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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