Leon County public school students won’t receive midterm reports this 9 weeks, and they won’t take final exams at the end of the semester.
Speaking in a Facebook Live session yesterday, Superintendent Rocky Hanna said students are exempt from final exams as well as the usual standardized assessments from the state.
He also addressed how grades will be calculated.
“If a teacher gives a test, and they see the high grade of the class was 80%, then there’s a curve that’s associated and then applied to that test,” Hanna says. “We’re going to be operating a districtwide curve so to speak, a model across the Leon County school system for our students. But we have to have effort. We’ve talked about that before. Students, you need to try your best.”
Hanna says teachers are working to cover standards in a meaningful way, so students don’t slip academically going into the fall semester.
He’s also thinking about more than 2,000 seniors in the district who don’t get a prom and can’t finish school sitting next to their classmates. Hanna says he’s working on something special for graduation.
“I do have a call into the Leon County civic center and the folks at Florida State University about doing some type of drive-in ceremony,” Hanna says. “I have really good plans – I think a really cool ceremony in my mind – but I don’t want to speak too soon before I get some commitments.” That includes getting clearance from local health officials. “The last thing we want to do is go against any guidelines coming from the health department.”
Florida schools are closed for the rest of the academic year due to COVID-19.
