Lake County Schools Superintendent Diane Kornegay has asked state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran for an extension of “grace and compassion” this year as the district continues to struggle with chronic absenteeism among students and teachers, resulting in significant student learning losses in the wake of COVID-19.
Specifically, in a letter sent today, she asked that the state “provide flexibility on assessment and accountability for graduation requirements for the 2021-22 graduating class, third-grade retention requirements, school grades and improvement ratings, district grades, and the use of test scores to determine teacher evaluations.”
Kornegay said students should still participate in their annual end-of-year exams, but the scores should not be used against them, their teachers, the schools or the district. To support her request, she cited data that shows COVID spikes have led to 31 percent of Lake students missing 10 percent or more of the current school year, a threshold used statewide for chronic absenteeism. Additionally, 55 percent of Lake teachers have missed 5 days or more and 20 percent have missed more than 10 days.
To demonstrate learning losses, she pointed to significant drops in the percentage of students proficient in English Language Arts and Math on the most recent district progress monitoring assessment. The number of sixth-grade students proficient in math, for example, fell by 28 percentage points.
“We have worked tirelessly to provide quality instruction in safe learning environments but our students need more time to make up for the learning losses they are experiencing,” Kornegay wrote. “Rather than using student performance data to sanction schools and subject teachers to evaluations that do not fairly account for all they have encountered the past couple of years, allow us to use that data to strengthen our ability to plan a path forward so we can overcome the impact of this pandemic and meet the expanded needs of our students.”
Other districts, including Orange, Miami-Dade and Hillsborough, have sent letters with similar requests.
The state Board of Education is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9.
