Superintendent: School Board Members:

Diane S. Kornegay, M.Ed. District 1

Bill Mathias
District 2
Kristi Burns, Ph.D.
District 3
Marc Dodd
District4
201 West Burleigh Boulevard · Tavares · FL 32778-2496 Mollie Cunningham
(352) 253-6500 ·Fax: (352) 253-6503 · www.lake.k12.fl.us District 5
Stephanie Luke

February 2, 2022

Commissioner Richard Corcoran

Florida Department of Education
Turlington Building, Suite 1514
325 West Gaines Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399

Dear Commissioner Corcoran:

On behalf of Lake County Schools, I want to thank you for your leadership and the support of the Department through
the challenges our district and others have faced this year as a result of COVID-19 . Unfortunately, despite best efforts
at the state and local levels, we continue to struggle with chronic absenteeism among students and teachers, resulting
in significant student learning losses. Because of this, I am asking that you provide flexibility on assessment and
accountability for graduation requirements for the 2021-22 graduating class, third-grade retention requirements, school
grades and improvement ratings, district grades, and the use of test scores to determine teacher evaluations.

We understand the importance of requiring students to participate in their annual end-of-year exams. We need the test
results to see what they have learned, where they are lacking and how we can best fill the gaps. We ask, however, that
the scores not be used against them , their teachers, our schools or our district. Here is a closer look at the reasoning
behind our request:

• In Lake, COVID spikes have led to 31 percent of our students missing 10 percent or more of the current school
year. At some schools, more than 40 percent of students have missed 10 percent or more of the school year.
As you know, 10 percent is the threshold used statewide for chronic absenteeism, which can cause students to
fall behind in their schoolwork.
• Also, 55 percent of our teachers have missed 5 days or more so far this school year, and 20 percent have
missed more than 10 days. Finding qualified substitute teachers has been an additional obstacle , making it
difficult to maintain instructional intensity and consistency.
• The learning losses are evidenced by examining the percentage of students proficient in ELA and Math on our
most recent district progress monitoring assessment. For example, the number of students proficient in Math
dropped by 4 to 28 percentage points for those in grades 5 through 8. The biggest drop of 28 percentage
points occurred with our 6th-grade students. Similarly, the number of students proficient in ELA dropped by 4
to 12 percentage points in all grades except 9th, where we saw a modest 3 percentage point increase.

Despite the challenges and disruptions, we have worked tirelessly to provide quality instruction in safe learning
environments but our students need more time to make up for the learning losses they are experiencing. Rather than
using student performance data to sanction schools and subject teachers to evaluations that do not fairly account for
all they have encountered the past couple of years, allow us to use that data to strengthen our ability to plan a path
forward so we can overcome the impact of this pandemic and meet the expanded needs of our students. Last year,
you prudently allowed schools to opt-in if they wanted to accept an A-to-F grade for the year and you waived testing
requirements. We are facing the same circumstances this year and ask that you extend the same level of grace and
com passion.

Si~7· / ~
~~~Zintendent
Lake County Schools

"Equal Opportunity in Education and Employment"