School District earns B on FCAT

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School District earns B on FCAT

County News

Thursday, 12 August 2010 07:02

By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer
According to FCAT testing results and pending the release of high school grades in November, Osceola County no longer has any F-rated schools, a step toward the School District’s objective of having all A schools.
Grades were released statewide for individual schools and school districts Aug. 6, despite concerns from the Florida Association of School District Superintendents about the accuracy of FCAT results.
The grades are used to allocate funding, reassign teachers and principals and award performance pay. Elementary and middle school grades are determined by students’ performance on the FCAT. High school grades will not be released until November, pending a new system in which grades are determined by 50 percent of FCAT scores and 50 percent of other testing methods. However, with analysis of student FCAT scores, Poinciana High School would only be seven points away from a C – making the district free of any F schools.
Of the 39 public schools in Osceola County, with the district factoring in the partly released high school scores, 41 percent of schools earned an A; 28 percent earned a B; 26 percent earned a C; and 5 percent earned a D. The district maintained its B rating.
Of the listed scores, 13 percent of Osceola County schools increased their grades, 39 percent decreased their grades and 48 percent maintained their grades from last year.
“Everyone should take great pride in the progress we made this school year,” district Superintendent Michael A. Grego said in a prepared statement. “This has been a challenging and difficult year with the FCAT state assessment. Our district will continue to provide assistance and place proven and effective resources directly into schools to accomplish our vision of having all A-rated schools.”
All middle schools in Osceola County maintained or raised their grades and earned a total of seven As, two Bs and two Cs. The district gave special recognition to Parkway Middle School for raising its grade from a C to an A within two years and earning its first A in the history of the school.
Despite several schools dropping letter grades, 67 percent of elementary schools earned A or B status; 26 percent earned a C; and 7 percent garnered a D.
The district plans to challenge Central Avenue Elementary School’s D as the district says there is a discrepancy between the district and state student gain scores.
Central Avenue is part of the 33 percent of elementary schools statewide that dropped at least one letter grade. One audit of the FCAT results stated 300 Florida elementary schools dropped from an A, the greatest decrease of A-rated elementary schools since the accountability system began.
“We remain very concerned over the decrease of the elementary level statewide,” district officials stated in a press release. “We will diligently examine all scores and aggressively continue to focus our attention and support at the school sites and on effective teaching and learning.”
District superintendents and others in the education community are concerned about the accuracy of this year’s FCAT scores. The Florida Association of District Superintendents released a statement Aug. 5 asking the state to suspend the release of school grades because, they said, despite two separate audits of the test results, the test does not show the learning gains between 2009 and 2010 and failed to focus on the learning gains, specifically of fourth- and fifth-grade reading.
Kathy Donato, president of the Osceola Classroom Teachers Association, said the association wants an analysis of each individual student’s results to accurately assess any learning gains.
“After looking at the results of the county and the results across the state, I feel that the state did not do an adequate job of grading and it needs to be further investigated. There has to be an analysis of how each individual student did,” she said. “As a teacher, if too many of my students did poorly or exceptionally well on a test, I would always go back over the test and check to see if there could be any problems.”