Seminole County superintendent asks state to consider not assigning school grades due to COVID-19

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — The superintendent of Seminole County Public Schools is asking the state to consider not assigning school grades or teacher value-added scores due to the educational impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Superintendent Walt Griffin sent a letter with his request to Florida Educational Commissioner Richard Corcoran on Thursday.

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“Providing this relief as soon as possible will remove one layer of concern and anxiety from an already over-whelmed educational system,” Griffin wrote.

He said the county intends to issue the state’s annual Florida Standards Assessments, but asks that those assessments only be used to track individual student’s progress, not schools as a whole.

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Griffin said the grading of schools this year would result in misrepresentation of student and school achievement due to challenges poised by trying to educate kids during the pandemic.

Read his full letter below:

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