Osceola School District gets ‘B’ grade for ‘21-22

The Osceola County School District scored an overall grade of ‘B’ for the 2021-22, according to the Florida Department of Education’s School Accountability Report, which was released this week.

In Central Florida, only Seminole County scored an ‘A’, and Polk County scored a ‘C’, all other local districts earned a ‘B’. For perspective, 15 of Florida’s 67 school districts scored an ‘A’, and 16 earned ‘C’s. (Three districts had incomplete information and weren’t scored.)

Due to the pandemic, school grades weren’t issued at all for 2019-20, and districts could ‘opt-in’ to be graded in ’20-21. Osceola opt-ed out; it’s ‘B’ grade is its fourth in a row and fifth in six years since a ‘C’ in 2016.

For Osceola School Superintendent Dr. Debra Pace, it’s all about rallying from the pandemic, which forced schools to go fully virtual for three months in 2020.

“We’re recovering, but we’re not there yet,” she said. “It’s all about proficiency, we’ve got to get our students back on grade level in those core subjects.”

Here’s some highlights of the county school grades:

Of the district’s 69 traditional and charter schools, 66 were scored (three charters, Florida Cyber, Lincoln-Marti and Victory K-5, were not and received “Incomplete” scores). There were seven ‘A’ schools: Osceola Science Charter, Sports Leadership and Arts Management (SLAM) Academy, Celebration K-8, New Dimensions High Schools, Professional and Technical High School (PATHS), Osceola County School for the Arts and NeoCity Academy.

There were 17 ‘B’ schools, 37 ‘C’s and 5 ‘D’s — Central Avenue and Highlands Elementary, Victory Charter, BridgePrep Academy and Creative Inspiration School of St. Cloud (in its first year being graded). None received an ‘F” grade.

Forty-two schools had an increase in the overall points system that determines school grades, and 38 showed gains in math achievement, and 31 increased in language arts and science achievement.

“Of our traditional schools, 97 percent were ‘C’ or better, so we feel good about that,” Pace said. “I’m super proud of our math gains across the district. But the statistics show our schools are recovering from the hit we took during the pandemic.”

For the comprehensive list of district and school grades, go to www.fldoe. org/accountability/ accountability-reporting/ school-grades. Under Florida School Grades, click School Grades or District Grades for the full Excel file.

In a release with the school grades, the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) noted that, “Schools statewide exceeded expectations,” and that, “Florida’s students, parents, teachers and school leaders as their collective efforts to support student achievement resulted in school grades that defied co nventional wisdom and established a foundation for further closing achievement gaps.”

“From Spring 2021 to Spring 2022, it’s clear that our teachers and school leaders used every resource at their disposal to lift Florida’s students well beyond expectations,” said Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. “We know that these results are thanks to policies that kept schools open and kept kids in the classroom, which has been widely recognized as critical to student achievement.”