's Report for each program your child has used.

In addition to the yearly database purge, we will also be making other changes to the system during this time. These changes include implementing updates to the FCAT Explorer science programs (Science Station, Science Voyager, and Science Mission) and the new high school mathematics program, Math Timeline, which have all been aligned to the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards. During the purge, we will also be upgrading our database software. These upgrades will require a brief shutdown of the system. Both FCAT Explorer and Focus will be back online in time for the new school year's re-enrollment period.

During the fall enrollment period, the Support Services Team works with each district to ensure student and teacher sign-in names and passwords are processed in a timely manner. Once the enrollment for your district is complete, your district office will distribute new sign-in names and passwords to your School Administrator. The list of Currently Enrolled Districts and School Administrators below allows you to check on the enrollment process for your school or district.

If you do not receive your login information from your School Administrator, please contact us toll-free at (888) 750 – 3228, Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, and we would be happy to assist you.

Typically, enrollment is complete within two weeks after school starts. Thank you for your patience as we prepare the database for the upcoming school year enrollments.

Science Item Specifications Released

The Science Item Specifications for grades 5 and 8 have been released and are available on the DOE website (fcat.fldoe.org). These item specifications are based on the newly revised standards for Science.

The FCAT Explorer Support Services Team is working to revise the science and math content in FCAT Explorer and Focus over the next year. To accomplish this, the Team is reviewing the items, revising where necessary, and replacing as needed. The revised content will be available on the websites after the 2011 administration of the FCAT.

Beginning in 2011, the FCAT 2.0 will measure student achievement in reading (grades 3 – 10) and mathematics (grades 3 – 8). Starting in 2012, the FCAT 2.0 will measure student achievement in science (grades 5 and 8). The Specifications for FCAT 2.0 Reading and Mathematics will be posted on the DOE website in December 2010.

Implementing Next Generation Sunshine State Standards

The question of when the FCAT Explorer and Focus websites will be updated to reflect the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS) has been coming up a lot lately. The Support Services Team and FLDOE are working hard to keep your students prepared for FCAT, as the standards are being updated and revised.

As you may know, the Sunshine State Standards were revised recently. The resulting new standards (NGSSS) will be phased in over the next few years. The content on FCAT Explorer and Focus will be updated based on the scheduled implementation of the NGSSS on the actual FCAT.

Further, this year's FCAT will be based on the 1996 standards for reading, math, and science. This year's FCAT will include some NGSSS mathematics questions that are being field tested, but these will not count in a student's score. Next year (2011), students taking FCAT mathematics will be tested on the NGSSS. Only mathematics is scheduled to switch to NGSSS in 2011. Consequently, the 2009-2010 school year finds the Support Services Team updating the mathematics content on both FCAT Explorer and Focus.

For the 2010 FCAT, what is currently on both FCAT Explorer and Focus is appropriate. When students return to school in the fall of 2010 to start a new year, mathematics content based on the NGSSS will be available.