Under a new accountability system being proposed by the Florida Department of Education, the progress of individual students will be tracked from year to year and this information will be used to determine letter grades for schools. An accountability system based on annual learning gains has been a major goal of Governor Jeb Bush. It became possible to implement one after the state test, the FCAT, was expanded last year to all grades between 3rd and 10th. In other accountability systems, the test scores of the best students can mask those of students who are struggling. In Florida's new system, every student must improve or maintain his score for the school to earn the maximum points, and the gains or losses made by the lowest-performing students will have additional weight in the school grading formula. In December, the state board of education (now made up of the governor and his Cabinet) will vote on the proposed system. See "State may tie schools' grades to individual students' work," by Steve Harrison and Holly Stepp, The Miami Herald, November 9, 2001.
