The Florida Department of Education announced Monday that Florida students scored higher on the 2014 end-of-course assessments, or EOCs, than they did last year.
The test results show first-time test-takers in grades six through 12 improved across the board on four of five EOCs offered by the state. The percentage of passing students increased by 1 point for Algebra I and geometry and 2 points for Biology I. The fifth exam, middle school civics, was administered for the first time this year.
But the most significant increase is a 10-percentage-point jump in students who passed the U.S. history assessment. State Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart says this is due to an increase in the number of high-performing test takers.
“Students who may have been enrolled in an AP, or an IB, or an ACE course would not previously have needed to take that, but in order to receive the Scholar Designation they needed to take the assessment,” Stewart says.
EOCs are administered three times a year and can be likened to a final exam for a class. Students can also receive a Scholar Designation on their high school diploma if they pass the biology and U.S. history assessments.
Data from the Department of Education also show that close to 30 percent of students did not pass the EOCs. But Stewart says the improvement is still encouraging.
“We continue to work very hard,” she says, “and we will work to see that every single student passes not only the EOCs, but the statewide assessments overall.”
