TALLAHASSEE -- The first substantive overhaul of Florida's high-stakes test in nine years was overwhelmingly approved by a House panel Monday, a move Democrats hailed as long overdue.

If it becomes law, Florida high schools would be graded on how many students graduate and how many take college-prep courses in addition to how students fare on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT. But the vote on the bill -- which has already passed the full Senate -- may not close a partisan rift that sparked a remarkable 16-hour legislative session Friday.

Democrats wanted to add the same FCAT provision to another education bill last week, but House Republicans bypassed them without debate. In response, Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat, made a rare motion to force the full reading of every bill, slowing the session down. Republicans retaliated by taking off the agenda three easy-to-pass Democratic bills, including one to create a license plate benefiting historically black Bethune Cookman University.

Gelber and House Speaker Marco Rubio sought to signal calm Monday; they flew to Tallahassee together and both agreed to put behind them the ''rawness'' of last week.

''We don't have time for drama. We have a job to do,'' Rubio said.

But Rep. David Rivera, the powerful Miami Republican who helps set the House's agenda, would not say whether he would place the Democratic bills back into consideration. Instead, he said he was ''hopeful and confident'' the bills would be taken up, provided the House moves in an ''orderly'' fashion.

His promises, however, did not completely assuage some Democrats.

''This is not a game of chicken,'' said Rep. Joyce Cusack, a DeLand Democrat.

Republicans meanwhile said passage of the FCAT bill, sponsored by Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican, through the House Policy and Budget Council showed that the Democrats' action last week was unwarranted.

''This just demonstrates that Gelber's temper tantrum was much ado about nothing,'' Rivera said.

The FCAT was developed under a Democratic governor, but former Gov. Jeb Bush expanded its use to grades three through 10 and based penalties and rewards to schools on how well students fared on the high-stakes test. Democrats, including Sen. Frederica Wilson of Miami, have steadily proposed revamping the FCAT, but their legislation has gone nowhere in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Under the measure now moving through the Legislature, the state in 2009 would base school grades for high schools partly on FCAT scores and also on graduation rates, passing scores on college-prep tests and the number of students taking college-prep classes.

Republican lawmakers say they favor changing the school grading system for high schools because the FCAT is given only in the ninth and 10th grades. The legislation has also won the backing of a nonprofit education think tank set up by Bush to continue to advocate the former governor's ideas.

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