Senate Bill 0990er
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2000 Legislature SB 990, 2nd Engrossed
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2 An act relating to education; amending s.
3 230.23, F.S.; clarifying requirements relating
4 to annual public disclosure reports; amending
5 s. 232.24521, F.S.; encouraging certain grading
6 practices; prohibiting certain exemption;
7 amending s. 232.2463, F.S.; authorizing school
8 districts to abandon certain high school
9 grading practices; providing definitions;
10 authorizing a weighted grading system for
11 purposes of class ranking; providing an
12 effective date.
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14 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
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16 Section 1. Paragraph (e) of subsection (16) of section
17 230.23, F.S., is amended to read:
18 230.23 Powers and duties of school board.--The school
19 board, acting as a board, shall exercise all powers and
20 perform all duties listed below:
21 (16) IMPLEMENT SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AND
22 ACCOUNTABILITY.--Maintain a system of school improvement and
23 education accountability as provided by statute and State
24 Board of Education rule. This system of school improvement and
25 education accountability shall be consistent with, and
26 implemented through, the district's continuing system of
27 planning and budgeting required by this section and ss.
28 229.555 and 237.041. This system of school improvement and
29 education accountability shall include, but is not limited to,
30 the following:
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2000 Legislature SB 990, 2nd Engrossed
1 (e) Public disclosure.--Provide information regarding
2 performance of students and educational programs as required
3 pursuant to ss. 229.555 and 229.57(5) and implement a system
4 of school reports as required by statute and State Board of
5 Education rule which shall include schools operating for the
6 purpose of providing educational services to youth in
7 Department of Juvenile Justice programs, and for those
8 schools, report on the elements specified in s. 230.23161(21).
9 Annual public disclosure reports must shall be a profile of
10 each school in an easy-to-read report card format and must
11 shall include the school's student and school performance
12 grade category designation and performance data as specified
13 in state board rule.
14 Section 2. Section 232.24521, Florida Statutes, is
15 amended to read:
16 232.24521 Report cards; end-of-the-year status.--
17 (1) Each school district shall establish and publish
18 policies requiring the content and regular issuance of student
19 report cards for all elementary school, middle school, and
20 high school students. These report cards must clearly depict
21 and grade:
22 (a) The student's academic achievement performance in
23 each class or course, which in grades 1 through 12 must be
24 based upon examinations as well as written papers, class
25 participation, and other measures of academic achievement
26 performance criteria.
27 (b) The student's conduct and behavior.
28 (c) The student's attendance, including absences and
29 tardiness.
30 (2) A student's final report card for a school year
31 shall contain a statement indicating end-of-the-year status
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2000 Legislature SB 990, 2nd Engrossed
1 regarding performance or nonperformance at grade level,
2 acceptable or unacceptable behavior and attendance, and
3 promotion or nonpromotion. Grades reported on the final report
4 card must be expressed as letter grades or grade points.
5 (3) Academic achievement should be graded upon
6 measurement of academic performance and timely completion of
7 academic requirements. Academic achievement grades should be
8 separated from grades for other matters, such as academic
9 improvement, conduct, attitude, attendance, or tardiness.
10 School districts shall not allow schools to exempt students
11 from academic performance requirements based on practices or
12 policies designed to encourage student attendance. A student's
13 attendance record may not be used in whole or in part to
14 provide an exemption from any academic performance
15 requirement.
16 Section 3. Section 232.2463, Florida Statutes, is
17 amended to read:
18 (Substantial rewording of section. See
19 s. 232.2463, F.S., for present text.)
20 232.2463 High school grading system.--The Legislature
21 finds that the percentage equivalents of high school letter
22 grades depend upon the difficulty of material assigned and
23 tested by the teacher. An equal percentage of correct answers
24 could indicate unequal levels of mastery, depending on the
25 difficulty of the test questions. Therefore, grades expressed
26 as a percentage are not expected to be consistently equated to
27 the same level of mastery. School districts are not required
28 to adopt a system of interpreting percentage grades, and
29 school teachers may use grading systems that vary the
30 interpretation of percentage grades according to the
31 difficulty of material tested, such as "curving" the grades.
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2000 Legislature SB 990, 2nd Engrossed
1 For purposes of interpreting percentage grades when teachers
2 do not assign letter grades, school districts should use a
3 grading scale that is similar to those used by other states,
4 as follows:
5 (1) Grade "A" equals 90 percent through 100 percent,
6 has a grade point average value of 4, and is defined as
7 "outstanding progress."
8 (2) Grade "B" equals 80 percent through 89 percent,
9 has a grade point average value of 3, and is defined as "above
10 average progress."
11 (3) Grade "C" equals 70 percent through 79 percent,
12 has a grade point average value of 2, and is defined as
13 "average progress."
14 (4) Grade "D" equals 60 percent through 69 percent,
15 has a grade point average value of 1, and is defined as
16 "lowest acceptable progress."
17 (5) Grade "F" equals zero percent through 59 percent,
18 has a grade point average value of zero, and is defined as
19 "failure."
20 (6) Grade "I" equals zero percent, has a grade point
21 average value of zero, and is defined as "incomplete."
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23 For the purposes of class ranking, school districts may
24 exercise a weighted grading system.
25 Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2000.
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