The School Board of Lee County has cast a unanimous vote to lessen the high stakes associated with state required End of Course Exams by eliminating the 30% weight the exam has on a student’s final grade.
Students enrolled in Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, US History, Biology and Middle School Civics will continue to participate in the End of Course Exams for assessment purposes. However, the result of these assessments will have no impact on the final grade parents see on the student’s report card.
This vote comes just days after Superintendent Nancy Graham empowered Principals to eliminate hundreds of end of year common course exams previously required by the state in nearly every subject for use in calculating a teacher’s VAM score required for the statewide teacher performance system.
As of last Thursday, teachers have the flexibility to choose the final exam for any subject that does not have a required statewide assessment attached to it. Dr. Nancy Graham is encouraging teachers to choose exams that will most effectively assess student learning and inform classroom instruction.
This is one step towards the process of a good curriculum, the state board of education really needs to revamp the whole thing, for example there is not any spelling test given anymore, our children have no clue how to properly write a paragraph because of this. Spelling is a key factor in our children’s education and I sincerely hope that someone has the intelligence to see this and include it in a required curriculum.