None of the papers scored in the Tampa facility are from schools in any of the Bay Area counties. Of course, none are identified with either a student name or school identification. Direct writing assessment applies many of the principles used by exemplary teachers to develop effective writing. The strength of large-scale assessment is that all student papers are scored against a common standard. Understanding what that common standard is can be the key to your sophomore's success on the Florida Writes test.
Writing has many different forms.
It measures a student's ability to write well in these two areas in a timed situation. There is a norm-referenced component of FCAT that allows each Florida student to be compared to a national norm. I would urge you to review the Sunshine State Standards and grade level expectations before you dismiss them. They are NOT what we all learned in school 30 years ago. You can read all about them and print copies at the web site.