BOARD MEMBERS Georgia “Joy” Bowen Dee Crumpler Alva Swafford Striplin BOARD CHAIR Maggie 8. Lewis-Butler BOARD VICE CHAIR DeeDee Rasmussen LEON COUNTY SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT Jackie Pons Thursday, May 14 2015 Dear Honorable Rick Scott: ‘Thank you for your recent decision to reduce the number of state assessments and your call for an increase in student funding, Your willihgness to investigate complex issues that interfere with teacher effectiveness and student learning clearly shows your understanding of the day-to-day challenges schools face in this era of new standards and assessments, | request additional executive actions to ease the burden on district and school administrators, classroom teachers, and—most importantly —the students throughout our state, I am asking for your support and leadership on three critical issues: 1. We have experienced numerous issues with the administration of state assessments, including yesterday’s End of Course tests administered through PearsonAccess. 2. We have been informed by the Florida Department of Education that scores for the Florida Standards ‘Assessment in English Language Arts and Math will not be released in June. This means that the t- scores, raw scores, and percentiles will not be made available until at least September 1*. Course ‘grades will be calculated based upon data that is available and will be updated when results from the state assessment is released. Some teachers” evaluations for the current school year are not completed until the next school year. We are requesting an executive order to allow school districts to use local data rather than scores from any state assessment so that we can complete all teacher evaluations prior to the end of the current school year. Governor Scott, we are asking for your immediate assistance, through executive action, to do ‘what is in the best interest of students and teachers throughout the state of Florida: to suspend testing consequences for students, teachers, and schools, which includes school grades, Sincerely, 4e- Jackie Pons 2757 West Pensacola Street + Tallahassee, Florida 32304-2998 + Phone (850) 487-7110 » Fax (850) 414-5194 « wa. leonschools.net “The Leon County School District does not discriminate against any person on the basis of gender, marital status, sexual orientation, race, religion, national origin, age, color or disabitity.”” Building the Future Together