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North Central Florida Schools See Lower Grades As a result of New Grading Procedure

By TJ Pyche

July 12, 2016 Education

Schools in North Central Florida saw a comprehensive drop if the Florida Department of Education released its school grades Friday.

Roughly two-thirds from the 162 schools graded in North Central Florida received a grade of C or lower. Twenty-three received a b- and 32 received a b-.

“I thought this was the initial year that school and district grades included student ‘learning gains’ within the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA), which replaced the FCAT in 2015,” in accordance with an Alachua County Public Schools website article Friday. The learning gains make reference to an increase in a student’s score for the test from one year yet another, and it is a major factor in Florida’s school grading formula, in accordance with the release. Four within the seven factors useful to grade elementary schools use learning gains, in line with the release.

The grades released Friday are preliminary grades, meaning schools are capable of appeal the grades.

Alachua County saw an increase in its volume of D and F schools. In 2009, about 13 percent of Alachua County public schools received those grades, whereas this holiday season, about 18 percent did.

As a complete, North Central Florida schools followed suit: In 2009, Twenty percent received D or F grades. This season, over 24 percent did.

Marion County Public Schools, the area’s largest school district craigs list 40,000 students, had three schools, one of them its virtual school, receive F grades. No Marion County school received that grade during the past year.

Alachua County saw six schools improve?their grades, though its portion of ?A and B schools is throughout the average for school districts in your neighborhood.

No school district in the area improved its overall grade. Only three in the state’s 67 districts received A grades: Okaloosa, St. Johns and Sarasota counties. Recently, three North Central Florida school districts and 22 districts around the state received a b-.

Gadsden County could be the only district in the report that raised its grade in 2010. It turned out?1 of 3 districts that received a generally D grade?in?2015. It received a C inside the latest assessment.

Former Gadsden County school board member, Audrey Lewis, attributed the district’s improvement?to efforts to extend student achievement.

Lewis, who worked as an educator in Gadsden County, north of Tallahassee, for up to 4 decades, said the district decided to “give attention to those parts of weakness” and “encourage parents and community citizens to mentor and volunteer.”

While the district ranked next to the bottom this year for most with the graded categories, it excelled in junior high school acceleration, which measures the share of ?middle school students who passed a superior school level end-of-course assessment or industry certification. Gadsden County schools ranked while in the top quarter of districts in this category in 2010.

School grades derived from numerous factors, including student performance and learning gains on statewide assessments and -?within the high school graduation level -?graduation rates.

Highlighting the need for learning gains, 11 with the 33 schools in the community that received D or F grades in 2015 increased their grades. Madison County’s Greenville Elementary School, increased its grade from an F in 2015 towards a B in 2016. However, this coming year, the number of D and F schools in the area increased by nearly one-fourth to 40.

“It’s clear our target Florida’s most struggling students is eliminating, specifically in our D and F schools, 58 percent that increased their grade in 2016,” said Florida Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart within a report. “The special benefit individuals state’s accountability strategy is so it constantly shines the light source on areas that need improvement. I applaud the faculties which improved, and that i encourage all schools to pursue excellence persistently.”

Overall, the districts saw a drop in the proportion of faculties that received either a b-, B, or F grade, although the quantity of schools receiving C or D grades increased.

This does not include seven area schools that received incomplete grades. Schools that do not test 95 % of scholars receive incomplete grades.