Beach school product aces FCAT exam
A recent graduate of Beach Elementary School is continuing her academic success with a perfect FCAT score at a higher level.
Beach resident Annie Salyers, a sixth-grade student at Lexington Middle School, received notice that her FCAT result in Reading achieved a perfect score of 2758. The impeccable mark ranks among a very low percentile in the Lee County School District to reach such a distinction, according to Jay Keefer, the coordinator of Continuous Improvement and Testing for the Lee County School District.
Keefer, a former principal in Ohio, said there were 211 perfect Reading FCAT scores in grades 3 through 10 this year which equates to one to two percent from the average of 5,000 to 6,000 students at each grade level.
“The standards of the state are quite vigorous,” he said. “It’s quite an accomplishment for these students to receive a perfect score when the cognitive complexity for this test can be quite high.”
While at Beach Elementary, Salyers excelled academically while playing on the Fort Myers Beach U12 girls’ soccer team which captured two County Cups in three years. She received many awards at the Grade “A” school’s fifth grade graduation including the Highest Achievement in Language and Math, the Academic A Honor Roll, President’s Education Award, Citizenship Award as well as being nominated to the prestigious Carson Scholarship Fund.
“Everything we learned in class came very easily to Annie.” said Joy Rockwell, Salyers’ fifth grade Reading teacher at Beach Elementary. “She always understood the ‘deeper meanings’ authors try to express to their readers with little guidance from me.She was a model student, an avid reader anda very hard worker.”
Debbie Salyers, Annie’s mom, was ecstatic to hear the news. She gave credit to the staff at the local elementary for her daughter’s success,
“It is a true testament to our wonderful teachers here at Beach Elementary,” she said. “I am just very proud of her self-dedication in obtaining her goals.”