School Grades Released By Florida Department of Education

Today, the Florida Department of Education released the 2013 School Performance Grades and as predicted, schools across the state saw a decline. In fact, the percentage “A” schools statewide decreased by nearly one fifth, while the percent of “D” and “F” rated schools increased. For months experts and educators alike have been calling on the Florida Department of Education to rethink the application of numerous changes to the grade calculation methodology or risk creating a measurement tool which had no hope of remaining valid.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) fared better than the state and surrounding counties. Despite the transition to new, more rigorous assessments, the addition of new accountability components, and the inclusion all students in both performance and growth in the calculation of the grading formula, Miami-Dade’s teachers and students were still shown to outpace their peers in like districts with high concentrations of ESE and ELL students.

M-DCPS succeeded in reducing the rate of increase of “F” schools, as well as mitigating the rate of decrease of “A” schools when compared to the State.

The percentage of schools receiving School Performance Grades of “A” decreased by 19 percentage points statewide, with M-DCPS experiencing far less decline than the State and other surrounding Florida districts at only 14 percent.

The percentage of “D” and “F” schools in the state increased by 8 percentage points, while Miami-Dade experienced a lower rate of decline as compared to the State and other surrounding Florida districts at only 7 percent.

Calling today’s news “the result of relentless and unscientific manipulation of accountability rules,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho called on the Florida Department of Education to return reasonableness to the state accountability system. Carvalho further indicated that “As with other challenges this District has faced, we will approach it with a well thought out plan which puts the interests and welfare of students first.”