Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

FCAT celebrations are few and precious

Fewer schools earn top grades and more falter as the state implements tougher standards to judge FCAT results.

By STEPHEN HEGARTY
Published June 9, 2005

[Times photo: Dan McDuffie]

Denham Oaks Elementary assistant principal Mardee Powers, left, watches Wednesday as principal Freda Malphurs screams after learning that her school received an A from the state.

[Times charts]

Pasco County:

Elementaries

Middle Schools

High Schools

Specialty Schools

The annual release of school grades Wednesday was a sobering experience for many Pasco schools, as nearly half earned the same grade as they did last year, and an equal number slipped a grade or more.

The number of A grades dropped to nearly half what it was last year, and the number of C grades more than doubled. Two high schools dropped to D grades. Once again, Pasco avoided any F grades.

There's an obvious reason for the slip, and it has more to do with what's going on in Tallahassee than what goes on in Pasco schools. The criteria for school grades were made tougher this year. For the first time, the state included test scores of disabled students and students who aren't fluent in English.

"I don't think it's fair to say we slipped," said Pasco superintendent Heather Fiorentino, pointing to the rule changes in how grades are calculated. "When you look at the fine print, you see major improvements."

Many schools got caught in the finer points of the state's complex school grading system, which is based on combinations of reading, writing and math test scores.

For instance, Hudson High School earned enough points to keep its C grade. But because some of Hudson's lowest performing students failed to improve enough in reading, the state dropped Hudson High to a D.

Hudson came painfully close. If four or five more students had made adequate improvement in reading, the school would have earned a C grade.

"It's disheartening. Nobody wants to get a D," said Angie Stone, principal at Hudson High, who spent much of Wednesday in a meeting on reading strategies with other high school principals. "But we'll rise up as a faculty and say, "We're better than this,' and we'll make the improvements we need to make."

Pasco High School was the other school that earned a D.

There were notable bright spots.

Land O'Lakes High School became the first high school in the county to earn an A.

"That's just awesome," said Land O'Lakes assistant principal Terry Aunchman. "This is a great school, and I think the grade reflects that."

The school is on a roll academically. Earlier this year, Land O'Lakes was included on a Newsweek list of the nation's top high schools.

Aunchman acknowledged that Land O'Lakes has an advantage because it houses the district's rigorous International Baccalaureate program, which attracts bright students from around the county. But he pointed out that many of those students are zoned to attend Land O'Lakes anyway.

In addition to the school grades, the state announced Wednesday which schools made "adequate yearly progress" under the federal No Child Left Behind law. It makes for a confusing combination - school grades and adequate yearly progress - because both systems evaluate schools, but they use very different criteria. A school could excel in the state system and fail to make adequate progress under the federal system.

With the federal system in mind, Pasco this year was keeping a close eye on 11 high-poverty schools.

Last year, those schools failed to make adequate yearly progress for the second year in a row. Under the federal rules, students at the schools were permitted to transfer to another public school. Though thousands of students were eligible for the transfers, few took advantage of them. Thirty families applied for a transfer; 19 went to another public school and several of them ended up returning to their original school, said Monica Verra, Title 1 supervisor for the Pasco schools.

If any of the 11 schools fell short for a third year, the district would have to pay for tutoring and other services for children at those schools.

Five of those 11 schools fell short again. They are all elementary schools Rodney B. Cox, Gulfside, Hudson, James Marlowe and Pasco.

"We maintained our C grade, but they beat me up with the AYP," said Leila Mizer, principal at Cox Elementary. "We had some teachers with tears around here, but I told them we'll continue to make progress and do the best we can do."

Two of the 11 schools made adequate progress: Chasco and Moon Lake elementary schools. The other four - Lacoochee, Northwest, Schrader and West Zephyrhills elementary schools - were granted provisional status, which is a new designation this year.

What that means is that schools that earn an A or B grade from the state are given provisional AYP status, even if they fall short in an area. They are expected to show improvement later to fully comply with the federal rules. It's an attempt to better align the very different state and federal standards.

"We had two areas where we know we need work," said Northwest principal Renee Sedlack, who had already analyzed the results Wednesday afternoon. "We're already working on it."

At Denham Oaks Elementary, principal Freda Malphurs cheered at her computer Wednesday when she saw that her school kept its A grade.

"The standards got tougher, so we weren't sure what to expect," Malphurs said.

Schools that earn A grades or improve a grade level win significant "school improvement" money from the state, money they can spend virtually any way they wish. Sometimes it's a challenge for schools to agree on how to spend the money.

"That's okay," Malphurs said. "We can deal with that."

[Last modified June 9, 2005, 01:18:10]