How do you feel about testing, teacher evaluations, and how to improve schools? OCPS wants to know.

The United States Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and signed it into law in December 2015. The law provides states with more flexibility in how they decide to test students, evaluate teachers, and look to improve low-performing schools. A critical piece of the ESSA is a requirement to seek parent and community feedback on these changes.

Orange County Public Schools has made it easy for parents and community members to share their thoughts and input through a survey. The online survey allows parents and community members a way to provide input to the state in regards to issues, recommendations, and concerns they would like addressed in the state board rule, and legislative platform initiatives.

The deadline for the district to submit to the state is July 22.

OCPS also recommends providing feedback directly to the Florida Department of Education.

The state accountability plans are expected to be in place for the 2017-18 school year.

Currently, school accountability is measured in the three main pieces of school grades in Florida. The core of school grades is student achievement and growth in English Language Arts and Mathematics. This makes up the majority of the grading system. The grading system also measures achievement in Science and Social Studies. Elementary schools do not have a Social Studies measure. Finally, there are also elements that measure whether or not students graduate high school on time and accelerate into more challenging coursework and succeed with this work.