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Dade Schools Eliminate End-Of-Course Exams

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Miami-Dade public schools is  eliminating all elementary-level end of course tests.

Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho made the announcement on Thursday morning at Oak Grove Elementary School.

"Reason must prevail. We need to respect the educational environment and restore back to the classroom teaching time by eliminating testing requirements," said Carvalho.

Carvalho also tweeted something similar on the matter saying, "We are eliminating ALL elementary end-of-course exams. Need to respect the educational environment & restore teaching time. #studentsfirst."   

Nearly all of the 300 District-Developed End-of-Course (DDEOC) assessments that were scheduled for Spring 2015 will be out.

Now only 500 middle and high school students district-wide will get tested for each subject and they'll only get tested in 10 subjects.

CLICK HERE to watch Gaby Fleischman's report

The decision means the test results won't actually count towards assessing student achievement or teacher evaluations.  The results will just be used as a sample to essentially test the test.

"You don't use untested data to drive teacher or student consequences," said Carvalho.

Thursday's move is the most aggressive decommissioning of standardized testing in the state

Legislation passed now gives flexibility for districts to determine how to measure student progress, eliminating the state mandate for District designated end-of-course exams to be given in all courses and not measured by existing statewide, standardized assessments.

"Today's announcement should come as a welcome news to everyone who recognizes that too much testing deprives our students of valuable instruction time," said Carvalho. "In making these decision, we've taken a logical and responsible approach to address the concerns of students, teachers and parents."

The change comes after major technical glitches in Florida's online standardized testing system like false starts, blank screens, and lost data.

"Too far too fast, skipping incredibly important elements of ensuring reliability and validity to ensure our students and teachers are not themselves being tested to asses the validity of the exam," said Carvalho.

Many parents, teachers and students are relieved.

"It would be too stressful and I might not pass the fourth grade," said student Jaylan Wright.

"I feel good about the changes because the tests are not gonna count," said fourth grader Jalen Waters.

District said they won't move forward with full scale testing until it's reliable.

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