What is the Florida PIRC at USF? The Florida Parental Information and Resource Center (PIRC ) at the University of South Florida (USF) is a center funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The overall goal of the PIRC is to help families and schools throughout the state work together effectively to increase parental involvement in education so children are: 1) better prepared to enter school and 2) their academic achievement increases.

The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) is part of Florida's overall plan to increase student achievement by implementing higher standards. The FCAT, administered to students in Grades 3-11, contains two basic components: criterion-referenced tests (CRT), measuring selected benchmarks in Mathematics, Reading, Science, and Writing from the Sunshine State Standards (SSS); and norm-referenced tests (NRT) in Reading and Mathematics, measuring individual student performance against national norms.