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Schools

Education report gives state B minus

TALLAHASSEE - Florida's public schools scored above the national average in two of four categories and got an overall grade of B minus on an annual report card issued Wednesday by Education Week magazine.

The national average overall grade was C plus.

The state received an A for standards and accountability, same as last year, and a B minus in resource equity, a new category that shows Florida has relatively little disparity in spending per student among school districts. National averages in those categories were B minus and C plus, respectively.

"Florida has a particularly strong showing for accountability indicators," according to the Quality Counts 2006 report. "The state sanctions and provides assistance to all low-performing schools ... and provides rewards to high-performing or improving schools."

State education officials welcomed the report, noting that just seven other states got A's for standards and accountability.

"We're not going to rest on our laurels," said K-12 public schools chancellor Cheri Pierson Yecke. "... We're certainly going to continue to refine the accountability system."

Florida was slightly below the national average of C plus in two other subjects, posting C's in teacher quality improvement and school climate. It had the same grades in both categories last year.

The state loses teacher improvement points because all prospective high school and middle school teachers are not required to have a college major, minor or equivalent course work in the subjects they will teach to get a beginning license. For example, someone with a history degree may teach English.

Yecke said Florida requires new teachers to pass subject area tests to teach outside their fields and would have received a better rating had this factor been considered. Florida's school climate grade was hurt by poor performance in the subcategories of engagement, parental involvement and excessively large schools. But the state had a perfect score on school facilities and graded 80 percent for safety and class size.

Hanna Skandera, deputy education commissioner for accountability, research and measurement, said Florida is making strides to cut class size, as required by a state constitutional amendment, and called that more significant than reducing school size.

The report also notes Florida's fourth- and eighth-grade pupils rank below the national average in National Assessment of Educational Progress proficiency rankings. Florida is 33rd among the 50 states with a 29.4 percent proficiency rating. That compares with a national average of 30.6 percent.

However, Florida was cited as being one of just four states that significantly increased fourth-grade reading scores from 1992 through 2005. The report also recognized Florida for closing gaps between black and white fourth-graders in reading and math and between impoverished and other fourth-graders in reading.

Florida's high school graduation rate of 57 percent ranked 49th among the 50 states and District of Columbia as compiled by Education Week's parent organization, Editorial Projects in Education, a nonprofit organization.

Florida education officials have contended their own statistics show a much higher graduation rate of 71.9 percent.

This is the 10th year Education Week has compiled the report cards.

[Last modified January 5, 2006, 01:17:09]