One benefit of the FCAT is the fact that, in order to have some success in college, trade school, or later life, students must possess some standardized knowledge of subjects like math, reading, comprehension, and the like. The FCAT is linked directly to the Sunshine State Standards for what knowledge is required for these students, and as such it is a fairly accurate measurement of what students have learned and a fairly accurate predictor of weak areas and how they may be expected to fare in college.
As with all standardized testing, there are those who feel that because of the requirements set forth for these tests, that school districts have significantly decreased non-test-related instruction time in order to do what is called "teaching to the test." This narrowing effect means that students may not have as broad or well-balanced of an education as they had in years before the standardized testing was the sole measure of a student's performance and carried so much weight.
Another con of the FCAT is that, being a standardized test, it has to be normalized in some fashion, and as such may not be an accurate measure of the overall performance of a district or its educators. Because so much weight is put on the results of this test, which may not be appropriate for all students, its results may skew the impression of how well a school district or geographic area is doing, or how its student body is progressing as a whole. Because of this, there is a push-back against some standardized testing which continues to this day.