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TAMPA BAY TIMES ANALYSIS DECLARES M-DCPS NO. 1 MIAMI – Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) is the state’s top performing school district according to a Tampa Bay Times analysis. “No big district in Florida has done better in boosting the percentage of students passing the FCAT in reading and math…,” the paper reported. This analysis stands in stark contrast to the school district rankings released by Florida’s Commissioner of Education earlier today. The Tampa Bay Times analysis points out that M-DCPS has experienced sustained long-term improvement, and in reading progress, Miami-Dade is ranked No. 2 among all 67 districts, while St. Johns, touted as number 1 by the state comes in at 16th. While recent rankings released by the Florida Department of Education list St. Johns County as the No. 1 performing school district, the Times report analyzed ten years’ worth of data from the FCAT for all 67 school districts in Florida and found that M-DCPS has demonstrated consistent improvement in student academic performance. In reading, the percentage of students scoring at grade level or above jumped from nearly 34 percent in 2001 to almost 58 percent in 2010. Likewise in math, the percentage of students scoring at grade level or above increased by nearly 27 points, from 38 percent in 2001 to nearly 65 percent in 2010. The Times analysis also considered factors such as district size, poverty and demographics. The entire article may be viewed at http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/the-best-school-district-in-florida-it-all-depends-on-how-you-slice-the/1211882 # # # 012-JJS/259/TR |
