The Alachua County School District will be giving end-of-course exams in every subject at every grade level for the first time this year. These are multiple choice, standardized tests made up by our district, not by the student's teacher. Most people may not be aware that these exams will count as 20% of the final grade for students in middle and high school. This is the first time that standardized tests will be used to determine the grades in all courses not covered by a state assessment and may have a significant impact on the GPAs of our middle and high school students.The state has not mandated that the tests be counted as 20% of the grade; this was a decision of the Alachua County School District. Many districts have chosen not to give district EOCs at all or in only a limited number of subjects with little or no impact on the student's grade. Recently, the Miami-Dade county school district eliminated virtually all district EOCs. 

http://news.dadeschools.net/releases/rls15/251_slashes.html

We, as citizens of Alachua County, request that the district not factor the scores from these new, untested exams into our students' grades. Please remove the requirement that these scores count as 20% of the final grade and thereby remove the high-stakes impact of the district EOCs.