Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart has unveiled her plans for overhauling the state’s school grading system.
Florida’s school grading system has come under fire from a variety of groups for becoming too complicated. The problems have become so great that legislative leaders have listed a revamp as a legislative priority. Until now, state Education system Commissioner Pam Stewart spoke generally about her plans.
“What do we want to include in there that will be understandable, clear and transparent and include student outcomes? That is my focus and that is what we’re going to try and do as we change the school grading system," Stewart said at a recent meeting of district school superintendents.
Now details of Stewart's plan have been posted as an agenda item for the upcoming State Board of Education meeting. According to the proposed changes, automatic letter-grade drops would be gone. Middle schools would no longer get bonus points when students complete industry certifications and high school end-of-course tests. There are also changes to how high school graduation rates, and advanced courses will be weighed. The state board of education will take up the proposal at it February 18th meeting.
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