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Hillsborough schools get first F's
By LOGAN MABE and STEPHEN HEGARTY TAMPA -- Since Florida started grading its schools, Hillsborough has never gotten an F. On Wednesday it got four, prompting officials to pledge more support, better programs and additional money to bring those grades up. The grave news of the F grades Wednesday overshadowed the big picture, which showed widespread improvement at many schools. "I feel ecstatic about those schools whose grades have improved and my heart goes out to the four schools here," superintendent Earl Lennard said at a press conference. "I also feel an empathy because I know of the hard work, the focus on academics, the focus on success for students there." The news around the state was similar to Hillsborough. There was sobering news: Sixty-eight schools statewide got F grades, including two in Pinellas County. Last year there were no F grades in the state. Ten schools statewide received their second F rating in four years, making their students -- roughly 8,900 of them -- eligible for vouchers to attend private schools. That news overshadowed the good: Nearly 40 percent of the state's schools improved a grade or more. Nearly 60 percent earned an A or B grade. In Hillsborough County, 63 schools got A's, up from 39 schools in 2001. Sixty-six schools improved their grades, including half of the high schools. Nineteen schools improved two or more letter grades. Stewart Middle School improved from a D to an A. "I know everybody's going to fixate on the 68 F schools, but there's a lot of good information here," Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan said. Lennard promised Wednesday to make good on a pledge he made in 1999 to take a 5 percent pay cut if any of his schools ever got an F grade. He makes $178,850 annually and will donate $8,942.50 to the Hillsborough Education Foundation, with the money going to tutorial programs for the four schools. Principals from the F-rated schools -- Lockhart, Oak Park, Robles and Shaw elementaries -- joined Lennard in assuring students and their parents that the grade is not the end of the world. "How do I let my babies understand that we don't consider them to be failures?" said Oak Park principal Joyce Miles, whose students are still in school under an extended year program. "We'll spend the rest of our days emphasizing that F does not mean failure." Lockhart Elementary scored just two points below the cut-off for earning D status, but principal Charles Washington said he has higher goals for next year. "If I had moved my students further, it would not have come up at all," Washington said. "I'm not overly frustrated by that number. We want to move to the top." At many schools around the state, the good news was muted since school is out for the summer. At Leila Davis Elementary School in Clearwater, principal Carol Uhlmann was thrilled her school earned an A grade, but still a little frustrated. "There's no one here," Uhlmann said. "How are we going to celebrate if there's no one here?" At many schools that got bad news, there was soul searching. "I'm just cleaning my desk and trying to keep myself busy," said Fran Bain at Lincoln Elementary in Palm Beach County, which got an F grade. "Pretty soon I'm going to go to the beach, take a deep breath and scream, holler and cry. Then I'll come up with a plan." In Miami-Dade County, among the 14 F-rated schools, two were charter schools. "I don't think it will hurt them with the kids at the school right now; they chose the school," said associate superintendent Mercedes Toural. "It might be harder to attract new students." The A-through-F school grades are the most high-profile and controversial feature of Gov. Jeb Bush's school accountability plan. The release of grades invariably leads critics and educators to point out inconsistencies or problems with the accountability system. The system has changed over the years, but never moreso than this year. Grades still are based on test scores, but now the state also measures student progress from one year to the next. Many schools appear to have benefited from the new feature. But clearly not all. The appearance of F grades in the Tampa Bay area for the first time would seem to suggest that some schools are performing worse now. But it appears those schools simply lost out under a new system. Under the old grading system, the six area schools that got F's would have gotten a D grade or better. "The bar was raised this year . . . that was the major change," said superintendent Lennard. "They're making progress. But the progress was not fast enough to keep them out of the F category." Brogan pointed out that "all the changes we have made have been recommended, even demanded, by the system itself." Another criticism of the grading system is that high-poverty schools tend to end up with low grades. There are exceptions. Brogan and Bush bristle at the suggestion that students in high-poverty schools can't meet the same standards as other students. Still, the patterns are arresting. The four Hillsborough County schools that got an F grade each were well above the state average in terms of the percentage of children eligible for the federal lunch program, an indicator of poverty. At three of the schools, more than nine of 10 children are eligible for the lunch program. The state average is a little more than 53 percent. The accountability system now in place, with its measure of learning gains, is one that Bush promised at the beginning of his term. Now, state officials say, the state plans to leave the system unchanged for the foreseeable future. In light of both the good news and the bad news Wednesday, superintendent Lennard had a few words of perspective for parents. "I fear sometimes that we take too seriously this high stakes testing," Lennard said. "The most important thing is what (a student) has done, how well that youngster has done during the year. Not what the school's grade is."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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