Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) has eliminated the End Of Course (EOC) examinations that were scheduled to take place at the end of the 2015 school year for all Miami-Dade students.
The EOC exams, which were previously used for decisions on student promotion, retention, graduation and teacher evaluation, will only be administered to a small testing group of students randomly selected from Miami-Dade County middle and senior high schools. Additionally, field tests will only include 10 of the original 263 combined middle and high school EOC exam topics. No field tests will be administered to elementary school students.
This news comes on the heels of a new state law, HB7096, which allows for flexibility in administering testing in regards to academic achievement.
According to a press release by MDCPS, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said, “Today’s announcement should come as welcomed news to everyone who recognizes that too much testing deprives our students of valuable instruction time. In making these decisions, we’ve taken a logical and responsible approach to address the concerns of students, teachers and parents.”
Carvalho broke the news on Thursday, April 23, during a General Obligation Bond ground-breaking event at Oak Grove Elementary School in Miami. The Superintendent and School Board Chair, Perla Tabares Hantman, were joined by the United Teachers of Dade (UTD) and the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA/PTSA) who Carvalho said on his Facebook page “were instrumental in voicing the concerns from students, parents and teachers.”