The FCAT Science Performance Items (short response and extended response items) may look quite similar to performance items in other FCAT tests. There are some subtle and significant differences in how students may respond and how the items are scored. 

• Appearance of Response. Scorers cannot consider such qualities as handwriting skill, neatness, or margins when scoring a response. Only if the response is unreadable or ambiguous will handwriting or neatness influence a score.
• Style. Clichés, organizational structure, standard sentence format, use of first person, etc. cannot influence the score of an FCAT Science response. The student’s knowledge relative to the prompt is the quality that is being rated.
• Graphs, Charts, and Illustrations. These are great as long as they contribute to a display of the student’s knowledge and skill. They should be clear and appropriately labeled.
• Bullets. Bullets can be used to efficiently highlight specific parts of an answer.
• Information Beyond the Prompt. The FCAT Reading requires the student to respond only to the specific text provided and not include prior knowledge of the subject. The FCAT Science requires that the response does include prior knowledge and information gained outside of the prompt itself.
• Scorer Reactions to Content. Scorers are specifically instructed not to react to responses they may deem vulgar, violent, or mundane, or that suggest a “student’s culture, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual preference, or exceptionality.” Scorers should “judge the student’s ability to communicate, not the student’s personality or voice.”
• Grammatical Conventions. Complete sentences are not required. Use of grammatical conventions is not a part of the score. If the inappropriate use or non-use of a grammatical convention obfuscates or influences the meaning of the response, then it may influence the score.

RTully 2006Sep26