Major changes to EOC exams for Lee County students

FORT MYERS, Fla.  – The Lee County School Board made major changes to three important tests for students Tuesday night.

The state told all districts to include three specific End of Course (EOC) exams in students’ final grades.

The Lee County School Board voted to not use any of those grades because they heard the results would arrive too late. The district tells WINK News the results actually came back early and scores from three EOC exams will now be added to final year grades.

“Letter grades will drop, kids will not be on a honor roll. It is going to affect our students,” said parent Ramie Hall.

Hall tells WINK News she feels lied to because her seventh grade daughter was told by the district that her EOC exam would not count towards her grade.

“I honestly felt sick sitting in the board room,” said Hall. “We got an e-mail from the district on April 29th saying that these tests would not count.”

The subject tests that will be used to calculate final grades for the upcoming report card are history, civics and biology. The scores will count as 30 percent of a students’ yearly grade.

The district says a little more than 900 students will see a negative impact on their grades because of Tuesday’s decision, but says no one will fail a course because of it.

“The lowest grade will be a C, so we have a very small percentage who may have been affected by a grade, a letter grade,” said board member Mary Fischer.

The district says most students will see their grades go up, but that’s not enough for Hall.

“I am going to be looking into a class action lawsuit and I have a lot of other mothers who will be doing this with me,” she said.