Jay Wheeler As I See It This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

By every measure, Osceola County schools have made remarkable gains in reading scores, math scores, FCAT school letter grades and high school graduation rates since the start of the 2008-09 school year.

Our gains have been so dramatic and quickly achieved that we have gone from a perennial last-place finish among Central Florida school districts that now we only trail the Seminole, Brevard and Volusia County school districts in academic performance and high school graduation rates.

At the first Osceola County School Board meeting of 2010, Superintendent Michael Grego gave a report about the data released by the Florida Department of Education on high school graduation rates. Osceola County went from a 2007-08 high school graduation rate of 67 percent to a 2008-09 high school graduation of more than 79 percent, which beat a district stretch goal of 75 percent and put our high school graduation rate ahead of the state average for the first time ever.

Dr. Grego, to his credit, told the board that the original high school stretch graduation rate goal would need to be adjusted up to around the 85 percent rate for the 2009-10 school year we are currently in. This is exactly the kind of attitude that now permeates the district.

Clearly, these kinds of results are good for our students, community and our county’s economic development efforts. After all, the first question any business asks when it considers moving into or expanding into a new area is: “Tell me about your schools?” Now, we no longer have to squirm with an answer and make excuses or apologize for our results.

Clearly with three D and one F high school last year there is a laser beam focus on bringing up our high school FCAT letter grades. One thing working in our favor is the change the state has made to the high school accountability system. FCAT scores will no longer be the sole benchmark for high school letter grades. A big part of the measurement will be a number of challenging classes – like advanced placement and international baccalaureate – offered at a high school, along with the number of students enrolled in those courses and how those students perform. To that end, every high school has added these courses with a corresponding number of students taking these classes. Plus, a large percentage of eighth-graders are enrolled in a high school math class.

In middle schools, Dr. Grego has implemented a talent identification program for our highest achieving students. These students take the SAT or ACT college entrance test. Students and families have responded positively to the increased academic expectations. Our gains bear this out.

Best of all, the complacency and malaise that was the culture within our school district has disappeared under Dr. Grego’s leadership. Principals and teachers who just didn’t believe their school or this school district could perform up to other districts have become believers in what we can achieve. I always believed that our students could compete with any school district anywhere, and now we are finally doing it.

We have the rebuilding of St. Cloud and Osceola high schools, the addition of two new elementary school international studies programs, a new middle school and high school international baccalaureate program, two portable planetariums and a science lab in each elementary school. There are a lot of good, new things that will help keep the academic gains going. Plus, we have always had the top technical and performing arts school to brag about.

While we are in a tough economy right now, the Osceola County School District is working harder than ever and is getting the results to prove that we are doing everything we can to make the future brighter for students in our schools. After all, they are our future.

Jay Wheeler is an Osceola County School Board member, district 1.