School children in classroom at lesson

School District of Lee County staff reviewed the student progression plan, which details courses available to schools, with the school board this week.

The Student Progression Plan and Secondary Course Catalog includes the student progression plan, middle school and high school course catalog.

One of the updates includes the change of state standardized assessment to the Florida’s Assessment of Student Thinking (F.A.S.T.), which includes English Language Arts for third to 10th grade and mathematics for grades third through eighth grade.

There were also updates for elementary school, which includes HB7011 requirements.

Elementary Curriculum & Instruction Director Dr. Bethany Quisenberry said all third grade students who are at level one for their assessment, or substantially below, according to their progress monitoring, are required to have a parent letter sent home letting them know that if they continue to be substantially below at third grade that retention is a possibility.

There are also middle school updates, which includes social studies course progression update, accelerated courses added to math progression and expansion of Cambridge Global Perspective for advanced readers.

Middle School Curriculum & Instruction Director Lori Houchin said sixth graders will be taking U.S. History, so by seventh grade they will have an understanding of how the country is formed before learning the rules and regulations for Civics. In eighth grade, students will take world history.

There also is a math progression with new best standards. She said typically if a student is proficient and above proficient they skip a grade level in math if on the algebra level.

“Teachers were working hard to do some prereq work,” Houchin said, so by eighth grade they will not miss any standards.

For example, if a student is taking sixth grade accelerated math it is coupled with seventh grade standards and for seventh grade students it is accelerated with pre algebra standards.

There were also updates for high school, which included a change in volunteer service hours to include paid work of 100 hours required for Bright Futures.

High School Curriculum & Instruction Director Candace Allevato said another change is for assessment options for students enrolled in less than two years in ESOL.

“Any of our seniors that are less than two years in the ESOL program and have not passed an assessment can show mastery another way,” she said.

Another change includes civic literacy assessment requirements, which includes a graduation requirement even though the civic literacy assessment has no impact on student ability to graduate from high school.

There also is an update in regards to the aligned transfer of credit language to Florida Statute.

School Counseling and Mental Health Director Lori Brooks said it includes cleaning up for students who transfer to the public Florida school system for the first time during their senior year. She said if the student is eligible for graduation in their previous state, under credit requirements of their previous state, those credit thresholds will be honored provided they earned a 2.0 grade point average and pass the Florida State Assessment.

This will come before the board later this month to be voted upon.