Pinellas added its name today to the growing number of Florida school districts that are asking the Florida Department of Education for an expert review of this year's FCAT results.

Testing director Octavio Salcedo made the request by email this afternoon after finding what he called "substantial and anomalous decreases in the learning gain components at our elementary schools."

Salcedo estimates that 55 of the district's elementary schools (74% of the total) will show declines in the number of struggling students making a year's worth of progress this year, up from 40 last year. Meanwhile, 22 of them may be penalized a letter grade for failing to get at least 50 percent of those students over that bar - up from three last year.

Pinellas wants a delay in school grades until an expert study can "resolve all of the data concerns," Salcedo wrote.